This week’s Food Industry Executive Input Cost Index eased slightly, and freight gets the credit. Three of the index’s other signals just got tighter.
Boxed beef posted its third straight weekly increase, and its steepest yet, climbing to $388.27 per hundredweight ($388.27/cwt). Corn, wheat, and soybeans all firmed at once, and the index’s Commodity Basket component is now one point from crossing into Elevated territory. One more move in any of the three grains, and it does.
Meanwhile, the Freightos Baltic Index gave back an entire week’s gain in a single move, undoing a four-week climb. That’s the only reason the composite score didn’t go up this week.
ISM’s Prices Paid index has now held flat for a full month. August’s reading publishes September 1, and it’ll be the first real signal of whether factory-level cost pressure is actually cooling, or just paused.
For manufacturers already absorbing higher beef and grain costs, a one-week dip in the headline number doesn’t change much. The index remains firmly in High Pressure territory, where it’s sat for months.
See the full component breakdown and this week’s “What to Watch” on the FIE Input Cost Index.
