From “Supply Snarls in the US Are Easing With Tight Trucking Seeing Relief” (Bloomberg):
A gauge of supply-chain pressure in the U.S. economy fell to the lowest level since December 2020, as activity such as trucking cools from elevated levels with few signs yet of a worrying collapse.
The Logistics Managers Index dropped to 67.1 in May, the second straight decline from a record of 76.2 reached in March. Faster gains in warehouse and inventory costs offset slower moves in transport prices. […]
With more trucking capacity came transportation costs that slumped to the lowest level since June 2020 while staying well within expansion mode, indicating that while prices are still increasing, “the intensity is much lower and is now approaching levels last seen two years ago.”
Meanwhile, large US retailers and manufacturers say they’ve padded inventories and some see consumer demand waning.
Warehousing and inventories “continue to grow at a similar pace to the one we have observed over the last 18 months, with inventory levels that are “unseasonably high, packing warehouses to the gills and driving costs up for both inventory and warehousing.”
