LMI is a combination of eight unique components that make up the logistics industry—inventory levels and costs, warehousing capacity, utilisation and prices, and transportation capacity, utilisation and prices.
While the inventory and warehousing component showed only modest changes, transportation showed the biggest moves—with prices falling and capacity returning to positive territory for the first time since May 2020.
In April, transportation prices and trucking capacity readings started to converge but still didn’t enter an inversion, which “usually means there has been some shift in the overall economy,” the LMI report said.
“Despite the slowdown in transportation, respondents still indicate growth in the sector, just at a slower pace than what we’ve seen over the last 18 months,” the report stated.
“It can be observed that the two curves have not yet inverted, suggesting that while the frantic pace in the transportation market has slowed down, we have not yet tilted into a full-on recession,” it said.
“Inventory and warehousing metrics remain elevated, but transportation has clearly slowed. Whether this slowdown will result in recessionary pressures or is simply the market moderating towards more sustainable levels, remains to be seen,” the report concluded.
ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)
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