Supply Chain Brain - October 2009

Top Wall Street
Analysts to Kick
Off Annual NITL,
IANA & TIA Expo

National Industrial Transportation League, IANA and Transportation Intermediaries Association to

hear whether 2010 will be as tough for the freight transportation industry as 2009.

hree of Wall Street’s top analysts will provide a revised outlook on freight transportation during the opening session of the co-located

2009 conferences and trade shows of the Intermodal Association of North America, The National Industrial Transportation League, and the Transportation Intermediaries Association. The entire event runs from Nov. 15-18, 2009, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA.

The economy unleashed its wrath on freight transportation again this year and Wall Street has a new forecast for providers in 2010 and beyond. Freight Transportation One Year Later: The New View from Wall Street is a follow-up to last year’s session, Wall Street’s View of Transportation. This important session will address and answer many critical questions as a volatile economy continues to bewilder the entire supply chain.

The town hall-style session will kick off the event’s joint educational program. Through a high-tech audience response system, the majority of attendees can participate in the session through real-time opinion polling and other interactive features.

The transportation analysts are John L. Barnes III, managing director, equity research—transportation, RBC Capital Markets; Jason H. Seidl, director of

T

Dahlman Rose & Company; and Thomas R. Wadewitz, airfreight and surface transportation analyst with J.P. Morgan.

International commerce may be in the worst doldrums since the Great Depression, but a super-session, Economic Turmoil in a Sea of Financial Changes, is designed to suggest some ways to weather that storm.

An efficient supply chain is the best weapon for coping in an interdependent trade world. “Overcapacity due to prolific orders for ships of all kinds, abrupt drops in cargo volumes due to reduced aggregate demand and inventory drawdowns, and worries about future sustainable growth have resulted in economic turmoil that has had intense reverberations for the ocean shipping industry and beyond,” according to an NITL statement. “What will the carrier industry look like in the years ahead? Can carriers survive for a protracted period of time without reasonable returns on investment? Can the cascade of new ship deliveries be financed? Should we expect a new round of mergers and consolidations? What will be the impact on competitive options among customers?”

Senior-level executives representing both service providers and users will address these questions, share their experiences and forecast where the industry is going and what it can expect.

What’s in store for the rail and trucking industries will be the subjects of two major sessions. “Where Will We Be ‘Tracking’ in 2010 with Our Rail Partners?” will present a panel of shippers and rail industry executives who will delve into the major issues facing and defining rail transportation today. The panel will review capital investment required for the industry; environmental and sustainability initiatives; and legislative issues affecting the industry. Another reason to attend this session? Rail logistics leaders will tell you what keeps them awake at night!

Another important session asks, “Is Your Motor Carrier on the Highway to Health in 2010?” Among the subjects that will be addressed are over-capacity, trucking bankruptcies, slowly rising fuel prices, low driver pay, high insurance costs, customer bids, green initiatives, and too much legislation affecting the transportation industry. Where will it all end or perhaps lead us in 2010? A panel of seasoned veterans in this Town Hall-style session will talk about what happened on the highway in 2009, and where we are going in 2010.