AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 3/10/23

American Dollar to Canadian Dollar = 0.777044; American Dollar to Chinese Yuan = 0.157231; American Dollar to Euro = 1.197227; American Dollar to Japanese Yen = 0.009183; American Dollar to Mexican Peso = 0.052278.

Import patterns appear to be returning to normal pre-pandemic levels amid a slowdown in cargo. With a pandemic-driven surge finally over, monthly import cargo volume at the nation’s major container ports has fallen below the 2 million TEU mark and should remain there through most of this spring, according to the Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. “After nearly three years of COVID-19’s impact on global trade and consumer demand, import patterns appear to be returning to what was normal prior to 2020,” Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett said. “Nonetheless, as inflation eases and consumer spending returns, we project that growth will slowly return going into the second half of the year.”

The Finnish Transport Workers' Union (AKT) has ended a two-week stevedores' strike. The union made the announcement shortly before 8pm on Wednesday. The AKT board unanimously accepted the deal, union boss Ismo Kokko said. "A new collective agreement has been born," he told Yle. According to Kokko, there will be salary increases of 6.3 percent over the two-year contract period. On top of this, he said there will be a so-called "delayed instalment" amounting to 1,100 euros per worker. Earlier in the evening, the National Conciliator's office said in a tweet that a negotiation result had been reached in the labour dispute. The dockworkers' strike, which has been going on for two weeks, has virtually halted all exports and imports through Finland’s harbours and slowed postal deliveries.