Since November of 2020, congestion at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has been creating a bottleneck which is having on effect on cargo owners and ultimately retail prices. High import levels are driving the congestion and an easing of volumes is not in sight.
Since November of 2020, we have been reading about congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the effect that the bottleneck is having on cargo owners and ultimately retail prices. High import levels are driving the congestion and an easing of volumes is not in sight. Unfortunately this congestion has spread [...]
The US semiconductor industry has long been the global semiconductor leader. They have consistently accounted for 45% to 50% of global revenues. But now, more semiconductors are being manufactured in East Asia than anywhere else in the world. The WSJ’s Asa Fitch and Luis Santiago recently wrote that East Asian countries now dominate semiconductor manufacturing [...]
On July 1st, the US-Mexico-Canada Trade (USMCA)agreement finally went into effect across North America. This was after three years of trilateral negotiations, trade disputes and amendments by the US Congress. The trade agreement creates new opportunities for the post-pandemic economic recovery, but companies are struggling to determine how the transition from NAFTA to the USMCA [...]
As the country’s elected leaders consider a sweeping package of coronavirus emergency relief measures, there is one critical component of the logistics sector of the economy that is pleading for consideration –air freight forwarders.
It’s clear that as the automotive industry moves towards fully autonomous vehicles that cyber security is becoming one of the industry’s major concerns.
The global economy is not a static system. There are various forces creating fundamental changes, some temporary and some very long-term. In the quest for increased efficiency, or in reaction to new trade agreement frameworks, new shipping solutions are being developed for existing and emerging supply chain requirements. This post is the first of several discussing newly emerging air logistics hubs that are being created by the continuous change in the global economy.
Much has been written about the impact of e-commerce on real estate demand and “last mile” delivery. Contrary to what we hear about struggling malls and massive retail closures, the demand for real estate to feed the growing e-commerce demand, especially in urban areas, is increasing. It is all about the need to have warehouse space strategically located near the consumer. And now the same thing is happening as production moves closer to the customer.
Recently the WSJ reported that Boeing is running out of space to store unfinished 737s as it waits for critical parts. Actually both Boeing and Airbus are experiencing production delays because of critical tier 1 suppliers that are just having a difficult time in dealing with the stress on their supply chains.
Last year Amazon was granted a patent for an on-demand apparel manufacturing system that is designed to produce apparel products after orders are placed and aggregated; in other words machines only start stitching once an order has been placed. This system means that the only inventory that the manufacturer holds is the fabric or raw material rather than higher-end finished products which will lower the value of the inventory. This frees-up cash and avoids the problem of "unfashionableness" that occurs so frequently in the apparel industry. It looks like Amazon is looking to disrupt the garment industry by aiming for a new standard- sell it, make it, ship it.