Tag Archives: Logistics

Railroad Carloads Plummet

Posted on May 21, 2020 by just2bruce | 1 comment

This nice essay from Escalation Consultants, delivered on 5/21/2020, shows very large decreases in rail carloads after mid-March of 2020, approaching 30% for most carriers. Only Union Pacific is down by only 18%.

Another graph shows the differences by commodity.

Only grain and crushed stone are up. Coal and petroleum, the profit centers of the railroads, are way down, by more than 30%.

The article claims that one can take advantage of leverage to obtain favorable prices due to these steep declines in the Coronavirus economy.

I think the article bespeaks some hard times ahead for the big rails.

Railroad Carloads Plummet Download

1 Comment

Posted in Logistics, Rail, Supply Chains

Tagged Logistics, Rail, supply chains, transportation

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Coronavirus delays create Container shortages in Chicago for DDGS

Coronavirus issues, particularly in China, are creating real problems for Dried Distiller Grains (DDGS) shipments. The lack of inbound containers from China means that there are not enough containers to ship DDGS out of the US.

DDGS is a byproduct of ethanol production, and in this part of the Midwest US, there is much ethanol production. It is some of the most productive corn land in the US. The DDGS are primarily used as animal feed. China imports DDGS as feed for pork in the older times. I’m not sure how much they are importing right now due to the tariff fight and the pork disease issue in China. China’s pig production is just recovering from that tragedy a year or so ago.

The article gives an indication of container rates North Asia to West Coast US. They are trending down to attract business. blanked sailings are also a feature of the current environment in container shipping from China.

It’s a mess!

screenshot SandP Global Platts

Authors
George Griffiths Sergio Alvarado

via Container shortages in Chicago impact DDGS on coronavirus delays | S&P Global Platts

2 Comments

Posted on February 13, 2020 by just2bruce in Logistics, Shipping, Supply Chains

Tagged agriculture, container shipping, intermodal transport, Logistics, Shipping, supply chains

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Blockchain not yet for supply chains

Gartner says 80% of blockchain supply chain developments won’t get out of design and development for several years. So many of them are just recycling financial blockchain ideas into supply chain space without understanding the issues. A case of a solution chasing a problem, the bugaboo of ITY initiatives forever.

I’d like to get my hands on this report from Gartner. It should be interesting.

The Gartner source below says 90%!!! I like that number better as an estimate.

Here’s a quote from the latter press release from Gartner:

“The budding nature of blockchain makes it almost impossible for organizations to identify and target specific high-value use cases. Instead, companies are forced to run multiple development pilots using trial and error to find ones that might provide value. …

Furthermore, current creations offered by solution providers are complicated hybrids of conventional blockchain technologies.”

Exactly.