Despite the persistent global pandemic, the container rates for transit from China to U.S. West Coast continue to dramatically increase to record breaking rates, as reported by FreightWaves (American Shipper) this week. The report points to information explaining that the increase is due to the rise in retail online buying in the U.S. in recent weeks. The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) rate (China to U.S. West Coast) broke historic records for the past two weeks moving above $3,000 per forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU).

The U.S. commerce Department estimated that the economy contracted by a historic record breaking 32.9% in the second quarter, as reported today by Transport Topics. This pull back in the economy is primarily due to the decrease in consumer spending (34.6% decrease) associated with a frozen travel industry, a major shutdown in much of the retail industry, and tens of millions of jobs lost.

New relocation bookings were strong for the first months of 2020. However, COVID-19 government shutdowns started heavily impacting corporate global relocation bookings this year in the third week of March. New bookings continued to slide worldwide through approximately mid-April for international shipments and mid-May for U.S. domestic bookings.
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During this crisis, international and domestic bookings generally dropped off by 30 to 55 percent across all industry segments in the mid-April to mid-May timeframe.  Is there good news? Yes, international bookings have been improving week over week since mid-April and U.S. domestic bookings started an upward trend in the last two weeks as well.

Unless more unforeseen events occur, it appears that the COVID-19 booking bottom has passed, creating a more optimistic business outlook for the weeks and months ahead in 2020.

After a review of allegations presented against ARC, U.S. TRANSCOM officials have declared the allegations “unsubstantiated” and have now re-awarded their multibillion dollar contract award for military HHG moves, to American Roll On Roll Off Carrier Group (Parsippany, N.J.) as reported by the MilitaryTimes this week.

Worldwide ERC has announced that they have shifted the Global Workforce Symposium to a virtual event. The live event in Washington DC has been cancelled. This action is in response to the restrictions around large-group events in Washington, DC, along with concerns of safety for all, and continued desire to offer an experience and value as normally provided. The plan now offers a virtual Global Workforce Symposium as a month-long mobility event, from October 28 through November 20.

TheMilitaryTimes has reported that TRANSCOM pulled back the multibillion dollarcontract for military household goods moves awarded to American Roll On RollOff Carrier Group (Parsippany, N.J.) back in April, after receiving a number ofprotests.