June intermodal volumes see solid gains, reports IANA

June intermodal volumes turned in another solid performance, according to data provided to LM by the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA).

Total June shipments—at 1,585,111—rose 12.0% annually, below May’s 22.4% annual gain, to 1,616,620 units.

Domestic containers—at 663,998—headed up 1.1%, with trailers—at 96,621—falling 3.2%. All domestic equipment—at 762,619—headed up 0.5%, and international, or ISO, containers—at 822,492—headed up 25.2%.

On a year-to-date basis, for the first six months of 2021, total shipments—at 9,454,384—are up 15.4%. Domestic containers—at 3,961,485—are up 9.9%, with trailers—at 617,140—up 19.8%. All domestic equipment—at 4,578,625—saw an 11.1% gain, and ISO containers—at 4,875,759—are up 19.7%.

IANA President and CEO Joni Casey told LM than on a year-to-date basis volumes are still strong, especially when taking into account that intermodal activity really started to accelerate in June 2020.

“The annual comparisons and growth numbers are still very strong,” she said. “Compared to June 2020, it shows a little bit of [slowing].

Looking at June data, she explained that the decline in trailers can be attributed to what she called an unexpected surge in trailer movements, which occurred a year ago at the same time.

“Automobile manufacturers are opening back up and taking up a lot of that slack with trailers, as well as e-commerce, too,” she said. “The 1.1% gain in domestic containers is reflective of how the acceleration occurred in the middle-to-end of last year, and ISO is still very strong. All things considered, trendlines are still trending upward. A lot of the international is still being driven by the continuing import growth we are seeing. Domestic slowed up a little bit because of some of the congestion issues, but you will see that pipeline opening back up, I think, over the course of the next three of four months. We see continued growth probably in all segments except for trailers for the rest of this year.”

When asked about some supply chain challenges like port congestion, a lack of empty containers, chassis supply, and the driver shortage, in terms of their collective impact on intermodal, Casey explained that it is important to keep in mind are a direct result of the pandemic and its impact on the economy.

“It is not going to be worked off, in the short term,” she said. “We have had unprecedented freight volumes, following the bottoming out of traffic from the middle of 2019 or a little bit later. And nobody could have anticipated, or planned for, the growth in freight and cargo shipments we have seen in the last year-plus. All components of the international supply chain have been impacted: ocean, marine terminals, railroads, truckers, and inland facilities. There is no stone left unturned, in terms of people trying to deal with many challenges and issues. I think you are seeing some ancillary issues crank up, too, with the Covid outbreak in Yantian, China, which created bottlenecks in Asia that are now starting to unwind and hitting the West Coast. We have equipment issues, with the relocation of containers and chassis in high volume instance. It is really about making sure we can get the right equipment to the right place at the right time. With the volumes everyone is dealing with, it is a real difficult situation right now, but everyone is doing their best to try to remediate it.”