Pandemic-related disruption, trade wars, tariffs, rising labor costs, climate crises and the war in Ukraine, along with technological innovation and changing customer expectations, are causing drastic changes to manufacturing.
Supply chain disruption is challenging businesses everywhere and forcing company leaders to think differently about how they operate. Artificial Intelligence (AI), data-driven analytics, sustainability and digital transformation are not unfamiliar terms by any means—but the urgency behind them, and the advancements fueling their applicability in the supply chain will reach new levels in 2023.
Consumers, industry partners and investors are increasing their attention on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments. Sustainability matters now more than ever, and that fact is influencing shifts in materials management. Technology will fuel companies as they seek ways to reduce waste in redefining “asset management.”Manufacturers will start building factories of the future closer to customers. These factories of the future will look and operate vastly different from those that were moved offshore decades ago. They will leverage automation, robotics, Artificial Intelligence, digital twins and a reskilled workforce for improved resilience and lower operating cost.
2023 April, 5th update
Nike, too many stocks, discounts and less profits. Nike reported higher-than-forecast sales in its third quarter, but higher markdowns to help liquidate inventory weighed on profits. Profit at the sneaker maker fell 11% as it relied on higher markdowns. [Nike Sales Jump as It Works Through Inventory Glut – WSJ]. (Read more)
2023 March, 9th update
GP Park Sibiu in Romania: Leather goods hub. VGP, a European provider of logistics and semi-industrial real estate, leased a hall of 4,500 sqm in the logistics park VGP Park Sibiu, to Somarest, which operates in the field of leather goods. Spread over an area of 219,000 sqm, with over 93,000 sqm of logistics and industrial spaces, VGP Park Sibiu is located in the center of Romania, in the northern area of Sibiu, with direct access to the highway and just 10 minutes from the International Airport. [[VGP Romania leases 4,500 sqm to leather goods component … – thediplomat.ro]. (Read more)
2023 February, 24th update
Global shipping costs collapse. Container shipping costs plunged in the last year as inflation slowed consumer spending. The widespread bottlenecks at ports — at one point last year more than 100 ships were waiting to dock at the Los Angeles port — have also largely dissipated, the Financial Times reported. (Read more)
2023 January, 31st update
Tariff outlook 2023. After three years of global tariff hikes, the weakness of international trade could lead to a reduction in tariffs this year, especially in intermediate goods. According to the International Monetary Fund, the sectors with the greatest potential reductions in tariff costs on imports will be vehicles, machinery and equipment. Tariff reductions at product level would range from 0 to 18.5 percentage points and will be higher on average for China. (Read more)
2023 January, 26th update
Changing value chains with new types of tariff barriers. A South Korean group will invest $2.5 billion in solar manufacturing in the U.S. state of Georgia, to take advantage of tax incentives under the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act. The facilities could provide nearly a fifth of U.S. solar demand. The legislation has “changed the economics of clean-energy investment,” The Wall Street Journal wrote. (Read more)
2023 January, 19th update
China rolls out five year plan to upgrade logistics sector. China has rolled out a five-year plan for the development of a modern logistics sector through 2025, highlighting the need to promote the digital transformation of the sector, enhance the competitiveness of businesses and improve the quality and efficiency of logistics services. [First five-year plan to modernize logistics revealed – China Daily]. (Read more)
Pakistan, all leather industries will have to move to the industrial zone of Sialkot tanneries. DC (Deputy Commissioner) Abdullah Khurram Niazi said that the entire leather cluster will have to be shifted completely to the tannery industrial zone. It is the beginning of an executive phase. During the meeting, urdupoint.com reports, the DC ordered the committee under the chairmanship of Assistant Commissioner Sambrial Maheen Fatima to present a report regarding the assignees at the next meeting. (Read more)
2023 January, 10th update
Logistic 2022, what a difference a year makes. The scales tipped in new directions across the supply chain in 2022 as market dynamics shifted in response to the pullback in consumer spending on goods, inflation and, now, concerns of a recession. [Supply Chain 2022: From Scarcity to Surplus – Sourcing Journal]. (Read more)
2023 January, 5th update
Changes in the value chain of the fashion industry. As supply chains remain under pressure, garment manufacturers have an opportunity to lean into vertical integration, nearshoring and small-batch production, while seeking closer upstream and downstream collaboration, according to The State of Fashion 2023, an in-depth report on the global fashion industry, co-published by BoF and McKinsey & Company. (Read more)
2022 October, 28th update
Maersk centre improves logistics for Ethiopia’s apparel & footwear. Maersk (Maersk) and Freighters International (PABOMI) have announced the opening of a consolidation centre in Modjo Dry Port, Ethiopia. The multi-purpose facility will help to simplify and optimise apparel and lifestyle customers’ supply chains – saving cost, reducing their speed to market, and bolstering competitivity. [Maersk launches new multi-purpose centre in Ethiopia – Port Technology]. (Read more)
2022 October, 21st update
WCO and UNCTAD improve supply chain digitalization. The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote digitalization, facilitate trade and improve customs control worldwide. (Read more)
2022 October, 10th update
“We are at full capacity and at the moment there is no more room to produce”: Spain faces the impossibility of reshoring despite demand. The demand for relocation of footwear production from Asia to Spain is growing, say respondents from @PublicationsEdm, but the Iberian country lacks the capacity necessary to significantly increase production, while exports of Spanish-made shoes have returned to pre-pandemic levels. [How reshoring to Spain is being hampered by labor and capacity shortage – Shoe Intelligence]. (Read more)
2022 October, 3rd update
Trade triangulation of European products bound for Russia with third countries not party to sanctions is becoming increasingly difficult. Kazakhstan has begun to detain Russian trucks carrying goods sanctioned by the European Union. [Казахстан начал задерживать российские фуры с грузом из Европы – nko.iz.ru]. After Turkey, Vietnam and Kazakhstan, Armenia also stops accepting payment cards from the Russian Mir circuit. [Russian media: Armenia, Vietnam and Kazakhstan suspend use of Russian Mir cards – Kyiv Independent]. (Read more)
2022 September, 26th update
The link between the sea freight passage connecting Vietnam and Vladivostok in Russia and a Vladivostok-Moscow rail course has been recently inaugurated. The connection utilises a digital security mechanism, which enables customers and related agencies to track goods being transported on the route in real-time and allows for the implementation of customs clearance of goods even at the last stop in Moscow. [Vietnam – Russia sea, rail transport routes connected – baoquocte.vn]. (Read more)
2022 September, 23th update
Footwear supply chain in the USA: China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and India. China and Vietnam are together for an 81.6% share of U.S. footwear imports in the January/July period. Then comes Indonesia, with shipments increasing by 51.8% to 115.26 million pairs. Solid gains were also recorded by Cambodia, up 54.8% to 49.48 million pairs, and India, up 51.3% to 24.6 million pairs. This is how the @SourcingJournal comments on the increase of 26.4% for footwear imported intothe USA. [Pace Slows, but US Footwear Imports Rise 26.4% Through July – SJ]. (Read more)
2022 August, 13th update
Global semiconductor shortage. Among the reasons for the high inflation of recent months, there is the shortage of electronic components, which have become increasingly rare due to the globalization of demand in the face of a strong concentration of supply. Taiwan, in fact, covers more than two-thirds of the world’s production. Alessia Amighini deals with the topic on @lavoceinfo. [Taiwan, the chip capital of the world – lavoce.info]. (Read more)
2022 August, 25th update
Invasion war in Ukraine: impact on businesses and value chains. On the indirect consequences of war, such as economic ones with rising inflation: in the UK the first strike in 30 yearsof the workers of the port of Suffolk [Felixstowe: Dock workers strike for first time in 30 years – BBC]. (Read more)
2022 July, 27th update
Logistics: supply chain is improving, thanks to the oversupply of containers. The oversupply of containers is contributing to second-hand container market prices plummeting, according to a new analysis from Container xChange. [6 Million Extra Containers Are Flooding the Global Supply Chain – SJ]. (Read more)
2022 July, 7th update
Nike stock down in the U.S. amid recession fears and supply chain instability. Nike stock (NYSE: NKE) is trading lower in US premarket price action today despite posting an earnings beat in its fiscal fourth quarter of 2022. The stock is drifting towards its 52-week lows. Also, with a YTD loss of almost 34% Nike stock is underperforming the markets and the gap looks set to widen even further. (Read more)
Supply chain problems contribute to half of the rise in inflation in the U.S.. According to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, supply constraints, exacerbated by the Russian war in Ukraine this year, account for about half of the surge in U.S. inflation, with demand currently accounting for a third of the increase. [Source: Bloomberg]. (Read more)
2022 June, 8th update
Nearshoring effects: Mexican footwear exports to the USA increase. Footwear exports are growing after the slowdown due toCovid-19, writes Luces de Siglo. Mexican shoe factories benefit from the move of U.S. companies away from China’s supply chain in Asia, according to CICEG (Cámara de la Industria del Calzado del Estado de Guanajuato). (Read more)
2022 May, 18th update
Manufacturers will soon face demand issues in addition to supply chain creaks. A shift in spending away from goods could hit companies already struggling to secure supplies. Prior to the pandemic, e-commerce made it seem like everything was right at our doorstep. This WSJ documentary takes viewers on the monthslong, 14,000-mile journey of a typical consumer good from factory to front door to reveal how the process is far more complex, and vulnerable, than many of us imagined. (Read more)
2022 April, 19th update
After the pandemic, shoe supplies from Asia to the US have not yet returned to full capacity. Footwear imports into the US increased, in the first two months of 2022, to +29.3% year-on-year, with 432.32 million pairs, according to the Office of Textiles & Apparel (OTEXA) of the Department of Commerce. If recently from China imports have increased to +40.9%, from Vietnam it has fallen to -5% because production problems persist. [Vietnam Production Still Lagging, Shoe Imports Data Shows – Sourcing Journal]. (Read more)
2022 April, 11th update
According to Deloitte, “Nearshoring” could solve America’s logistical problems. The trend toward greater “nearshoring” to alleviate the chaos of the global supply chain is not new but it is increasingly important, Paul Wellener, vice president of Deloitte, a leader in industrial products and construction in the United States, said in a video with Yahoo-Finance. (Read more)
2022 March, 29th update
Extreme weather, from floods to wildfires, is increasingly hammering ports, highways, and factories. And it is getting worse. The Covid pandemic has rightly received most of the blame for global supply chain upheavals in the past two years. But the less publicized impact of climate change on supply chains poses a far more serious threat and is already being felt, scholars and experts say. [Climate Change Is Disrupting the Global Supply Chain Too – Wired]. (Read more)
Articoli aggiornati l’8 marzo 2022
How war breaks the value chains. Shipping giant Maersk will temporarily halt all container shipping to and from Russia, deepening the country’s isolation as its invasion of Ukraine sparks an exodus of Western companies. Here’s how corporate ties to Russia have been uprooted. (Read more)
2022 February, 26th update
While some of the leading footwear manufacturers are optimistic that supply chain pressures will ease shortly, at least one analyst is against the grain and sounding the alarm [Top Analyst Downgrades Nike and Foot Locker, Says There’s a ‘Mistaken Belief’ Supply Chain Issues Have Improved – FN]. (Read more)
2022 January, 29th update
Nike foresees a series of countermeasures, including the railway and the expansion of the distribution network to improve the flow of arrivals and shipments, amid the logistical crisis and shortage of materials, due to the pandemic. Retail Dive informs that Nike has adopted a dedicated train between Los Angeles and Memphis which it calls the “sole train”. But it has also added regional warehouses in the US and Europe, and a thousand “collaborative robots” for sorting and packaging while many workers are in lockdown. (Read more)
2022 February, 2nd update
The crises on the logistics supply chain witnessed in 2021 will again weigh negatively this year. “Is there an end in sight to supply chain disruption?” asks the Financial Times exposing the depth of the global supply chain crisis. (Read more)
In the United States, the Biden administration has announced that it will invest in infrastructure to strengthen commercial shipping, including expanding capacity at some of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing ports, including the Port of Long Beach, to get goods flowing from ships to shelves faster. (Read more)
