eff Berman, Group News Editor -- Logistics Management, 4/24/2009
WASHINGTON—The United States Census Bureau reported that new orders for manufactured goods in March decreased $1.3 billion—or 0.8 percent—to $161.2 billion, marking the seventh decrease in the last eight months.
This data follows a 2.1 percent increase for new orders of manufactured goods in February, which was revised following a previous estimate of a 3.4 percent monthly increase.
The Census Bureau added that shipments of manufactured durable goods in March decreased $3.0 billion—or 1.7 percent—to 175.0 billion. February shipments were down 0.8 percent, with shipments down for eight consecutive months.
Inventories of manufactured durable goods in March decreased $3.7 billion—or 1.1 percent—to $331.6 billion, following a 1.3 percent decrease in February, said the Census Bureau.
An Associated Press report said that February’s increase in new orders followed by a small drop in March “show some faint signs of life in manufacturing.”
But that has yet to translate into growing freight transportation tonnage and volumes, which have been severely impacted by the recession.
“Things will likely continue to dip freight-wise as consumer product companies are still working through their inventories,” said David K. Schneider, Logistics Management Contributor and President of supply chain and transportation consultancy David K. Schneider & Company LLC. “But it is encouraging to see things pointing up after being down for such a long period of being pointed downwards.
(source:www.logisticsmngmnt.com
