Freight Market Indicators in July 2021
July 2021 - Transportation Market Report
Manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI)
• Economic activity in the manufacturing sector grew again in June. This is the 13th consecutive month of expansionary growth.
• Record long raw material lead times, wide-scale shortages of critical materials, rising commodity prices and difficulties in transporting products all highlight June challenges.
• New Orders Index continues came in at 66% (down 1% since May), Production Index is at 60.8% (up 2.3% since May), Backlog of Orders dropped to 64.5% (down 6.1% since May), and New Export Orders registered 56.2% (up 0.8% since May). Customers Inventories remain in the ‘too low’ category (30.8% - up slightly since May). All of these are positive indicators for continued growth, but also indicate further capacity issues in the transportation markets.
Key Takeaways
All signs point towards continued expansion in the manufacturing sector. Absenteeism, facility shutdowns due to material shortages, and general hiring difficulties are currently limiting maximum manufacturing growth potential. With on-going low inventories and increases in new orders, manufacturing output is projected to remain strong for the coming months.
On-Highway Diesel Fuel Updates
• On July 18th OPEC and Russia-led oil producing allies agreed to increase production output by 400,000 barrels per month through 2022. This would essentially replace the production cuts related to Covid-19.
• OPEC global forecast for demand in 2022 is 99.9M barrels per day-or essentially the same pre-pandemic. Covid-19 resulted in a 10% cut of 9.7M barrels per day of collective output, approximately 4M barrels per day have been restored.
Key Takeaways
After 13 straight weeks of increases, the National Average of On-Highway Diesel finally regressed (ever so slightly) to $3.342 vs. $3.344 last week. EIA has revised it’s outlook to be $3.16/gallon for 2021 (current YTD is $3.099) and $3.09/gallon in 2022.
Click the Button above to receive the full transportation market for July 2021.



