After the different moments of disruption that have occurred over the last four years, especially with the pandemic, logistics costs in supply chains in the United States are decreasing, according to the State of Logistics 2024 from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) , in conjunction with Penske and Kearney .
Josh Brogan, partner at Kearney, highlighted during the presentation that the study data is the result of a careful analysis of information, together with opinions from specialists in the logistics sector, which has allowed them to have an approach to the world of logistics.
“This report has a strong collaboration between the CSCMP party and Penske, providing an understanding of industry best practices to reach out to the broader community and provide information from the transportation provider’s point of view, through Penske, and from a combination of members and colleagues within CSCMP,” he said.
In this sense, the study showed that United States commercial logistics costs or USBLC (United State Business Logistics Costs) fell 10% to 2.4 trillion dollars or approximately 8.7% of GDP.
Brogan explained that this trend was seen coming after the impacts of covid in 2020, so logistics costs are now stabilizing in some modalities.
Storage costs decreased 13.9%, with historically high occupancy and rents, but declining rents and demand have created more difficult conditions than in previous years.
In the case of railways , costs fell 1.7%, mainly driven by intermodal transport , with profitability hit by a greater number of personnel, fuel and labor.
“Overall rail traffic has increased year over year, but what we see is an overall decline in revenue for Class 1 railroads – we saw a 2% decline in revenue, which translates to an 11% decline in operating income, driven by small increases in volume. Intermodal volumes have decreased considerably, 6% less than in 2022, resulting in a negative result overall, so the outlook for rail remains positive,” said Josh Brogan.The specialist added that the use of cross-border railways is beginning to be seen for different activities, such as manufacturing and localized production, so the rails benefit from that.
For its part, the cost of land transportation by truck decreased by 8.6%, as demand remains weak and capacity remains stable. Market exits in the face of weak demand are present, but at lower levels than expected.
Air freight , which has benefited in recent years from e-commerce, declined by 15.4% as cargo capacity in the bellies of passenger planes comes online and ocean carriers pivot to air cargo.
“For air travel we saw a double-digit decline in total spending in this mode and this comes from relatively high rates on the 20th, 21st and 2022, we saw those rates decrease to some extent in 2022, but we really saw them decrease in 2023 , and 2024 is starting to look a lot like 2023, we hope that there may be greater interest in air transport as we see disruptions in maritime mode,” Brogan noted.
For its part, spending on maritime transportation decreased by 64.2%, mainly due to the normalization of inflation in maritime rates and the reduction in container traffic.
“From a macroeconomic perspective, we are seeing that growth is expected to remain relatively weak until the end of the decade, this is a central driver of logistics activity, when the economy grows obviously so does the demand for logistics services,” said Josh Brogan.
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