Freight Boom Barrels Through May, Cass Reports
Data released Friday from Cass Information Systems (NASDAQ: CASS ) shows the freight industry advanced at a blistering pace during May. The Cass Freight Index logged the highest-ever growth rates in the shipments and expenditures components of the dataset''s more than 30-year history. The May report showed the shipments index jumped 35.3% higher year-over-year. While the comparisons reflect year-ago demand weakness as large parts of the nation and economy remained under lockdown, the index recorded the highest reading since May 2018. The two-year stacked comp also turned positive for the first time in the current freight cycle, up 3.3% from May 2019. Recently, many analysts have been comparing freight volumes to a similar period in 2019, which is viewed as a more typical freight market, to remove some of the COVID-related noise in the comps. The shipments index was up 7.7% compared to April, 5.9% higher sequentially on a seasonally adjusted basis. Improvements in auto production, a steady offloading of containers at the ports and inventory restocking due to strong retail sales were cited as reasons for the volume increase.
Freight Boom Barrels Through May, Cass Reports
Data released Friday from Cass Information Systems (NASDAQ: CASS ) shows the freight industry advanced at a blistering pace during May. The Cass Freight Index logged the highest-ever growth rates in the shipments and expenditures components of the dataset''s more than 30-year history. The May report showed the shipments index jumped 35.3% higher year-over-year. While the comparisons reflect year-ago demand weakness as large parts of the nation and economy remained under lockdown, the index recorded the highest reading since May 2018. The two-year stacked comp also turned positive for the first time in the current freight cycle, up 3.3% from May 2019. Recently, many analysts have been comparing freight volumes to a similar period in 2019, which is viewed as a more typical freight market, to remove some of the COVID-related noise in the comps. The shipments index was up 7.7% compared to April, 5.9% higher sequentially on a seasonally adjusted basis. Improvements in auto production, a steady offloading of containers at the ports and inventory restocking due to strong retail sales were cited as reasons for the volume increase.