Industrial real estate

It’s an open question whether shippers want end-to-end supply chain services from a single provider, but that hasn’t stopped names such as Amazon, Maersk and Flexport from building integrated solutions.

Investors aren’t lining up to sink money into aging facilities, given that warehouses built in the last 20 to 40 years require nearly 50% more energy consumption and double the maintenance costs than newbuilds.

The CMA CGM subsidiary’s latest acquisition will significantly increase its presence in South Asia that is growing in importance as supply chain routes shift across the region.

Vacancies are expected to continue rising into 2024 as construction of new warehouses near completion and outpace demand.

DHL will spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the region over the next five years as the company targets customers looking to globalize their business and diversify sourcing.

The locations were chosen based on their proximity to key rail, airport and port facilities, the partners said.

US consumers are still spending, but at a slower rate, and that’s pushing major restocking of goods further toward the back half of 2023, analysts and retailers say.

Logistics and industrial investment in the Asia-Pacific region was estimated at about $50 billion last year, down from a record $72 billion in 2021.

CBRE’s latest figures on industrial real estate demand show the supply of new and existing warehouses grew faster than tenant demand, with vacancy spikes expected through 2023.

International air express carrier DHL is building out its US footprint to gain greater density and reach in its largest market, its CEO for the Americas says.

Although the two carriers are partners in the 2M Alliance, it was the addition of extra capacity in their standalone services that led them to handle a combined 40 percent of the cargo coming into the Gulf Coast last year.

The warehouse market near the Port of New York and New Jersey is seeing some tenants leave and new space becoming available, but that’s not a sign of a significant drop in demand, observers say.

Courier, trucking, and warehousing firms lost workers last month, but the seasonal surge and purge was more muted than expected, reflecting broader labor market resilience.

While there are encouraging signs regarding general merchandise retailers seeing their inventories-to-sales return toward pre-COVID levels, data suggests many sectors have a long way to go before their inventories-to-sales come back to pre-pandemic levels.

The rapid expansion of US industrial real estate is expected to slow in 2023 as warehouses are completed, capital costs rise, and the US economy slows, but capacity isn’t going to suddenly flood the market.

Warehousing capacity in the US is predicted to get tighter as 2023 progresses despite the substantial number of distribution and warehousing construction projects under way and efforts to reduce inventories.

As inflation-battered consumers shop for bargains, US retail discounters are expanding their distribution networks.

The industrial warehouse market in the US has enough supply to last through the next year, but logistics developer Prologis cautions there could be an emerging gap in capacity starting as soon as late next year.

Lineage Logistics’ new business line and planned facility in Savannah builds on recent acquisitions the company has made amid an uptick in reefer storage demand.

Despite predictions that the US economy is headed for a recession, warehousing demand keeps mounting as different streams of goods fill available space, experts told the JOC Inland Distribution Conference.

With US warehouses full or filling up, shippers are rethinking broader distribution strategies and basic practices such as how they stack and track goods to find the space they need.

Inventory buildup and changing inland distribution routes are setting a fire under construction of new logistics and distribution facilities in markets across the US, despite economic concerns.

Maersk’s Performance Team subsidiary said it will open its fourth US cold-storage warehouse near the Port of New York and New Jersey as it seeks to add refrigerated cargo handling to its growing suite of integrated logistics services.

Lineage Logistics is acquiring MTC Logistics, a cold storage operator with warehouses at the ports of Baltimore, Wilmington, Delaware, and Mobile.

Amazon and third-party logistics providers are busy adding distribution capacity in the eastern half of the US to take advantage of more ocean services into East Coast ports.

US industrial real estate markets set records in 2021 for leasing activity, low vacancy rates, rental rate growth, and new construction permits, and shippers looking for warehousing and distribution space should expect more of the same in the coming year.

Brick-and-mortar and online retailers are growing their warehousing footprint near ports as a method to more quickly receive and handle ocean freight, and further their e-commerce goals.

Warehouses at seaports and inland hubs are filled to capacity as operators find they must pay workers more competitive wages and benefits to attract the labor they need to handle peak season volumes.

Near record-low vacancy rates at distribution warehouses throughout the US sound the alarm that shippers seeking additional logistics space for the peak season may be out of luck.

Supply chain-focused venture capital firm 8VC has partnered with the largest provider of cold storage facilities globally to fast-track the company’s technology development and adoption.

After 10 consecutive months of record or near-record import volumes, and seaport-dependent supply chains struggling with congestion, developers this year are focusing on traditional warehouse and import distribution space.

With phase 1 of the Georgia International Trade Park now complete and a new headquarters for Port City Logistics being built a few miles from the trade park, the Savannah area is adding new warehousing and distribution capacity at a time when space is especially tight.

Demand for distribution centers and warehouses in Asia is set to climb as firms reappraise supply chains, increase inventories, and diversify into other countries after the disruption caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Each year JOC publishes a directory of nearly 200 warehousing service providers across the United States to help beneficial cargo owners and transportation providers find warehousing capacity as needed.

While truck activity is rampant for essential goods, US fashion footwear freight movement is slowing to a halt as department stores shut down, according to supply chain executives.

Maersk is more than doubling its warehousing and distribution assets in North America through an acquisition that serves as another signal of its commitment to transition from container line to integrator.

The developer of a Texas industrial park scheduled to open in early 2021 says it will work with Kansas City Southern of Mexico to offer a shorter, cheaper way for Mexican manufacturers to ship goods to Houston and other Texas markets.

With the US-China trade war still unresolved and demand growth waning, developers in 2020 will be more cautious in bringing new logistics space online than they have been during the boom times of the past six years.

Shippers and logistics providers are finding it difficult to secure refrigerated warehousing around the Port of New York and New Jersey as consumer demand for food and perishables sold via e-commerce increases.

New warehouse and distribution space in Q3 2019 exceeded demand for the first time in nine years, and the excess supply will slow the pace of growth in rents and absorption of new space into 2020, according to Cushman & Wakefield.