Industry Insights

October 2024

By PGL

Welcome to the PGL Industry Insights report for October 2024

The month had a turbulent start with the International Longshoremen’s Association East and Gulf Coast dockworkers strike that began on the first of October. Work quickly resumed on October 3rd as a tentative agreement was reached between the ILA and United States Maritime Alliance with 61% pay raise and contract extension for the 45,000 dock workers. Talks will continue to resolve outstanding issues that will hopefully be sorted out and ratified by union members by the January 15, 2025 deadline.

The promised heavy storm season is certainly delivering, with Hurricanes Helene and Milton storming the East coast in quick succession. These storms provided the expected hardships of fuel shortages, flight cancellations and general mayhem for the logistics industries. Rail was particularly hard-hit, forcing the closure of the Norfolk Southern Line into Asheville, North Carolina for at least 3 months to rebuild after Hurricane Helene, and 10 ports in Florida and Georgia were forced to temporarily close after Hurricane Milton.

On the West coast, the Port of Los Angeles saw record volume in September of over 950,000 TEUs in September, a 27% increase over last year, leading to an all-time volume high of over 2.8 million TEUs in the third quarter. Experts point to rising consumer confidence and shippers avoiding the Suez Canal as main contributing factors to this boom.

The benchmark diesel price experienced one of its biggest yo-yo months in recent memory with a large spike early in the month and projected higher futures, followed swiftly by the largest one week drop in almost a year. Continued high production in the US as well as speculation that OPEC will increase production in 2025 are contributing to the price drop.

That’s it for this month’s report. Subscribe to our channel to make sure you get the latest supply chain insights. As always, PGL will be here to keep you informed 24/7/365.

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