by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
One more manifestation of the inflation pressures working through various levels of the economy despite suboptimal demand.
January, in terms of freight volume, is usually a slow month of the year, after the shipping season before the holidays, and freight rates tend to back off. But not this January.
The amount that shippers, such as retailers and manufacturers, spent in January on shipping goods to their customers soared by 19.5% compared to January last year, the steepest year-over-year increase since 2011, and surpassing the surge in September 2018, according to the Cass Freight Index of Expenditures. This was driven by a mix of increasing freight volume and soaring freight rates: