What the latest warehouse data is signaling about inflation and the economy – CNBC
The chart above pretty much says it all –
Though supply chain inflation has slowed, the going rate for warehousing has remained elevated. While high, that price point isn’t rising. In fact, it hasn’t changed much at all quarter over quarter through 2022. That’s a silver lining, I suppose. Predictability…? Like a baseball umpire with a questionable strike zone, at least the state of warehousing has been consistent, and we know what we’re in for.
For 3PLs like us at Fosdick, 2022 was not the year of the tiger, but the year of overstock inventory. This, no doubt, was the consequence of 2021 – the year of supply log jams. That fall, the queue of ships outside the LA port looked more like the cover line for the Roxbury than a major trade hub.
To avoid another year of huge losses on 3-week late holiday orders, brands made efforts to get more inventory stateside ahead of peak. Then the ports cleared, gas prices skyrocketed, inflation set in at nearly 7%, and YoY retail spending saw its smallest increase since the early days of the pandemic. To make matters worse, industrial real estate occupancy is soaring, and suddenly we have a very real warehouse capacity issue in the US.
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