Economic Insights White Paper September 2025
Executive Overview
We hope you find this collection of Transportation related data to be helpful as you think about your business. The most recent batch of data largely suggests more of the same, which is the market remains a bit soft (but slowly tightening) and spot trucking rates remain lower than contract rates. One thing that caught our attention was Manufacturing New Orders came in at 51.4 (over 50 signals growth), which is generally a leading indicator of a growth in overall manufacturing output to come.
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U.S. Container Imports Reported at 2,537,126 in August
Source | Descartes
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Month-over-Month: Down 3.2% from July’s record 2,621,910 TEUs
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Year-over-Year: Up 6.9% from August 2024
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Top Ports: Los Angeles (+19.3%), Long Beach (+6.2%)
- Transit Delays: 4.1 days, up from 3.8 in July.
Logistics Managers’ Index (LMI) Registers at 58.9
Source | the-lmi.com
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Month-over-Month: Declined -0.3 points
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Inventory Levels: 53.9 (-2.7)
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Inventory Costs: 68.4 (-3.5)
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Warehousing Capacity: 53.7 (+2.6)
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Warehousing Utilization: 57.2 (-2.2)
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Transportation Capacity: 55.8 (+3.2)
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Transportation Utilization: 56.1 (-3.4)
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Transportation Prices: 61.5 (-1.5)
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U.S. Manufacturing PMI® Grows to 48.7
Source | ISM.com
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New Orders: 51.4 (+4.3)
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Production: 47.8 (-3.6)
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Employment: 43.8 (+0.4)
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Supplier Deliveries: 51.3 (+2.0)
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Inventories: 49.4 (+0.5)
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Customers’ Inventories: 45.7 (-1.0)
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Prices Index: 63.7 (-1.1)
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Backlog of Orders: 44.7 (-2.1)
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New Export Orders: 47.6 (+1.5)
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Imports: 46.0 (-1.6)
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U.S. Truck Tonnage Index Rose to 115.3
Source | Trucking.org
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Month-over-Month: Grew 0.9%
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Year-over-Year: Rose 0.4%
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Year-to-Date: Slightly up at 0.1%
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Not Seasonally Adjusted Index: 119.1, up from 117.0 in July
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U.S. Retail and Food Services Sales Reach $732 Billion
Source | Census.gov
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Month-over-Month: Rose rose 0.6%
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Year-over-Year: Climbed 5.0% compared to August 2024.
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Key Drivers:
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Retail Trade Sales: Up 0.6% MoM and 4.8% YoY.
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Non-store Retailers: Surged 10.1% YoY, showing strong e-commerce momentum
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Food Services & Drinking Places: Increased 6.5% YoY, reflecting steady consumer demand in dining.
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Cass Freight Index® Trends in July 2025
Source | Cassinfo.com
Shipments: 1.017
- Month-over-Month: Down 1.5%
- Year-over-Year: Down 9.3%
Expenditures: 3.135
- Month-over-Month: Down 2.8%
- Year-over-Year: Down 0.4%