Wages Rising
Asian nations are facing ongoing pressure to raise minimum wages, particularly for its lowest income earners.
Growing unrest from workers is making it more difficult for governments to ignore the impact of cost of living increases.
Malaysia has just introduced its Progressive Wage Policy, a pilot program that would gradually increase pay for their workers based on their skills, experience and performance.
The program is set to start in June 2024 and will include an initial group of 1,000 companies, per Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.
LOGISTICS
Routing changes are happening related to the bypassing of the Panama Canal for some key services from Asia to to the US East Coast, per Flexport.
Tightening Panama Canal restrictions have resulted in two more carriers announcing upcoming surcharges for containers transiting the canal due to climbing operational costs, per Flexport.
The Suez Canal is facing new risks as Houthis in Yemen attacked three more vessels. This is prompting some carriers to reroute around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, per Freightos.
Ocean rates remain stable, with West Coast rates still 22% higher than in 2019, while East Coast rates are 9% below the 2019 mark, per Freightos.
With freight costs remaining on the lower side, liners are implementing General Rate Increases (GRI) to push up the rate even when there’s no significant cargo rush or general capacity issue. For the first half of December, liners are trying to push up the rate by $300-500/FEU, and another $400-600/FEU for the second half of December, per Flexport.
Maersk plans to invest more than $500 million in Southeast Asia to expand its supply chain infrastructure to support both exports as well as the region’s growing consumer markets.
The Ex-Asia e-commerce driven bump in air cargo demand could push through until Lunar New Year, per Freightos.
Month-on-Month ocean and air rate changes … new services … seasonal outlook. Read More
PODCAST
How To Integrate Legacy Systems with New Technologies
Every company today is facing pressure to digitize their operations – or at least part of their operations.
However, most companies see this as a task so daunting that ultimately the gain doesn’t seem to outweigh the pain.
In this podcast Tom Pierce, President of Integrated Information Systems, discusses practical ways to combine human intelligence with innovative software to create more resilient organizations.
You’ll Learn:
- The art of ERP implementation: Why it’s more than just a science
- Balancing human and technological resources for maximum efficiency
- Integrating legacy MRP/ERP and logistics systems with emerging technologies
- How software solutions can benefit small and medium-sized businesses
MATERIALS
During the past week, cotton prices declined to a two-week low of 78 cents per pound, following ICAC’S 81st meeting in Mumbai, which projected that global cotton production will likely outpace consumption for the second year in a row.
Oil’s WTI crude futures remained close to the lowest levels since late June after falling for five straight sessions amid robust global supplies and softening demand.
You can find the current Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year prices here.
CURRENCIES
During the past week, cotton prices declined to a two-week low of 78 cents per pound, following ICAC’S 81st meeting in Mumbai, which projected that global cotton production will likely outpace consumption for the second year in a row.
Oil’s WTI crude futures remained close to the lowest levels since late June after falling for five straight sessions amid robust global supplies and softening demand.
You can find the current Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year prices here.
MARKETS
Spotify (Sweden) has moved to lay off 17% of its workforce in a third round of job cuts as it attempts to contain costs. Thus the jobs bloodbath in the tech industry continues.
Job vacancies in the American economy fell to their lowest level in more than two years, helping cool the labour market and raising expectations of interest rate cuts in the world’s largest economy, per The Times.
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