although consumer-oriented imports have slowed down, the industrial market has not felt this weakness.

the wholesale tier of the US market continues to see sales growth in a rapidly changing market characterized by new consumption trends and a range of challenges from a slowdown in the supply chain to inflation to the pandemic.

It is understood that in early November, the U.S. Census Bureau said that wholesale inventory increased to 878.55 billion U.S. dollars in May, compared with 862.9 billion U.S. dollars the previous month. 14 economists have a range of 1.9 percent to 2.2 percent for wholesale inventories. Wholesale inventory excluding oil increased by 1.7% in May; Wholesale sales increased by 0.5% in May and 0.8% in the previous month. Wholesale sales excluding automobiles increased by 0.8% in May; The inventory/sales ratio was 1.26 in May, compared with 1.25 in the previous month.

The Census Bureau recently began publishing inflation-adjusted estimates of wholesale trade sales, which provide practitioners with clearer real freight traffic. While wholesale trade statistics receive less attention, wholesalers-defined as "merchants who sell goods in their own name, including enterprises such as wholesalers or workers, industrial distributors, exporters and importers"-account for 30 percent of the ton-miles transported by rental trucks, 56 percent of the ton-miles transported by companies, 44 percent of the ton-miles transported by air, and 43 percent of the ton-miles transported by parcels, according to the 2017 Commodity Flow Survey. Therefore, examining inflation-adjusted sales and inventory-to-sales ratios provides information for forecasting future freight volumes.

Retailers of machinery, equipment and supplies sell a variety of products, including construction equipment, agricultural equipment, industrial supplies, equipment of other service organizations (such as dry cleaning equipment) and transportation equipment (excluding motor vehicles). The current seasonally adjusted sales are ~ 52 billion US dollars per month. In addition, as shown in the first chart, the inflation-adjusted sales of these enterprises increased steadily in 2022 and are currently 12% higher than the 2019 level. This increase contrasts with the 5% YoY decline observed in the second half of 2019. In addition, the inventory-to-sales ratio of these wholesalers is still 12% lower than the 2019 level, which highlights that the inventory surplus problem noticed by some retail trade departments (such as general retailers) is not common.

Data wholesale machinery, equipment and supplies, and the wholesale of chemicals and related products suggest that we have yet to see a significant slowdown in industrial activity, a finding supported by continued year-on-year growth in manufacturing output. These data suggest that freight market participants (e. g., capacity suppliers, brokers), while recognizing the downside of federal fund interest rate hikes and high inflation, need to adopt a market segment-specific approach to strategic planning for 2023.