Economic Insights White Paper January 2026
Executive Overview
January’s indicators suggest the freight market is finding a steadier footing, with demand stabilizing after the holiday reset but pockets of tightening still emerging where capacity is less flexible. Networks are normalizing from peak season patterns, and service conditions can shift quickly due to winter weather and regional imbalances. Overall capacity remains available, but shippers should expect occasional lane level volatility that can create short term cost and service risk.
As always, feel free to pass this along to others who keep an eye on the freight market. And if you know someone who could benefit from partnering with us, we’d be grateful for the introduction. Referrals are the highest compliment we can receive.
U.S. container imports totaled 2,318,722 in January
Source | Descartes
Month over Month: +4.1%
Year over Year: -6.8%
Top 10 U.S. ports:
- Houston: +28.5%
- Oakland: +15.2%
- Tacoma: +10.8%
- New York/Newark: +8.3%
- Norfolk: +3.7%
- Savannah: +2.5%
- Long Beach: +2%
- Philadelphia: +0.1%
- Los Angeles: –1%
- Charleston: -3.2%
Logistics Managers’ Index (LMI) Registers at 59.6
Source | the-lmi.com
- Month-over-Month: +5.4
- Inventory Levels: 53.9 (+ 18.8)
- Inventory Costs: 71.3 (+8.4)
- Warehousing Capacity: 50 (-11.2)
- Warehousing Utilization: 54.5 (+11.6)
- Warehousing Prices: 64.8 (-1.5)
- Transportation Capacity: 47.1 (+10.2)
- Transportation Utilization: 58.1 (-0.1)
- Transportation Prices: 71.4 (+4.7)
U.S. Manufacturing PMI® Grows to 52.6
Source | ISM.com
- Month-over-Month: +4.7
- New Orders: 57.1 (+9.7)
- Production: 55.9 (+5.2)
- Employment: 48.1 (+3.3)
- Supplier Deliveries: 54.4 (+3.6)
- Inventories: 47.6 (+1.9)
- Customers’ Inventories: 38.7 (-4.6)
- Prices Index: 59.0 (+0.5)
- Backlog of Orders: 51.6 (+5.8)
- New Export Orders:50.2 (+3.4)
- Imports: 50 (+5.4)
U.S. Truck Tonnage Index Reports at 111.3
Source | Trucking.org
-
Month-over-Month:
-
Year-over-Year:
- Not Seasonally Adjusted:
-
Key Drivers:
-
Cass Freight Index®
Source | Cassinfo.com
Shipments: 0.886
- Month-over-Month: Down 4.9%
- Year-over-Year: Down 7.1%
Expenditures: 2.990
- Month-over-Month: Down 3.6%
- Year-over-Year: Down 0.6%
Key Drivers:
-
Post-holiday seasonality + severe winter weather pulled down January shipment counts to a new cycle low
-
Freight spend fell MoM, but stayed slightly positive YoY, reflecting lower volumes paired with higher cost per shipment
-
Truckload linehaul rates continued rising, suggesting tightening effective capacity even as volumes cooled