US | October brings no relief to US supply chain strains

Our US supply chain stress tracker indicates that supply chain pressures worsened in October, after having eased in September. Preliminary data show that logistics difficulties remained the most acute source of stress while prices, activity, and labor challenges increased.

What you will learn:

• The number of cargo ships waiting to unload at LA and Long Beach hit an all time high in October. Seaborne shipping costs dropped but were still 450% above pre-Covid levels.
• Manufacturing production costs are up an eye-popping 40%-50% y/y, while the extreme imbalance between raw materials and finished goods worsened last month. The prices for services paid by producers are up 6+% y/y, a record high.
• Inventories fell less in Q3 than Q2, but the inventory-to-sales ratio remained lower at the start of Q4 than pre-Covid for 70% of manufacturing sectors.