Elgin Area Chamber Of Commerce: LA Port To Operate Around The Clock, Inflation Rises Further, Hotel Occupancy Up

Press release from the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce:

October 14, 2021

By Richard Lawson
CoStar News
 

LA Port To Operate 24/7
 

Los Angeles and Long Beach ports officials agreed in a meeting with the Biden administration to operate around the clock in an effort to ease congestion that has caused major delays in the supply chain.

The meeting Wednesday included port officials, labor leaders and executives from UPS, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, FedEx and Samsung.

The Port of Long Beach had already expanded operations but still faces challenges with increasing the cargo flow.There have been as many as 73 container ships anchored or adrift in the ocean waiting to drop off cargo. Meanwhile, the logjam in China ports has started to ease.

U.S. companies also are dealing with a shortage of truck drivers as well as a shortfall in warehouse workers even though major retailers and logistics firms are constantly hiring. The meeting participants also discussed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that contains billions of dollars for port infrastructure improvement that passed the Senate but is stalled in the House along with a bigger spending bill on social programs.
 
Inflation Rises Further
Consumer prices rose more than expected in September, driven primarily by higher energy prices.

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that prices over the past year have increased 5.4% and 0.4% from August to September. Economists had forecast 5.3% and a 0.3 month-to-month increase. Removing volatile energy and food prices, so-called core inflation was 4% over the past 12 months, which fell in line with estimates.

Fuel prices are up considerably during the year after having been down considerably last year as the pandemic suppressed demand. Gasoline, for example, is 42.1% higher than last year.

Used car prices have been another inflation contributor. Those fell 0.7% for the month but still are 24.4% higher than last year, chiefly because new car supply is limited by a shortage of computer chips.
 
Hotel Occupancy Up
Weekend travelers helped drive hotel occupancy up last week as the industry rides a roller coaster.

Weekly occupancy rose 2.2 percentage points last week to 63.9%, according to data from hotel industry research firm STR, which is owned by CoStar Group. Room rates followed with an increase of $3.50 to an average daily rate of $134.63.

Weekend occupancy hit 79%, a 4-percentage point increase from the previous weekend. It was 21 percentage points higher than weekday occupancy. Nashville rose back to the top of the 25 largest tourism markets with 71% occupancy, but it was far shy of its 2019 level of 83%. Los Angeles was a close second with 70% occupancy.

The Rolling Stones played at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 9, helping fill a lot of hotel rooms, as did the National Electrical Contractors Association’s annual trade show that finished up over the weekend.

Source: CoStar Group, www.costar.com

This press release was produced by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.