American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 4.5% in February after rising 1.8% in January. In February, the index equaled 110 (2015=100) compared with 115.2 in January. “February’s drop was exacerbated, perhaps completely caused, by the severe winter weather that impacted much of the country during the month,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Many other economic indicators were also soft in February due to the bad storms, but I continue to expect a nice climb up for the economy and truck freight as economic stimulus checks are spent and more people are vaccinated.” January’s gain was revised up slightly to 1.8% from our February 23 press release. Compared with February 2020, the SA index fell 5.9%, which was preceded by a 1.6% year-over-year decline in January. In 2020, the index was 4% below the 2019 average.

March imports were weaker year-on-year but the busiest U.S. container port still managed to play up to the back of its baseball card. The Port of Los Angeles handled 752,520 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) in March, off 3% from the same month a year ago as geopolitics and economic uncertainty overshadowed the beginning of the months-long run-up to the peak shipping season. “Even with the seasonal slowdown tied to Lunar New Year, cargo flow in March was solid and our first quarter performance was consistent with our five-year trend,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, in a media briefing.

American Dollar to Canadian Dollar = 0.784280; American Dollar to Chinese Yuan = 0.152912; American Dollar to Euro = 1.225195; American Dollar to Japanese Yen = 0.009681; American Dollar to Mexican Peso = 0.050508.