Industrial Real Estate News

The ocean shipping line is the latest to plant a stake in a key manufacturing region along the US-Mexico border.

A new warehouse due to open early next year in Portland for frozen and ambient-temperature cargoes could cut transportation costs for shippers now using out-of-state storage and ports.

A key inland transportation market is growing as companies from Class I railroads to specialized logistics firms chase freight and expand in Arizona’s “Silicon Desert.”

Shrinking inventories have helped drive up warehouse vacancy rates and decreased utilization, but signs that demand is building point to a tightening market.

The nearly 1.7 million square feet of cross-dock capacity that has come online over the past two years is a mark of volume growth and the deepening of supply chains through Norfolk’s terminals, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

XPO, Estes and Saia are starting to reopen terminals they acquired from bankrupt Yellow, adding to LTL trucking capacity as they pursue new business.

Warehouse vacancy rates are still rising in Southern California due to what Prologis says is a long correction, but a wave of imports may change that.

The South Carolina-based company has nearly doubled the number of doors at a Kentucky service center, the latest in a series of expansions planned in the US LTL sector.

As California-based RK Logistics’ high-tech customers move east to new markets, the logistics provider is following by buying New York-based On Time Trucking. 

A new 228,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility near Laredo’s World Trade Bridge will help Ryder scale operations for cross-border shippers.

Along with vacant warehouses, tenants that want to downsize or move through subleases are also adding to supply.

Continued diversification in US entry points will eventually lead to greater demand for warehousing and storage at inland nodes.

The acquisition of The Shippers Group gives Kenco greater distribution capacity and underscores resilient demand for space and integrated logistics services despite a weak freight market.

The facilities must adhere to new emissions-cutting rules implemented several months ago by regulators or risk daily fines approaching $12,000 per day.

As conditions normalize, US retailers such as Dollar General are cutting unneeded resources, including temporary warehousing, while reinforcing their core business.

Retailers and e-commerce merchants leased 3.7 million square feet of warehousing and distribution space near the Port of Jacksonville in the third quarter, a record for Jacksonville’s industrial market.

The four-phase, seven-building project with CSX rail connections will support the growing needs of importers and exporters using the port.

Demand for industrial warehousing is surging along the Southeast US, with Virginia attracting more than 11 million square feet in the last three years.

Expansion moves by Lineage Logistics and Ryder System underscore continuing demand for warehousing and distribution space even in a period of low freight demand and slow economic growth.

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.