Supply Chain by the Numbers
   
 

- Jan. 27 , 2011 -

   
 

Supply Chain by the Numbers for Week of Jan. 27, 2011
   
  Freight Volumes Reach 2+ Year High; Amazon.com Giving it Away; Good Times to be Working at the Railroad; China to Buy up the World?
   
 
 
 

5.7%

Increase in the American Trucking Associations' For Hire Freight Tonnage Index during 2010, moving the index by year's end to 111.6, according to the ATA this week. As a key signal on the economy, that is a lot better than the 8.7% decline the index saw in 2009, when it dipped in mid-year to about 100, which is the index base representing freight volumes in 2002. At 111.6, it means end of the year freight volumes were 11.6% above 2002 levels. That represents the highest level since September 2008.
 
 



 

$0

What Amazon.com apparently is going to charge for a new home delivery grocery service, as the company continues to aggressively pursue the consumer packaged goods and food/beverage market. The retailer has been testing the service, AmazonTote, in Seattle since last summer, and is now recruiting staff for what it describes as a “company wide” program. The service is said to offer free, once per week delivery on a specific day by delivery area.
 
 
400%

Expected growth in China's level of investment and acquisitions in foreign companies from its 2009 levels, according to an article this week by Charles Wolfe Jr. of the Rand Corporation, a research company. That would make China, awash in foreign cash reserves and eager to secure natural resources and make its leading companies truly global, either the top such cross border investor (it is now sixth) or at least rival the US for no. 1.

 
 
 
 
14%

Increase in revenue for rail carrier CSX in the fourth quarter, to $2.8 billion, an especially solid number given that volumes only increased 7% - still healthy, but only half the revenue growth. We'd say that must mean prices were also up. Earnings increased by 30%, while  rail carrier Union Pacific announced a 41% increase in Q4 profits a few days before CSX's earnings call. Good time to be"working at the railroad," we'd say.
 
 
 
 
 
 
.