Subject: Structural Goods Recession
The U.S. freight market is starting to roll over as Chinese trade plummets.

"We are now forecasting nearly a 16.6 percent year-over-year decline for U.S. imports in December, after a 12% decline in Q3," said Ben Tracy, vice president of strategic business development at real-time container tracking platform, Vizion. "There is no bounce back in sight," Tracy said.

Retailers and manufacturers have put a pause on robust freight orders because of fears of a consumer pullback due to food and consumer product inflation. The picture from retail earnings this week has been mixed, with downbeat reports from Home Depot and Target but strong results from Walmart, which said more consumers are focused on value, and more of it sales are coming from upper-income shoppers.

"For the first time since March 2023, we're seeing monthly import volumes consistently fall below 2 million TEUs — this isn't just a seasonal dip or temporary correction," said Kyle Henderson, CEO of Vizion. "The data shows this is a structural goods recession driven by the convergence of tariff uncertainty, frozen housing markets, and a fundamental shift in consumer spending away from physical goods," he said.

Hats off to the Teamsters, truckers and freight workers who voted themselves into a "structural goods recession" by their 2-to-1 support for Trumpedo. Hope they're enjoying their van truckloads down 11% year over year, refrigerated truckloads down 7% year over year, and flatbed truckloads down 3% year over year.

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