MONTREAL (Mar 13, 2010)
A recent surge in demand for rail, truck and air transportation suggests the global freight recession may have ended, industry analysts said yesterday.
After bottoming out in the second quarter of 2009, demand has materially strengthened over the past four weeks, says a report from UBS analysts Rick Paterson and Fadi Chamoun.
"We're no longer limping along from quarter to quarter," they wrote.
United Parcel Service and logistics firm Expeditors International have indicated that strong air freight growth last fall continued through at least January.
The International Air Transportation Association recently revised its outlook, saying cargo volumes should increase by 12 per cent in 2010.
That's up from 7 per cent in earlier forecasts.
The Port of Long Beach says its container traffic grew by 30 per cent in February from last year.
The American Trucking Association said its seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index was up 1.9 per cent in January.
Railways in Canada and the United States saw their non-coal volumes increase over the last week from a year ago.
Total carloads grew by 13 per cent to 739,292, the highest level since November 2008.
They are also up 3.5 percentage points from the previous week.
