Direct Answer
Energy supply chain and logistics indicators track fuel stockpiles, production and demand, and the volume and cost of moving goods. Most investors start with weekly EIA crude oil inventories, natural gas storage, the rig count and freight measures such as the Cass indexes, the Baltic Dry Index and the New York Fed's supply chain pressure index.
Energy, Supply Chain and Logistics Indicators: Investor Reference
This category covers economic indicators in the Energy, Supply Chain and Logistics Indicators area. Each linked indicator page explains the measure's definition, calculation methodology, release schedule and market interpretation in depth.
See the full economic indicators hub for all 15 categories, or the Macro & Market Regimes section for broader context on how these indicators influence market regimes and portfolio positioning.
What do Energy, Supply Chain and Logistics Indicators have in common?
These series answer physical-economy questions: how much fuel is in storage, how much is being produced and refined, how much freight is moving, and how strained or costly transport has become. Most are counts of barrels, cubic feet, carloads, tons or shipments rather than opinions, though they are strongly seasonal and often weather-driven.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes the weekly energy series: crude oil inventories, gasoline inventories, distillate inventories, refinery utilization, the gasoline demand proxy and natural gas storage. Read together they show the balance of supply, refining and consumption. U.S. oil production and electricity demand are monthly EIA series, and the Baker Hughes rig count is a weekly tally of active drilling rigs, an input to future supply.
The freight volume series come from different sources and cover different modes. Cass Freight Shipments and Cass Freight Expenditures are built from invoices Cass processes for shippers, the Truck Tonnage Index comes from American Trucking Associations, Rail Traffic is the weekly Association of American Railroads count, and Freight TSI from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics combines several for-hire modes. Cass expenditures blends volume with rates, including fuel charges.
The cost and strain series are not volume measures. The Baltic Dry Index tracks charter rates for dry bulk vessels, the Logistics Managers' Index surveys supply chain executives with 50 as the neutral level, and the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index combines shipping costs with delivery time, backlog and inventory components of manufacturing surveys in several economies, expressed in standard deviations from its average.
How do you choose among Energy, Supply Chain and Logistics Indicators?
- For the fuel balance, read inventories alongside refinery utilization and the gasoline demand proxy. Stocks build when supply outruns consumption, and utilization shows how much refining capacity is running.
- Compare inventory levels with the same week in prior years and with the five-year range. Stocks are not seasonally adjusted, and natural gas storage follows a seasonal pattern of injections and withdrawals.
- Use the rig count for drilling activity and U.S. oil production for output. A rig count measures rigs on location, not barrels, and production is reported monthly and revised.
- For goods demand, use volume series such as Cass shipments, truck tonnage, rail traffic and Freight TSI rather than expenditures, which combine volume and rates.
- Choose by frequency and breadth. Rail traffic is weekly and covers carloads and intermodal units, while Freight TSI is a broader monthly index that combines several carrier modes.
- For supply chain strain, use more than one. The Baltic Dry Index is a daily bulk shipping rate, the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index is a broader monthly composite, and the Logistics Managers' Index is a survey.
Energy, Supply Chain and Logistics Indicators at a glance
| Indicator | Geography | What it measures | Published by | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baltic Dry Index | Global | dry bulk shipping costs and global trade demand | Baltic Exchange | Daily |
| Global Supply Chain Pressure Index | Global | pressure on global supply chains, from shipping costs and surveys of manufacturing delivery times and backlogs | Federal Reserve Bank of New York | Monthly |
| Rig Count | North America | the number of active oil and gas drilling rigs | Baker Hughes | Weekly |
| Cass Freight Expenditures | United States | freight shipping costs and goods demand | Cass Information Systems | Monthly |
| Cass Freight Shipments | United States | North American freight shipment volumes | Cass Information Systems | Monthly |
| Crude Oil Inventories | United States | U.S. commercial crude oil stockpiles | U.S. Energy Information Administration | Weekly |
| Distillate Inventories | United States | U.S. stockpiles of distillate fuel oil such as diesel and heating oil | U.S. Energy Information Administration | Weekly |
| Electricity Demand | United States | U.S. electricity consumption and power demand | U.S. Energy Information Administration | Monthly |
| Freight TSI | United States | the volume of freight carried by the U.S. for-hire transportation sector | U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics | Monthly |
| Gasoline Demand Proxy | United States | implied U.S. motor gasoline demand | U.S. Energy Information Administration | Weekly |
| Gasoline Inventories | United States | the amount of motor gasoline held in storage in the United States | U.S. Energy Information Administration | Weekly |
| Logistics Managers' Index | United States | logistics and supply chain activity across inventories, warehousing and transportation | Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals | Monthly |
| Natural Gas Storage | United States | the volume of natural gas held in underground storage and its deviation from seasonal norms | U.S. Energy Information Administration | Weekly |
| Rail Traffic | United States | weekly U.S. railroad carloads and intermodal volume as a read on freight demand | Association of American Railroads | Weekly |
| Refinery Utilization | United States | the share of U.S. refinery capacity in use, a read on fuel supply and demand | U.S. Energy Information Administration | Weekly |
| Truck Tonnage Index | United States | freight volumes hauled by for-hire trucks | American Trucking Associations (ATA) | Monthly |
| U.S. Oil Production | United States | domestic crude oil supply | U.S. Energy Information Administration | Monthly |
17 indicator pages are listed. Each row comes from the same source file as the page it links, so the publisher and frequency here match that page.
What limits do Energy, Supply Chain and Logistics Indicators share?
Weekly EIA figures are survey estimates that are benchmarked to monthly data later, and the gasoline demand proxy is a residual of other estimates, so single-week readings are noisy. Most inventory and traffic series are not seasonally adjusted and respond to weather, holidays and calendar timing, so year-over-year and multi-year comparisons matter. Cass and ATA draw on a sample of clients or member carriers rather than a census of freight. The Baltic Dry Index reflects vessel supply as well as cargo demand, and the rig count does not translate one for one into output because rig productivity and completion timing vary.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the weekly EIA petroleum inventories measure?
The EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report estimates U.S. stocks of crude oil, gasoline and distillate fuel, in thousands of barrels, as of the prior Friday. Crude oil inventories exclude the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. A change in stocks reflects the balance of production, imports, refinery inputs, exports and consumption.
What is refinery utilization?
It is gross inputs to atmospheric crude oil distillation units divided by operable atmospheric distillation capacity, expressed in percent. It shows how much of the available refining capacity is in use, which relates to both fuel supply and demand for crude oil.
Is the Baltic Dry Index a measure of global trade?
Not directly. It measures dry bulk shipping rates compiled by the Baltic Exchange for vessels carrying commodities such as iron ore, coal and grain. It relates to demand for bulk shipping but also depends on the supply of ships, and it does not cover containers or finished goods.
How is the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index built?
The New York Fed's index extracts a common factor from global shipping cost measures and from the delivery time, backlog and inventory components of manufacturing purchasing manager surveys in several economies, after filtering out demand effects. It is in standard deviations, where zero is average and positive values mean tighter than usual.
Why is natural gas storage compared with a five-year average?
Gas is injected into storage in warmer months and withdrawn in the heating season, so the level alone is hard to read. The EIA compares each week's level with the year before and a multi-year average, so a reader can judge whether stocks are above or below what is usual for that time of year.