December 3, 2025 • 42 mins
Kevin covered the following stories: falling gasoline prices; the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index was reported; Tariffs lead to layoffs...but not in the U.S.; FedEx to cut jobs because of an unusual circumstance; Kevin has the details digs into the details, puts the information into historical perspective, offers his insights and opinions.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome aboard, Thanks for tuning in on this Wednesday morning.
We are finally starting to see a bit of a
decrease in terms of gasoline prices.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
We saw that right before.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The Thanksgiving holiday, and it's been interesting over the last
well since inauguration that generally what you see around vacation time,
what you see around holidays and even weekends, sometimes the
gas prices seem to go up just a little bit
right before those peak driving periods. And you know, the
(00:46):
justification has always been, well, you know, it's a matter
of supply and demand. When there's a lot of demand,
the supply is pretty much the same. You can only
put so many gallons in the tank underground and go
on and that. If there's a lot of demand for that,
then of course people are going to be you know,
the demands there, so the supply is less and of
(01:07):
course the prices go up. But over the last year
we've seen pretty much around the time of thinks well,
Independence Day, Memorial Day weekend and there that gas prices
actually came down a little bit, were held steady right
up to the Thanksgiving holiday. A lot of people were
talking about and actually in the news they were talking
(01:28):
a little bit about this, which was kind of interesting
because it was positive news for the Trump administration, which surprise, surprise,
they actually reported on, but talking about that gas prices
were approaching the lowest that they had been in over
four years.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
And that's that is not chump change.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
It's less than what I would want it to see,
given the fact that we look at oil prices and
oil prices basically well just let's get to it. West
Texas Centermedia crewed Carling is at fifty eight dollars and
sixty six cents a barrel. That's down sixty six cents
from yesterday, which since the beginning of the year, West
Texas Intermedia crews down eighteen dollars and twenty three cents
(02:10):
a barrel, or twenty four percent. Rent crued sixty two
forty six, down seventy one cents. That is down seventeen
dollars and forty four cents since Inauguration Day, or twenty
two percent. And I've been talking most of the summer
we actually since oil price has been falling, that we're
not seeing this reflected in gasoline prices. And I have
(02:31):
quized several people on that. We've had Phil Flint on
this program talking about that. And when they talk about
going into the summer season, you have the summer blends
and you have to have certain additives to that for
pollution controls, and you know, the distillates and the processing
(02:51):
going through the refinery and the costs of that. Also
in the spring, when they start gearing up away from
the heating oil and the decent you know, the heating
oil during the winter months and getting into the gasoline season,
then you have the changeover and the refineries and the prices.
You know, the supply goes down because they're not refining
(03:11):
as much. And then at the end of the term
when the summer driving season is over and then shifting
to the winter blends, that the maintenance goes down, and
you know, all.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
That sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
But overall, the prices have not come down the way
I would have expected them to see. I mean, given
the fact that the raw material process going in there
is down fifteen to twenty twenty five percent over the
previous just since January, and you're not seeing that reflected
in gasoline prices. We are starting to see a little
(03:43):
bit of a decrease in gasoline prices generally because of
what they talk about. Towards the end of the season,
after you get out of the summer driving season, when
you have the peak gasoline demand, the demand isn't there
as much, and so then the prices come down. It
made the net well headlines from the National News talking
about the gasoline prices fall to a four year low
(04:05):
on cheap oil, flat demand. Now again, when I look
at gasoline prices and for the first time for a
long time, technically nationwide the average for gasoline is down
below three dollars a gallon. But you know, the way
they put the prices on the Marquee and whatever, it's always,
(04:28):
you know, two dollars and seventy five cents point nine.
You might as we'll call it two dollars and seventy
six cents. But right now the national average is two
dollars ninety nine cents point eight, so eight tenths, so
it averages out or you know, round up to three dollars.
But it is technically below three dollars a gallon, which
is a good thing. Uh, And prices are coming down.
(04:51):
In the story they're talking about while gasoline prices tend
to fall after the peak summer demand months, demand months
when drivers hit the rather on vacation. The cost to
fill your tank has been relatively flat this year, with
prices held down by cheaper cruit. Now on the plus
side of that, the gasoline prices haven't gone up. If
you look at the prices as what they were last
(05:13):
year versus this year, they are relatively the same or
within a couple of pennies of each. So as far
as inflation is concerned, when you look at energy prices,
where you look at gasoline prices, that isn't affecting your
your bank account or affecting your your you know, your
monthly payments, your budget for the year or for the
month on a on a major way, because again you're
(05:37):
paying the same amount basically this year as you were
last year, and depending upon how you drive, the fuel
efficiency and so on will make a big difference. But
it's been interesting that actually people are starting to talk
about that and the fact that I'm actually starting to
see this price is narrowing to the point where it's
it's noticeable, but not as noticeable as it could be.
(05:59):
And as I've mentioned, if prices on gasoline were about
fifteen percent lower where I think they should be. We'd
be paying a national average of about two dollars and
fifty five cents a gallon, and there needs to be
a little bit of Now. I know, these refineries are
working at massive amounts. I mean they are working at
(06:20):
ninety six ninety seven percent capacity, which is in efficiency,
which is a lot higher than most businesses operate. And
so credit to that. But again, as I mentioned before,
we have not built a major refinery in this country
in over forty seven years. We've upgraded some, we've expanded
(06:41):
some within the territory or within the location of these refineries,
but in terms of actually manufacturing a new or building
a new refinery, it just hasn't been done. And then
you see the gasoline prices out in California, which are
more than two dollars, more than two dollars a gallon
than the cheapest gas in the country right now, Gasoline
(07:03):
in California is at five four dollars and fifty four
cents a gallon, and at Oklahoma is two dollars and
forty cents. Folks, that is a two dollars and fourteen
cent difference. And you've got all these regulations on the
gasoline prices in producing in California. They put all this
(07:25):
mandates in terms of additives that have to go into
the gasoline there to control, as they say, pollution in
that part of the country. Yet they will push all
these environmental controls in certain areas, but then allow these
wildfires to go crazy, which wipes out all the stuff
that they've done in terms of cleaning up the climate
(07:45):
or cleaning up the environment.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Out there, and it's all destroyed.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Twenty to thirty years of looking after, you know, trying
to reduce carbon footprint and to reduce pollution in California
were wiped out in twenty two when that wildfire went
through there. And when you look at the gat the
pollution that was caused by the.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Fire in January of this year that.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Wiped out the palisades, that pushed them back another ten
to fifteen years. So everything they've done out there has
been useless based on their environmental policies as far as
clear cutting, making sure that they keep the brush low
and by the way, if you've got fire hydrants, make
sure that they have water in them, filling the reservoir,
doing the basic things that government are supposed to be
(08:32):
doing so on top of that, on top of being
a situation where you have a fire hazard on a
yearly basis, and then you've got these right now, what
I think, I don't even think of the eleven thousand
structures out there. I think last count was that there
had been something like fourteen hundred applications that have been filed.
(08:55):
And again that number is down because of all the
restriction and all the requirements going into cleaning up the
site and making sure that it's ready to be built
on before you even apply for the application. So the
building permits that have been issued are paltry, the amount
of applications are low because of all the government red tape,
remember the press conferences that we're going to streamline all
(09:18):
these things. So you've got this crazy situation out there,
and plus the fact that they're paying two dollars and
fourteen cents more per gallon because they have special refineries
out there, and then they criticize those refineries and put
more restrictions on them to the point where where the
refineries there that can actually produce the type of gasoline
(09:40):
that is demanded by that state they're moving out. So
it's even more high because there's even less refineries that
are doing that. So this environmental policy out in California
is nuts. But at least across the country, what we're
seeing as far as gasoline prices, they're starting to come down,
and of course based on some of the more inexpensive
(10:01):
they keep calling it cheap oil, but it's just less
expensive oil that we have in this country. Coming up,
we're going to be talking about some manufacturing numbers that
we saw, which kind of a good news bad news situation.
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck a network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
What need this is the racing repord on America's drugging
network on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
NASCAR's anti trust lawsuit got underway on Monday and North
Carolina Jerry selections and opening statements took place twenty three
eleven in front Row suing NASCAR at October of twenty
twenty four, claiming the sanctioning body runs a monopoly using
its charter system, supplier contracts, and track agreements and to
take it or leave it contracts to suppress competition and
(10:47):
limit teams in commercial freedom. The twenty twenty five Formula
One season will come down to one race. Following the
action over the weekend at Abu Dhabi, Max verstapp And
won the race and a championship leader Lando Norris fishing
fourth for a staff and is now Norris's closest rival
heading into next weekend, just twelve points behind.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Norris mentioned it before, it's US, of course, nailing weekends,
maximizing points, not making mistakes where others do make mistakes.
If that's driving mistakes, the mistakes, but we're in it
and it will keep it interesting.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Oscar Piastre slipped the third place in the standings with
the second place finished, he's sixteen back.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Pretty pretty gut wrenching, to be honest, I think you know,
it felt like I drove probably the best weekend I've
had this year, if not in F one. So to
not have the to not have the results US is painful.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
And Norris clinging to the top spot with a race
to go.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Car was good.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Oscar finished second and he was very quick, so nothing
to complain about, just strategy as the second car is
always just a bit worse, and how do you know
it today? So no, not even that well and even
the fight for a second call, we we should have
done what we did, so simple as that one.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I know.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
This is the breathing repoard on America's Drugging Network on
seven hundred WLW, say Dennison for a t N.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's struck in Network, seven hundred WLW yesterday,
actually the day before yesterday, I guess since we're into
a new day the ism. The Institute's supply Management came
up with their numbers for manufacturing sector in November, and
the top number doesn't look so good, but some of
(12:40):
the stuff underlying that looks pretty decent. The US factory
activity shrank in November the most in four months, as
orders weekend, indicating manufacturers are struggling to break free from
the extended period of malaise. Now, if there are less orders,
that means that they're that, you know, the customers have
slowed down. And why has the customer slowed down? Have
(13:02):
they slowed down because of pricing or because of demand?
And if it's demand, could it possibly be because the
interest rates are too high? If people are wanting more
products and they're going to go out and have some
of this stuff manufactured and provided for them, that maybe
the market isn't there yet because of waiting on interest
(13:23):
rates to come down. And it was funny yesterday going
into actually going into Monday, all I saw, as far
as the headlines Jerome Powell to speak. And this was
the thing is if some you know, you're waiting for
the Messiah or somebody to stand on a mountaintop and
give some sort of a grand and glorious speech in
(13:46):
terms of what's going on as the economy is concerned.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And it's been.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Proven time and time again that lion Jerry Powell doesn't
have a clue as far as what's going on in
the economy. He's not a supply side economist. And I'm
not really sure that easy knowledgeable in terms of what
goes on as far as the economy is concerned at
all in the first place. But again, you know, and
I backed that up by the fact that when you
(14:11):
look at his track record during the Biden administration, when
you had inflation month after month after month after month
going up and up and up, he kept saying, well,
you know this, this inflation is transitory, and no, we
don't see in a situation where we need to raise
interest rates in order to slow the economy. Down any
or to slow the inflation rate down, none of this
(14:33):
sort of stuff until it got to a point in July,
in June of twenty twenty two, when we hit a
nine point one percent I can't emphasize that enough. Nine
point one percent inflation rate. It was the highest in
forty years. Let that sink in for a moment. And
yet the Federal Reserve kept talking about transitory inflation. This
(14:57):
is only temper, it's not you know, it's not going
to be there forever. Well, the problem is, and I
keep pointing, and I kept pointing it out at the time,
even and even today given some of the numbers, is
that it's not a matter if you're starting off at
at you know, if you're talking about a dollar today,
it's not as if the inflation for that month bumps
(15:18):
up and then you start all over back down to
a dollar. So if your inflation goes up three cents,
then the next month you've got a dollar three, and
then if it goes up three percent from there, then
it's now up to a dollar six, but a little
bit higher than a dollar six, because you're taking three
percent of a dollar three, not not three percent of
(15:42):
a dollar. And so then the following month, if it
goes up three percent, it's not going up three percent
based on that dollar. It's going up based on what
has already been layered on top of that. And then
in the month at June when it went up nine percent,
it doesn't come back down from that. The only way
that that comes down is if you increase activity, you
increase the purchases, and you increase the economy to the
(16:06):
point where those prices do come down because there's so
much being it costs less to manufacture the facility, the
items that you're producing, or the amount of items that
you're buying. Look at a truck. I mean people in
the trucking industry, you know all about this. If you're
driving a truck and the truck is full, then you're
(16:27):
getting the most bang for your buck in terms of
those items in there, and it's costing you. It costs
you the same to run that truck. But if the
load is full, then you're spreading that over the total
of what's in the truck itself. So if your truck
is empty, then you're costs for skyrocketed because obviously you've
(16:50):
got no revenue on the other side. But the more
revenue you have to offset that that cost of operating
that truck comes down per mile based on what you
have in terms of you know, the cost. The cost
is the same per mile, but it spread over a
larger amount of revenue, and so it doesn't look as
bad and it's and it helps your bottom line.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Same thing in the economy.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
If you don't have the goods being manufactured, and you
have only a few amount of goods being manufactured because
of things slowing down, but the demand is there, the
price of those items are going to go up. But
the more that it's available, then those prices come down.
So and then on top of this, and I've been
talking about this at nauseum here for several months, is
(17:34):
that if you once you factor in not only you
have the prior inflation of the Biden administration that you're
dealing with. Now now you can you know, control that
to a certain extent by lower energy prices and those
types of things, cutting out some of the government regulations
so it doesn't cost you so much in terms of compliance,
(17:55):
which adds to the cost of the thing, the item
that you're selling. So those prices will come down. But
when you have so much activity going on, then it
increases the amount of items available. So the only way
to get those prices down is more volume. And if
you have more volume and more people buying, then you
(18:17):
wind up having the prices come down tremendously. But what
they're not talking about is when you look at how
many contracts have been negotiated the UAW, the railroad workers, ups,
the dock workers. I mentioned railroad who else the well,
(18:39):
I mentioned auto workers, and there's a couple other ones,
But there's been some major contracts the dock workers on
both the East Coast and the West coast. When you
factor in those those prices in terms of the increase
to produce those items or to move those items, that
adds to the cost of the item itself. And so
(19:00):
when you have added prices in terms of payroll is concerned,
those prices are going to go up. You're not going
to go back in at some point in time and say, okay,
you know, in this contract UAW or railroad workers, you
are getting a ten percent increase in your salary each year.
(19:22):
And then when inflation starts coming down, you're not going
to go back in there and say, well, we're going
to take a percentage or two percent off of your pay. No,
that pay is in there, and that's already baked in.
Now again, I'm not criticizing, I'm not saying that people
don't deserve higher wages, and especially when you take into
consideration that there was such a freeze on wage increases
(19:45):
going back to some of the pre pandemic some of
these government some of these contracts with these union workers,
it was locked into place and didn't come up for
negotiation until twenty twenty, And of course they're not going
to do anything to go siations during twenty twenty during
the pandemic, So whatever contract expired in twenty twenty was
(20:07):
pushed off and wasn't negotiated on until twenty twenty one,
and even into twenty twenty two when they finally hashed
out all the deals, because again, when you had the
supply chain issues and that going on, it was no
time to go back in and renegotiate these contracts. So
a lot of these contracts were on hold and people
had not had some of the workers had not had
a pay increase since twenty nineteen. So when you factor
(20:30):
that into that twenty twenty three contract, of course that
number has got to be made up. You've got to
try to increase that a little bit because they have
been basically losing money because if your price is fixed,
if your hourly rate is fixed, and the inflation that
was during the Biden administration was going up and up
and up, you're actually losing money on a daily basis.
(20:53):
So catching that up. But once that contract is in there,
and that is part of what it costs to either
move these goods, manufacture these goods, sell these goods, import
these goods, export these goods, that's all going to factor
in and that price is not going to come down.
So if that's and that is in the inflation number now,
(21:14):
and rather than trying to blame it off on tariffs
or blame it off on other things, be specific about
where these increases are coming from and be straight with
the American.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Public so that they get a full picture of.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
What's going on. And that's the thing that I've been
talking about. Now, getting back to manufacturing, we'll pick this
up coming up, because manufacturing numbers are down again. Is
it because of the consumer demand or is it because
of the weight and see in terms of people not
wanting to jump in and have that increase as far
as the interest rates being high and what that does
(21:47):
to your operating costs. I'm Kevin Gordon, America Struck a Network.
Seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 8 (21:58):
Here's your trucking forecast that Tri State. It in the
rest of the country and the tri sit overnight, mostly cloudy,
the low down to twenty mostly sunny. Wednesday, highs in
the mid thirties, partly Sunday. Thursday high of thirty one,
partly sunny. Friday a high of thirty five Nationally more
moderate to heavy snow moving across the interior New England
States through tonight. Arctic air forecast over the Midwest Thursday,
(22:19):
while snow showers linger across the Great Lakes region along
with the Great Basin and the Rockies. Moderate to heavy
rain emerging along the western to central Gulf Coast.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Seven hundred WLW. I'm Kevin Gordon. This as America Struck
a Network. If you miss any of our previous segments
or any of our other shows, hit up that iHeartRadio
app and of course brought to you by our friends
at Ross Truck Centers. Came back to this manufacturing slump
deepens in November again. There's some mixed bag of information
in here. Again getting back to the original paragraph, US
(22:54):
factory activity shrank in November, is most of the most
and four months as orders weekend, indicating manufacture are struggling
to break free from the extended period of Melee's Institute
for Supply Management Index eased point five percent basically, well,
actually a half a percentage point to forty eight point
two according to the data release December first, the measure
(23:15):
has been below fifty, which indicates contraction for nine straight months. Again,
even at forty eight percent, going down, going, let me see,
going to fifty forty eight point seven percent, down to
forty eight point two.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
It's still a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Of a drop, but I'm not a major bottom falling
out type drum. Survey suggestination manufacturing base remains bogged down
by trade policy uncertainty and elevated production costs. Production costs
based on what could it possibly be salaries. Of course,
they're not going to talk about that USMISM. Manufacturing prices
(23:54):
paid for materials picked up for the first time in
five months and is about eight points higher than a
year year ago. Now again based into that could possibly
be terrorists also could be baked into those numbers, is
the cost or the salary increases from the employees that
actually make up those raw materials, mine those raw materials,
(24:16):
gather those raw materials, or ship those those raw materials.
So again, there's all kinds of factors that go into that.
It's not straight terriffs as far as that's concerned. And
if it were teriffs, based on the numbers that they've
been telling us, that eight percent, that eight points higher,
is a lot lower than what they were predicting. Customer
(24:36):
demand has largely been uninspiring as well. Orders contracted in
November as the fastt paced since July, while backloads shrank
for the most in seven months. Well that's with the
backlogs shrinking, that's not so bad. I mean, that's good
on the one hand, because if you've got a bunch
(24:57):
of orders that you're not getting to, then those people
get a little frustrated because they're not getting what they're wanting,
getting what they were requesting, and if they're not getting that,
it's possible that they may choose to go someplace else
and you wind up losing that customer. So if you're
working off the backlogs and getting those down to the
point where they're more manageable. Then you don't have as
(25:18):
much in the pipeline. The problem is to get down
too low, then you don't have anything coming in that pipeline,
so that pipeline draws down, you wind up with zero,
and then you wind up having the lay people off
because you just don't have the business. Susan Spence, chair
of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said uncertainly about
tariffs is driving the pullback because customers are holding off
(25:41):
on orders until there's more clarity as to the cost
on the cost of goods. Well, you know, if the
demand is there, if your customer base is looking for
those items, and if they need those items, then based
on the law of supply and demand, if the prices
go up a little bit, they're still going to pay
for that. But again, if the customers are holding off
(26:03):
because they're expecting to see interest rates go down so
that the cost of them buying those goods come down,
that's a whole nother story and something that not a
lot of people. People are just not talking about it
as much as I would like them to talk about it,
because every time we talk about every time I pick
up the news on oil prices. They'll talk about, you know,
(26:26):
leading up to the Federal Reserve, as to whether or
not they're going to cut interest rates. They'll say that, well,
with interest rates high, that lower interest rates spurs the economy,
builds the economy, and that thus makes more demand for oil,
and that would boost the price of oil because against
are more demand based on the supply. But they recognize
(26:47):
and then and all these other stories that I read,
they always refer to lower interest rate increases business activity,
puts more money in the pockets of the people that
are looking to buy these things. They have more disposable
end come to spend, and therefore they spend more, they
buy more, which then boosts the economy. So again, the
interest rates are a factor here, and you know, only
(27:10):
rarely are people focusing on it except here on america'struck
a network looking at some of the other things in here.
The soft demand conditions help explain a deeper contraction in
factory employment. Last month, Roughly twenty five percent of respondents
reported lower employment, the largest share since mid twenty twenty. Meanwhile,
(27:32):
the group's production index rebounded in November, expanding at the
fastest clip in four months. Despite the advanced output this
year has been uneven. Again the term uneven. It hasn't
been that the numbers that the fastest clip, that the
(27:53):
production numbers have fallen dramatically. It's that they have been
uneven throughout the year. They're not saying that they're down,
they're not saying that they're up. They're not saying that
there's been these large peaks or large valley It's just
been uneven during the year, which bottom line, isn't all
that bad given the dire predictions that we're receiving back
(28:13):
on Independence Day, a liberation day, i should say, back
in April, when these terraffs were put into place. Eleven
manufacturing industry contracted in November, led by apparel, wood and
paper products, and textiles. Four industries, including computer and electronic products,
reported growth, the fewest in a year. Survey also showed
(28:35):
the supplier delivery times of materials for manufacturers quickened for
the first time in four months. So the ability to
get the goods to manufacture the raw materials in has
picked up considerably, so that end of the supply chain
has improved. If the activity getting that in there has
(28:56):
been building up and is available, then you not having
to pay higher prices because that truck or whatever delivering
those goods isn't busy someplace else. So if you're having
the opportunity to get those goods in the door, that's
a good thing.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Producers and customers.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Inventories continue to shrink, although the slower paces than a
month early, so people will have these inventories, and generally
what you do is you have enough inventory to get
you through or you know, they just in time ordering,
which has been very popular over the years, is that
you have only the amount of inventory on hand that
(29:35):
you need in order to conduct sales, and so that
if the timing is right, when the last item comes
off the shelf, the next item is right behind it
getting loaded onto the shelf, and so you keep that
supply chain going. And then what we experienced during the
pandemic and there shortly after, because you had this interruption
and because you had a break there, you had some
(29:57):
of the shelves that were empty. But then gearing up
and then restocking those shells became an issue. And also
because of people being available to stock those shelves, people
being able to transport those goods, all of that stuff
was backed up, getting people back into the workforce. People
were being available to come back to work. Companies hiring,
(30:19):
whether or not they were hiring back to the same
number of employees, trying to take a look at what
their orders were, to see what their business was and
adjust it accordingly, because you don't want to bring everybody
back at one time. You had to layer that in
otherwise you would have your employee costs way high and
you don't have a whole lot at revenue. And on
(30:39):
top of being shut down and not having any revenue
during that period of time and barely getting by now,
suddenly you throw into that more losses and that would
push a couple of companies, would push companies under into bankruptcy.
So again, with all that in mind, the fact that
people are having inventories not only at the wholesale but
(31:00):
at the retail level, that those inventory levels are shrinking,
that to a certain extent to a you know, at
some point is good when it gets down to the
level of where that can be replenished on a regular basis,
you don't run out of anything. But it's not they're
not talking about that being in a dangerous level at
this point. So some good news, bad news in the
(31:23):
report and hopefully we can see again.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
I can't I can't stress enough.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I am feeling so good in terms of what's going
on as far as our economy is concerned. I see
a lot of things on the on the horizon that
are looking very good. The problem is is that we
just don't have the Federal Reserve on board helping along
the line. And it doesn't help that the spoon fed
regurgitators in the mainstream media every opportunity they have, they
(31:53):
will talk down the economy. They will talk down the
economic policies of this president, even though they know what
the track record was. They knew what the track record
was back in twenty seventeen when he took office, what
the economy was humming along in twenty twenty, and the
disaster that we had during the Biden administration. You would
(32:15):
think that for the basis of their customers and because
they concern about the American public in general, that they
would be rooting for the economy to be strong. But again,
you'd have to have a group of people that actually
liked this country. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck a Network
seven hundred w from the spoon Fed regurgitators. In the
(32:36):
mainstream media, we hear about all the dire predictions and
the unrealistic predictions that they make, even though we have
kept seeing you unexpectedly low employment, unemployment unemployment claims, we've
seen unexpected job increases, we've seen unexpected retail sales, we've
seen unexpected generally on the good side, and yet we
(33:00):
don't hear. All we hear from the spoon feeder regurgitators
is bad news. They keep talking about how the trade
policies with the terriffts, that is, that is hurting the
American public, that is hurting our businesses. When you take
into consideration the purpose of the terriffs that they were
retaliatory against countries that have been taking advantage of US
(33:22):
dumping their cheaper goods into our economy because they either
subsidize those or there are lower terraffs on their products
coming in here, and there are barriers to our products
going into their countries, so that they have the best
of both worlds. They have cheaper products coming into this country,
which is better competitive with our goods, then they are
(33:45):
blocking their entry of our goods into their country. So
all they have is what's produced by their manufacturers, so
there are a tremendous advantage. Trump tried to lower that,
lower that playing field and make sure that we had
fair trade, not necessarily free trade. And what is happening
is that you know, any of these countries that started
(34:07):
talking about having economic problems or that it was affecting
their economy because of the tariffs, it's a very simple fix.
Come to negotiating table, Negotiate with the president, negotiate with
his team, get the prices down, get the tariffs down
so that we have a better flow of goods and
so that there's more competition out there, and that your
(34:32):
people are not standing by the sidelines not working because
the tariffs coming into the United States.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
You are in control of that.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
You can actually sit down at the negotiating table and
get that down.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
But it's interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I saw the story Canadian steelmaker al Goma Steel Group Inc.
Will let go one thousand employees and close its blast
furnace in northern Ontario within months as it seeks to
stem losses resulting from US teriffs. Now, if they're manufacturing
steel there, and they're manufacturing steel at a cheaper price
(35:09):
and bringing that into our country, which an and then
they have an unfair trade or a balance of trade
or unfair cost of their steel to our steel in
the United States, then of course they're going to have
more sales here. But if we level that playing field,
(35:30):
then that puts them on part with our steel manufacturers
in this country, and so people are inclined to buy
more American steel. And which has happened, and the fact
that Algoma Steel is now laying off one thousand employees
because they're not selling as much into the United States.
I mean, if you're selling something, if you're selling the
(35:50):
same item, the same exact item, into a particular country
and you can produce it cheaper because you're paying your
employees less us you're subsidizing those country companies and propping
them up, then their prices coming into our country are
going to be cheaper. And so if you've got the
same item, the same quality, you're going to choose the
(36:14):
item that's the cheapest. But now if you've now put restrictions,
and then on top of that, you know it's cheaper
coming into this country, but then our goods are being
prevented from going into their country, so they're definitely in
an unfair advantage. So if you then put up the
barriers and prevent their items coming in here or the
(36:35):
items that do are now on par with ours, people
are going to pick and choose which ones are going
to buy, and a lot of times don't wind up
buying whichever one is manufacturing in the United States.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
But not necessarily. I mean, you have customer loyalty and
so on.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
But the fact that there's been this barrier, there's not
as been as much purchasing and much orders going into Canada.
They have had to now cut back and they're looking
to lay off a thousand people. But what is interesting
when you dig deeper into the story, the company, based
in the city of Sault Saint Marie, is also shuttering
(37:09):
its coke making operation as it plans to transition to
making steel solely by electric arc furnace in early twenty
twenty six, a year ahead of schedule. Al Gooma said
December first in an email statement, they don't say in here,
but I'm wondering if the coke making operation, if there
(37:31):
are these coke fired plants, that if those are more
labor intensive as opposed to these electric plants, could that
be part of the reason that they're laying off employees.
They want to blame it on tariffs, They want to
blame it on the United States. But is it true?
And I guess we'll have to see coming in the
(37:53):
next few days, or at least maybe I have to
dig into it and find out for myself. Spokesperson for
the company, Devone, the Trump administration's fifty percent tariffs on
foreign steel have fundamentally altered the competitive landscape and sharply
limited our ability to access the US market. So again,
(38:15):
raising the barriers on par with their barriers on our
goods are leveling the playing field and they are finding
it difficult to compete. Well, you know, if you've had
an advantage all these years and now suddenly you don't
have that advantage, yes, it does make it difficult free
to compete. Algoma sales dropped thirteen percent in the third
(38:35):
quarter and it's reported a direct tariff expense and they
it was like eight eighty nine point seven million Canadian dollars,
saying the US steel market had become largely closed to US.
The company, which currently has about twenty five hundred employees,
was given a five hundred million Canadian subsidy in emergency
(38:58):
loans from the governments of Canada onto. So again they're
subsidizing their companies up there, whereas you know, our country
companies are having to compete with that. Let's see the
layoffs come into effect on March twenty third. Also in
the statement, they said transition is necessary to protect Algama's
future in the face of these extraordinary and external marketing forces,
(39:22):
and we will continue to advocate for competitive and fair
trading environment for Canadian steel. Well, talk to your government,
talk to the people that are in charge of negotiating
up there. Make sure that they're doing the things that
make you more competitive with what's going on as far
as the United States is concerned, and that you're not
charging less as far as teriffs, or that you're charging
(39:43):
more on tariffs on our goods coming in there and
not so much on your goods coming in here, so
that we are now on a more competitive basis.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
So again, interesting, I.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Saw this story FedEx to slash eight hundred and fifty
six Texas jobs after a customer moves its business. Now
this isn't a well, it's a reduction of processing in
that particular location because a particular company, a particular client
has moved, So it's not something that FedEx has done
(40:14):
or anything that the employees have done. It's been the
company that they were that they were providing these services
for has moved. FedEx Corporation plans to cut hundreds of
jobs in Texas after a third party logistics customer opted
to move its operations to a new location in a
different company. Memphis, Tennessee based courier will discontinue operations.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
At Copple, Texas.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
FedEx said that it will close its facility layoff eight
hundred and fifty six workers after customers shifted its business.
Company attributed the costs of the customer's relocation decision and
noted they will occur in phases through late April, so
that going on. FedEx said some of the employees may
move into other roles or receive assistance as the firm
(40:58):
continues a broader restructure of its shipping operations. Now, the
interesting thing with us is the fact that a company
moved away and moved their operations and chose a different
carrier in a different location. So this isn't necessarily something
that's bad as far as FedEx is concerned, or the
products that they're doing or how they're moving things. FedEx said,
(41:20):
notify the employees at the site will move in advance,
and that some workers are eligible to other positions. Let
me see they talk, and again they have to throw
this in here just I guess as a dig. The
move comes towards the end of the turbulent leayer with
a logistics company which has been jolted by President Donald
Trump's trade policies and have strained key shipping lanes, especially
(41:44):
between US and China. Again, how can you squawk at
a country that we're basically are, that is not a
friend of the country and is an enemy of ours,
that is trying to unfairly compete with us on the
world stage, and for some of the disruptions that they're
causing around the world. I mean, are you so concerned
(42:05):
about your bottom line that you're willing to deal that
you care more about dealing with an enemy of the
country rather than cheering for our country to be on
a competitive basis with them. Again, the way people look
at these trade policies and the way they look at
these teriffs is just mind boggling to me. Well, folks,
does it for us? Stay tuned for Red Eye Radio
(42:27):
at the Top the Hour, I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking
Network seven hundred WLW
This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome aboard, Thanks for tuning in on this Wednesday morning.
We are finally starting to see a bit of a
decrease in terms of gasoline prices.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
We saw that right before.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The Thanksgiving holiday, and it's been interesting over the last
well since inauguration that generally what you see around vacation time,
what you see around holidays and even weekends, sometimes the
gas prices seem to go up just a little bit
right before those peak driving periods. And you know, the
(00:46):
justification has always been, well, you know, it's a matter
of supply and demand. When there's a lot of demand,
the supply is pretty much the same. You can only
put so many gallons in the tank underground and go
on and that. If there's a lot of demand for that,
then of course people are going to be you know,
the demands there, so the supply is less and of
(01:07):
course the prices go up. But over the last year
we've seen pretty much around the time of thinks well,
Independence Day, Memorial Day weekend and there that gas prices
actually came down a little bit, were held steady right
up to the Thanksgiving holiday. A lot of people were
talking about and actually in the news they were talking
(01:28):
a little bit about this, which was kind of interesting
because it was positive news for the Trump administration, which surprise, surprise,
they actually reported on, but talking about that gas prices
were approaching the lowest that they had been in over
four years.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
And that's that is not chump change.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
It's less than what I would want it to see,
given the fact that we look at oil prices and
oil prices basically well just let's get to it. West
Texas Centermedia crewed Carling is at fifty eight dollars and
sixty six cents a barrel. That's down sixty six cents
from yesterday, which since the beginning of the year, West
Texas Intermedia crews down eighteen dollars and twenty three cents
(02:10):
a barrel, or twenty four percent. Rent crued sixty two
forty six, down seventy one cents. That is down seventeen
dollars and forty four cents since Inauguration Day, or twenty
two percent. And I've been talking most of the summer
we actually since oil price has been falling, that we're
not seeing this reflected in gasoline prices. And I have
(02:31):
quized several people on that. We've had Phil Flint on
this program talking about that. And when they talk about
going into the summer season, you have the summer blends
and you have to have certain additives to that for
pollution controls, and you know, the distillates and the processing
(02:51):
going through the refinery and the costs of that. Also
in the spring, when they start gearing up away from
the heating oil and the decent you know, the heating
oil during the winter months and getting into the gasoline season,
then you have the changeover and the refineries and the prices.
You know, the supply goes down because they're not refining
(03:11):
as much. And then at the end of the term
when the summer driving season is over and then shifting
to the winter blends, that the maintenance goes down, and
you know, all.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
That sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
But overall, the prices have not come down the way
I would have expected them to see. I mean, given
the fact that the raw material process going in there
is down fifteen to twenty twenty five percent over the
previous just since January, and you're not seeing that reflected
in gasoline prices. We are starting to see a little
(03:43):
bit of a decrease in gasoline prices generally because of
what they talk about. Towards the end of the season,
after you get out of the summer driving season, when
you have the peak gasoline demand, the demand isn't there
as much, and so then the prices come down. It
made the net well headlines from the National News talking
about the gasoline prices fall to a four year low
(04:05):
on cheap oil, flat demand. Now again, when I look
at gasoline prices and for the first time for a
long time, technically nationwide the average for gasoline is down
below three dollars a gallon. But you know, the way
they put the prices on the Marquee and whatever, it's always,
(04:28):
you know, two dollars and seventy five cents point nine.
You might as we'll call it two dollars and seventy
six cents. But right now the national average is two
dollars ninety nine cents point eight, so eight tenths, so
it averages out or you know, round up to three dollars.
But it is technically below three dollars a gallon, which
is a good thing. Uh, And prices are coming down.
(04:51):
In the story they're talking about while gasoline prices tend
to fall after the peak summer demand months, demand months
when drivers hit the rather on vacation. The cost to
fill your tank has been relatively flat this year, with
prices held down by cheaper cruit. Now on the plus
side of that, the gasoline prices haven't gone up. If
you look at the prices as what they were last
(05:13):
year versus this year, they are relatively the same or
within a couple of pennies of each. So as far
as inflation is concerned, when you look at energy prices,
where you look at gasoline prices, that isn't affecting your
your bank account or affecting your your you know, your
monthly payments, your budget for the year or for the
month on a on a major way, because again you're
(05:37):
paying the same amount basically this year as you were
last year, and depending upon how you drive, the fuel
efficiency and so on will make a big difference. But
it's been interesting that actually people are starting to talk
about that and the fact that I'm actually starting to
see this price is narrowing to the point where it's
it's noticeable, but not as noticeable as it could be.
(05:59):
And as I've mentioned, if prices on gasoline were about
fifteen percent lower where I think they should be. We'd
be paying a national average of about two dollars and
fifty five cents a gallon, and there needs to be
a little bit of Now. I know, these refineries are
working at massive amounts. I mean they are working at
(06:20):
ninety six ninety seven percent capacity, which is in efficiency,
which is a lot higher than most businesses operate. And
so credit to that. But again, as I mentioned before,
we have not built a major refinery in this country
in over forty seven years. We've upgraded some, we've expanded
(06:41):
some within the territory or within the location of these refineries,
but in terms of actually manufacturing a new or building
a new refinery, it just hasn't been done. And then
you see the gasoline prices out in California, which are
more than two dollars, more than two dollars a gallon
than the cheapest gas in the country right now, Gasoline
(07:03):
in California is at five four dollars and fifty four
cents a gallon, and at Oklahoma is two dollars and
forty cents. Folks, that is a two dollars and fourteen
cent difference. And you've got all these regulations on the
gasoline prices in producing in California. They put all this
(07:25):
mandates in terms of additives that have to go into
the gasoline there to control, as they say, pollution in
that part of the country. Yet they will push all
these environmental controls in certain areas, but then allow these
wildfires to go crazy, which wipes out all the stuff
that they've done in terms of cleaning up the climate
(07:45):
or cleaning up the environment.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Out there, and it's all destroyed.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Twenty to thirty years of looking after, you know, trying
to reduce carbon footprint and to reduce pollution in California
were wiped out in twenty two when that wildfire went
through there. And when you look at the gat the
pollution that was caused by the.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Fire in January of this year that.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Wiped out the palisades, that pushed them back another ten
to fifteen years. So everything they've done out there has
been useless based on their environmental policies as far as
clear cutting, making sure that they keep the brush low
and by the way, if you've got fire hydrants, make
sure that they have water in them, filling the reservoir,
doing the basic things that government are supposed to be
(08:32):
doing so on top of that, on top of being
a situation where you have a fire hazard on a
yearly basis, and then you've got these right now, what
I think, I don't even think of the eleven thousand
structures out there. I think last count was that there
had been something like fourteen hundred applications that have been filed.
(08:55):
And again that number is down because of all the
restriction and all the requirements going into cleaning up the
site and making sure that it's ready to be built
on before you even apply for the application. So the
building permits that have been issued are paltry, the amount
of applications are low because of all the government red tape,
remember the press conferences that we're going to streamline all
(09:18):
these things. So you've got this crazy situation out there,
and plus the fact that they're paying two dollars and
fourteen cents more per gallon because they have special refineries
out there, and then they criticize those refineries and put
more restrictions on them to the point where where the
refineries there that can actually produce the type of gasoline
(09:40):
that is demanded by that state they're moving out. So
it's even more high because there's even less refineries that
are doing that. So this environmental policy out in California
is nuts. But at least across the country, what we're
seeing as far as gasoline prices, they're starting to come down,
and of course based on some of the more inexpensive
(10:01):
they keep calling it cheap oil, but it's just less
expensive oil that we have in this country. Coming up,
we're going to be talking about some manufacturing numbers that
we saw, which kind of a good news bad news situation.
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck a network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
What need this is the racing repord on America's drugging
network on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
NASCAR's anti trust lawsuit got underway on Monday and North
Carolina Jerry selections and opening statements took place twenty three
eleven in front Row suing NASCAR at October of twenty
twenty four, claiming the sanctioning body runs a monopoly using
its charter system, supplier contracts, and track agreements and to
take it or leave it contracts to suppress competition and
(10:47):
limit teams in commercial freedom. The twenty twenty five Formula
One season will come down to one race. Following the
action over the weekend at Abu Dhabi, Max verstapp And
won the race and a championship leader Lando Norris fishing
fourth for a staff and is now Norris's closest rival
heading into next weekend, just twelve points behind.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Norris mentioned it before, it's US, of course, nailing weekends,
maximizing points, not making mistakes where others do make mistakes.
If that's driving mistakes, the mistakes, but we're in it
and it will keep it interesting.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Oscar Piastre slipped the third place in the standings with
the second place finished, he's sixteen back.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Pretty pretty gut wrenching, to be honest, I think you know,
it felt like I drove probably the best weekend I've
had this year, if not in F one. So to
not have the to not have the results US is painful.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
And Norris clinging to the top spot with a race
to go.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Car was good.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Oscar finished second and he was very quick, so nothing
to complain about, just strategy as the second car is
always just a bit worse, and how do you know
it today? So no, not even that well and even
the fight for a second call, we we should have
done what we did, so simple as that one.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I know.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
This is the breathing repoard on America's Drugging Network on
seven hundred WLW, say Dennison for a t N.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's struck in Network, seven hundred WLW yesterday,
actually the day before yesterday, I guess since we're into
a new day the ism. The Institute's supply Management came
up with their numbers for manufacturing sector in November, and
the top number doesn't look so good, but some of
(12:40):
the stuff underlying that looks pretty decent. The US factory
activity shrank in November the most in four months, as
orders weekend, indicating manufacturers are struggling to break free from
the extended period of malaise. Now, if there are less orders,
that means that they're that, you know, the customers have
slowed down. And why has the customer slowed down? Have
(13:02):
they slowed down because of pricing or because of demand?
And if it's demand, could it possibly be because the
interest rates are too high? If people are wanting more
products and they're going to go out and have some
of this stuff manufactured and provided for them, that maybe
the market isn't there yet because of waiting on interest
(13:23):
rates to come down. And it was funny yesterday going
into actually going into Monday, all I saw, as far
as the headlines Jerome Powell to speak. And this was
the thing is if some you know, you're waiting for
the Messiah or somebody to stand on a mountaintop and
give some sort of a grand and glorious speech in
(13:46):
terms of what's going on as the economy is concerned.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And it's been.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Proven time and time again that lion Jerry Powell doesn't
have a clue as far as what's going on in
the economy. He's not a supply side economist. And I'm
not really sure that easy knowledgeable in terms of what
goes on as far as the economy is concerned at
all in the first place. But again, you know, and
I backed that up by the fact that when you
(14:11):
look at his track record during the Biden administration, when
you had inflation month after month after month after month
going up and up and up, he kept saying, well,
you know this, this inflation is transitory, and no, we
don't see in a situation where we need to raise
interest rates in order to slow the economy. Down any
or to slow the inflation rate down, none of this
(14:33):
sort of stuff until it got to a point in July,
in June of twenty twenty two, when we hit a
nine point one percent I can't emphasize that enough. Nine
point one percent inflation rate. It was the highest in
forty years. Let that sink in for a moment. And
yet the Federal Reserve kept talking about transitory inflation. This
(14:57):
is only temper, it's not you know, it's not going
to be there forever. Well, the problem is, and I
keep pointing, and I kept pointing it out at the time,
even and even today given some of the numbers, is
that it's not a matter if you're starting off at
at you know, if you're talking about a dollar today,
it's not as if the inflation for that month bumps
(15:18):
up and then you start all over back down to
a dollar. So if your inflation goes up three cents,
then the next month you've got a dollar three, and
then if it goes up three percent from there, then
it's now up to a dollar six, but a little
bit higher than a dollar six, because you're taking three
percent of a dollar three, not not three percent of
(15:42):
a dollar. And so then the following month, if it
goes up three percent, it's not going up three percent
based on that dollar. It's going up based on what
has already been layered on top of that. And then
in the month at June when it went up nine percent,
it doesn't come back down from that. The only way
that that comes down is if you increase activity, you
increase the purchases, and you increase the economy to the
(16:06):
point where those prices do come down because there's so
much being it costs less to manufacture the facility, the
items that you're producing, or the amount of items that
you're buying. Look at a truck. I mean people in
the trucking industry, you know all about this. If you're
driving a truck and the truck is full, then you're
(16:27):
getting the most bang for your buck in terms of
those items in there, and it's costing you. It costs
you the same to run that truck. But if the
load is full, then you're spreading that over the total
of what's in the truck itself. So if your truck
is empty, then you're costs for skyrocketed because obviously you've
(16:50):
got no revenue on the other side. But the more
revenue you have to offset that that cost of operating
that truck comes down per mile based on what you
have in terms of you know, the cost. The cost
is the same per mile, but it spread over a
larger amount of revenue, and so it doesn't look as
bad and it's and it helps your bottom line.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Same thing in the economy.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
If you don't have the goods being manufactured, and you
have only a few amount of goods being manufactured because
of things slowing down, but the demand is there, the
price of those items are going to go up. But
the more that it's available, then those prices come down.
So and then on top of this, and I've been
talking about this at nauseum here for several months, is
(17:34):
that if you once you factor in not only you
have the prior inflation of the Biden administration that you're
dealing with. Now now you can you know, control that
to a certain extent by lower energy prices and those
types of things, cutting out some of the government regulations
so it doesn't cost you so much in terms of compliance,
(17:55):
which adds to the cost of the thing, the item
that you're selling. So those prices will come down. But
when you have so much activity going on, then it
increases the amount of items available. So the only way
to get those prices down is more volume. And if
you have more volume and more people buying, then you
(18:17):
wind up having the prices come down tremendously. But what
they're not talking about is when you look at how
many contracts have been negotiated the UAW, the railroad workers, ups,
the dock workers. I mentioned railroad who else the well,
(18:39):
I mentioned auto workers, and there's a couple other ones,
But there's been some major contracts the dock workers on
both the East Coast and the West coast. When you
factor in those those prices in terms of the increase
to produce those items or to move those items, that
adds to the cost of the item itself. And so
(19:00):
when you have added prices in terms of payroll is concerned,
those prices are going to go up. You're not going
to go back in at some point in time and say, okay,
you know, in this contract UAW or railroad workers, you
are getting a ten percent increase in your salary each year.
(19:22):
And then when inflation starts coming down, you're not going
to go back in there and say, well, we're going
to take a percentage or two percent off of your pay. No,
that pay is in there, and that's already baked in.
Now again, I'm not criticizing, I'm not saying that people
don't deserve higher wages, and especially when you take into
consideration that there was such a freeze on wage increases
(19:45):
going back to some of the pre pandemic some of
these government some of these contracts with these union workers,
it was locked into place and didn't come up for
negotiation until twenty twenty, And of course they're not going
to do anything to go siations during twenty twenty during
the pandemic, So whatever contract expired in twenty twenty was
(20:07):
pushed off and wasn't negotiated on until twenty twenty one,
and even into twenty twenty two when they finally hashed
out all the deals, because again, when you had the
supply chain issues and that going on, it was no
time to go back in and renegotiate these contracts. So
a lot of these contracts were on hold and people
had not had some of the workers had not had
a pay increase since twenty nineteen. So when you factor
(20:30):
that into that twenty twenty three contract, of course that
number has got to be made up. You've got to
try to increase that a little bit because they have
been basically losing money because if your price is fixed,
if your hourly rate is fixed, and the inflation that
was during the Biden administration was going up and up
and up, you're actually losing money on a daily basis.
(20:53):
So catching that up. But once that contract is in there,
and that is part of what it costs to either
move these goods, manufacture these goods, sell these goods, import
these goods, export these goods, that's all going to factor
in and that price is not going to come down.
So if that's and that is in the inflation number now,
(21:14):
and rather than trying to blame it off on tariffs
or blame it off on other things, be specific about
where these increases are coming from and be straight with
the American.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Public so that they get a full picture of.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
What's going on. And that's the thing that I've been
talking about. Now, getting back to manufacturing, we'll pick this
up coming up, because manufacturing numbers are down again. Is
it because of the consumer demand or is it because
of the weight and see in terms of people not
wanting to jump in and have that increase as far
as the interest rates being high and what that does
(21:47):
to your operating costs. I'm Kevin Gordon, America Struck a Network.
Seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 8 (21:58):
Here's your trucking forecast that Tri State. It in the
rest of the country and the tri sit overnight, mostly cloudy,
the low down to twenty mostly sunny. Wednesday, highs in
the mid thirties, partly Sunday. Thursday high of thirty one,
partly sunny. Friday a high of thirty five Nationally more
moderate to heavy snow moving across the interior New England
States through tonight. Arctic air forecast over the Midwest Thursday,
(22:19):
while snow showers linger across the Great Lakes region along
with the Great Basin and the Rockies. Moderate to heavy
rain emerging along the western to central Gulf Coast.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Seven hundred WLW. I'm Kevin Gordon. This as America Struck
a Network. If you miss any of our previous segments
or any of our other shows, hit up that iHeartRadio
app and of course brought to you by our friends
at Ross Truck Centers. Came back to this manufacturing slump
deepens in November again. There's some mixed bag of information
in here. Again getting back to the original paragraph, US
(22:54):
factory activity shrank in November, is most of the most
and four months as orders weekend, indicating manufacture are struggling
to break free from the extended period of Melee's Institute
for Supply Management Index eased point five percent basically, well,
actually a half a percentage point to forty eight point
two according to the data release December first, the measure
(23:15):
has been below fifty, which indicates contraction for nine straight months. Again,
even at forty eight percent, going down, going, let me see,
going to fifty forty eight point seven percent, down to
forty eight point two.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
It's still a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Of a drop, but I'm not a major bottom falling
out type drum. Survey suggestination manufacturing base remains bogged down
by trade policy uncertainty and elevated production costs. Production costs
based on what could it possibly be salaries. Of course,
they're not going to talk about that USMISM. Manufacturing prices
(23:54):
paid for materials picked up for the first time in
five months and is about eight points higher than a
year year ago. Now again based into that could possibly
be terrorists also could be baked into those numbers, is
the cost or the salary increases from the employees that
actually make up those raw materials, mine those raw materials,
(24:16):
gather those raw materials, or ship those those raw materials.
So again, there's all kinds of factors that go into that.
It's not straight terriffs as far as that's concerned. And
if it were teriffs, based on the numbers that they've
been telling us, that eight percent, that eight points higher,
is a lot lower than what they were predicting. Customer
(24:36):
demand has largely been uninspiring as well. Orders contracted in
November as the fastt paced since July, while backloads shrank
for the most in seven months. Well that's with the
backlogs shrinking, that's not so bad. I mean, that's good
on the one hand, because if you've got a bunch
(24:57):
of orders that you're not getting to, then those people
get a little frustrated because they're not getting what they're wanting,
getting what they were requesting, and if they're not getting that,
it's possible that they may choose to go someplace else
and you wind up losing that customer. So if you're
working off the backlogs and getting those down to the
point where they're more manageable. Then you don't have as
(25:18):
much in the pipeline. The problem is to get down
too low, then you don't have anything coming in that pipeline,
so that pipeline draws down, you wind up with zero,
and then you wind up having the lay people off
because you just don't have the business. Susan Spence, chair
of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said uncertainly about
tariffs is driving the pullback because customers are holding off
(25:41):
on orders until there's more clarity as to the cost
on the cost of goods. Well, you know, if the
demand is there, if your customer base is looking for
those items, and if they need those items, then based
on the law of supply and demand, if the prices
go up a little bit, they're still going to pay
for that. But again, if the customers are holding off
(26:03):
because they're expecting to see interest rates go down so
that the cost of them buying those goods come down,
that's a whole nother story and something that not a
lot of people. People are just not talking about it
as much as I would like them to talk about it,
because every time we talk about every time I pick
up the news on oil prices. They'll talk about, you know,
(26:26):
leading up to the Federal Reserve, as to whether or
not they're going to cut interest rates. They'll say that, well,
with interest rates high, that lower interest rates spurs the economy,
builds the economy, and that thus makes more demand for oil,
and that would boost the price of oil because against
are more demand based on the supply. But they recognize
(26:47):
and then and all these other stories that I read,
they always refer to lower interest rate increases business activity,
puts more money in the pockets of the people that
are looking to buy these things. They have more disposable
end come to spend, and therefore they spend more, they
buy more, which then boosts the economy. So again, the
interest rates are a factor here, and you know, only
(27:10):
rarely are people focusing on it except here on america'struck
a network looking at some of the other things in here.
The soft demand conditions help explain a deeper contraction in
factory employment. Last month, Roughly twenty five percent of respondents
reported lower employment, the largest share since mid twenty twenty. Meanwhile,
(27:32):
the group's production index rebounded in November, expanding at the
fastest clip in four months. Despite the advanced output this
year has been uneven. Again the term uneven. It hasn't
been that the numbers that the fastest clip, that the
(27:53):
production numbers have fallen dramatically. It's that they have been
uneven throughout the year. They're not saying that they're down,
they're not saying that they're up. They're not saying that
there's been these large peaks or large valley It's just
been uneven during the year, which bottom line, isn't all
that bad given the dire predictions that we're receiving back
(28:13):
on Independence Day, a liberation day, i should say, back
in April, when these terraffs were put into place. Eleven
manufacturing industry contracted in November, led by apparel, wood and
paper products, and textiles. Four industries, including computer and electronic products,
reported growth, the fewest in a year. Survey also showed
(28:35):
the supplier delivery times of materials for manufacturers quickened for
the first time in four months. So the ability to
get the goods to manufacture the raw materials in has
picked up considerably, so that end of the supply chain
has improved. If the activity getting that in there has
(28:56):
been building up and is available, then you not having
to pay higher prices because that truck or whatever delivering
those goods isn't busy someplace else. So if you're having
the opportunity to get those goods in the door, that's
a good thing.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Producers and customers.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Inventories continue to shrink, although the slower paces than a
month early, so people will have these inventories, and generally
what you do is you have enough inventory to get
you through or you know, they just in time ordering,
which has been very popular over the years, is that
you have only the amount of inventory on hand that
(29:35):
you need in order to conduct sales, and so that
if the timing is right, when the last item comes
off the shelf, the next item is right behind it
getting loaded onto the shelf, and so you keep that
supply chain going. And then what we experienced during the
pandemic and there shortly after, because you had this interruption
and because you had a break there, you had some
(29:57):
of the shelves that were empty. But then gearing up
and then restocking those shells became an issue. And also
because of people being available to stock those shelves, people
being able to transport those goods, all of that stuff
was backed up, getting people back into the workforce. People
were being available to come back to work. Companies hiring,
(30:19):
whether or not they were hiring back to the same
number of employees, trying to take a look at what
their orders were, to see what their business was and
adjust it accordingly, because you don't want to bring everybody
back at one time. You had to layer that in
otherwise you would have your employee costs way high and
you don't have a whole lot at revenue. And on
(30:39):
top of being shut down and not having any revenue
during that period of time and barely getting by now,
suddenly you throw into that more losses and that would
push a couple of companies, would push companies under into bankruptcy.
So again, with all that in mind, the fact that
people are having inventories not only at the wholesale but
(31:00):
at the retail level, that those inventory levels are shrinking,
that to a certain extent to a you know, at
some point is good when it gets down to the
level of where that can be replenished on a regular basis,
you don't run out of anything. But it's not they're
not talking about that being in a dangerous level at
this point. So some good news, bad news in the
(31:23):
report and hopefully we can see again.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
I can't I can't stress enough.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I am feeling so good in terms of what's going
on as far as our economy is concerned. I see
a lot of things on the on the horizon that
are looking very good. The problem is is that we
just don't have the Federal Reserve on board helping along
the line. And it doesn't help that the spoon fed
regurgitators in the mainstream media every opportunity they have, they
(31:53):
will talk down the economy. They will talk down the
economic policies of this president, even though they know what
the track record was. They knew what the track record
was back in twenty seventeen when he took office, what
the economy was humming along in twenty twenty, and the
disaster that we had during the Biden administration. You would
(32:15):
think that for the basis of their customers and because
they concern about the American public in general, that they
would be rooting for the economy to be strong. But again,
you'd have to have a group of people that actually
liked this country. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck a Network
seven hundred w from the spoon Fed regurgitators. In the
(32:36):
mainstream media, we hear about all the dire predictions and
the unrealistic predictions that they make, even though we have
kept seeing you unexpectedly low employment, unemployment unemployment claims, we've
seen unexpected job increases, we've seen unexpected retail sales, we've
seen unexpected generally on the good side, and yet we
(33:00):
don't hear. All we hear from the spoon feeder regurgitators
is bad news. They keep talking about how the trade
policies with the terriffts, that is, that is hurting the
American public, that is hurting our businesses. When you take
into consideration the purpose of the terriffs that they were
retaliatory against countries that have been taking advantage of US
(33:22):
dumping their cheaper goods into our economy because they either
subsidize those or there are lower terraffs on their products
coming in here, and there are barriers to our products
going into their countries, so that they have the best
of both worlds. They have cheaper products coming into this country,
which is better competitive with our goods, then they are
(33:45):
blocking their entry of our goods into their country. So
all they have is what's produced by their manufacturers, so
there are a tremendous advantage. Trump tried to lower that,
lower that playing field and make sure that we had
fair trade, not necessarily free trade. And what is happening
is that you know, any of these countries that started
(34:07):
talking about having economic problems or that it was affecting
their economy because of the tariffs, it's a very simple fix.
Come to negotiating table, Negotiate with the president, negotiate with
his team, get the prices down, get the tariffs down
so that we have a better flow of goods and
so that there's more competition out there, and that your
(34:32):
people are not standing by the sidelines not working because
the tariffs coming into the United States.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
You are in control of that.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
You can actually sit down at the negotiating table and
get that down.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
But it's interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I saw the story Canadian steelmaker al Goma Steel Group Inc.
Will let go one thousand employees and close its blast
furnace in northern Ontario within months as it seeks to
stem losses resulting from US teriffs. Now, if they're manufacturing
steel there, and they're manufacturing steel at a cheaper price
(35:09):
and bringing that into our country, which an and then
they have an unfair trade or a balance of trade
or unfair cost of their steel to our steel in
the United States, then of course they're going to have
more sales here. But if we level that playing field,
(35:30):
then that puts them on part with our steel manufacturers
in this country, and so people are inclined to buy
more American steel. And which has happened, and the fact
that Algoma Steel is now laying off one thousand employees
because they're not selling as much into the United States.
I mean, if you're selling something, if you're selling the
(35:50):
same item, the same exact item, into a particular country
and you can produce it cheaper because you're paying your
employees less us you're subsidizing those country companies and propping
them up, then their prices coming into our country are
going to be cheaper. And so if you've got the
same item, the same quality, you're going to choose the
(36:14):
item that's the cheapest. But now if you've now put restrictions,
and then on top of that, you know it's cheaper
coming into this country, but then our goods are being
prevented from going into their country, so they're definitely in
an unfair advantage. So if you then put up the
barriers and prevent their items coming in here or the
(36:35):
items that do are now on par with ours, people
are going to pick and choose which ones are going
to buy, and a lot of times don't wind up
buying whichever one is manufacturing in the United States.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
But not necessarily. I mean, you have customer loyalty and
so on.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
But the fact that there's been this barrier, there's not
as been as much purchasing and much orders going into Canada.
They have had to now cut back and they're looking
to lay off a thousand people. But what is interesting
when you dig deeper into the story, the company, based
in the city of Sault Saint Marie, is also shuttering
(37:09):
its coke making operation as it plans to transition to
making steel solely by electric arc furnace in early twenty
twenty six, a year ahead of schedule. Al Gooma said
December first in an email statement, they don't say in here,
but I'm wondering if the coke making operation, if there
(37:31):
are these coke fired plants, that if those are more
labor intensive as opposed to these electric plants, could that
be part of the reason that they're laying off employees.
They want to blame it on tariffs, They want to
blame it on the United States. But is it true?
And I guess we'll have to see coming in the
(37:53):
next few days, or at least maybe I have to
dig into it and find out for myself. Spokesperson for
the company, Devone, the Trump administration's fifty percent tariffs on
foreign steel have fundamentally altered the competitive landscape and sharply
limited our ability to access the US market. So again,
(38:15):
raising the barriers on par with their barriers on our
goods are leveling the playing field and they are finding
it difficult to compete. Well, you know, if you've had
an advantage all these years and now suddenly you don't
have that advantage, yes, it does make it difficult free
to compete. Algoma sales dropped thirteen percent in the third
(38:35):
quarter and it's reported a direct tariff expense and they
it was like eight eighty nine point seven million Canadian dollars,
saying the US steel market had become largely closed to US.
The company, which currently has about twenty five hundred employees,
was given a five hundred million Canadian subsidy in emergency
(38:58):
loans from the governments of Canada onto. So again they're
subsidizing their companies up there, whereas you know, our country
companies are having to compete with that. Let's see the
layoffs come into effect on March twenty third. Also in
the statement, they said transition is necessary to protect Algama's
future in the face of these extraordinary and external marketing forces,
(39:22):
and we will continue to advocate for competitive and fair
trading environment for Canadian steel. Well, talk to your government,
talk to the people that are in charge of negotiating
up there. Make sure that they're doing the things that
make you more competitive with what's going on as far
as the United States is concerned, and that you're not
charging less as far as teriffs, or that you're charging
(39:43):
more on tariffs on our goods coming in there and
not so much on your goods coming in here, so
that we are now on a more competitive basis.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
So again, interesting, I.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Saw this story FedEx to slash eight hundred and fifty
six Texas jobs after a customer moves its business. Now
this isn't a well, it's a reduction of processing in
that particular location because a particular company, a particular client
has moved, So it's not something that FedEx has done
(40:14):
or anything that the employees have done. It's been the
company that they were that they were providing these services
for has moved. FedEx Corporation plans to cut hundreds of
jobs in Texas after a third party logistics customer opted
to move its operations to a new location in a
different company. Memphis, Tennessee based courier will discontinue operations.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
At Copple, Texas.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
FedEx said that it will close its facility layoff eight
hundred and fifty six workers after customers shifted its business.
Company attributed the costs of the customer's relocation decision and
noted they will occur in phases through late April, so
that going on. FedEx said some of the employees may
move into other roles or receive assistance as the firm
(40:58):
continues a broader restructure of its shipping operations. Now, the
interesting thing with us is the fact that a company
moved away and moved their operations and chose a different
carrier in a different location. So this isn't necessarily something
that's bad as far as FedEx is concerned, or the
products that they're doing or how they're moving things. FedEx said,
(41:20):
notify the employees at the site will move in advance,
and that some workers are eligible to other positions. Let
me see they talk, and again they have to throw
this in here just I guess as a dig. The
move comes towards the end of the turbulent leayer with
a logistics company which has been jolted by President Donald
Trump's trade policies and have strained key shipping lanes, especially
(41:44):
between US and China. Again, how can you squawk at
a country that we're basically are, that is not a
friend of the country and is an enemy of ours,
that is trying to unfairly compete with us on the
world stage, and for some of the disruptions that they're
causing around the world. I mean, are you so concerned
(42:05):
about your bottom line that you're willing to deal that
you care more about dealing with an enemy of the
country rather than cheering for our country to be on
a competitive basis with them. Again, the way people look
at these trade policies and the way they look at
these teriffs is just mind boggling to me. Well, folks,
does it for us? Stay tuned for Red Eye Radio
(42:27):
at the Top the Hour, I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking
Network seven hundred WLW
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