Lesser of Two Evils? After struggling with exorbitant freight rates and capacity shortages for nearly two years, weakening consumer demand in the face of rising inflation could normalize logistics.
LOGISTICS
The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) broke its 19-week decline, a reversal that analysts believe could signal a coming rise in freight rates.
Shanghai’s officials are starting to ease Covid-19 related restrictions with the goal of a full reopening of the city in June, according to UPS.
Demand levels remain suppressed influenced by inventory levels appearing higher than in many months, per Flexport.
On Asia to Europe routes demand is picking up, but congestion is still having a widespread impact on capacity deployed on this route, said Flexport. Rates are expected to increase in June due to tighter space.
Carriers expects the third quarter on Asia-Europe routes to be strong with a summer peak. However weak consumer confidence could slow this down.
DISTRIBUTION
Why Wholesale is Still Critical for Most Brands
DTC is all the rage, but wholesales plays a very valid role in driving sales – and a lot more. Brands might want to think at least twice before discarding their wholesale partners. Read more
PODCAST
How to Measure the Performance of Your Investment in Innovation
Many companies are finding that the time and money invested is not giving them the pay back that they had hoped for.
But Is it possible to structure your initiatives so that you can drive better return on investment?
In this podcast episode Dan Toma, an innovation strategist and author of Innovation Accounting: A Practical Guide for Measuring Your Innovation Ecosystem’s Performance talks about:
- 4 types of innovation and how they help define what innovation means for your company.
- 9 pitfalls venture boards are avoiding to create better outcomes.
- How to quantify innovation and measure a company’s innovation ecosystem’s performance.
- 5 stages to develop the best product development framework for your company.
TRADE AGREEMENTS
The new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), will initially comprise 13 members including the U.S., Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei.
- The group will account for about 40% of the world’s gross domestic product.
MATERIALS
Polyester yarn faces a situation where upstream inputs (oil) has risen sharply while downstream demand has fallen. Over capacity at the mill level has worsened the situation, according to CCF Group.
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