Early data showing a slowdown in consumer purchases of goods in key export markets is expected to play a vital role in helping retailers stabilize supply chains and inventory levels.
LOGISTICS
A surge in Covid-cases in China has led to labor reductions and thus some delays at a few key hubs, per Freightos.
Ocean carriers’ plans for more blank sailings for Q1 2023, most to take place one to two weeks prior to Lunar New Year, might have less impact on shippers as China wrestles with the reopening and getting past a wave of Covid infections, per Flexport.
Normalizing supply chains may be reflected in transpacific ocean rates that were stable this week, and are about even with rates in January 2020, for both coasts, per Freightos.
Blank sailings and equipment shortages are occurring throughout the Indian Subcontinent market, according to Flexport.
MATERIALS SOURCING
On Being the Very Best OEM Supplier
One key to simplifying your supply chain is to be able to use fewer suppliers to produce each collection.
Doing this is not easy since typically brands need to use different suppliers for knits and wovens, as well as others to source fabrics and yarns.
T.K. Garment offers a solution. With factories in Cambodia and Thailand, and a monthly capacity of nearly one million pieces, this 100% OEM business can handle both knit and woven orders of all sizes – and has a totally transparent supply chain. Read more
PODCAST
How to Optimize Automation to Stay Resilient – and Outperform the Competition
The idea of digitizing sounds great. Executing on it often seems daunting. And in fact it can be.
As a result, companies end up with a compilation of old and new solutions – which can be less efficient and actually cost them more than taking the leap to fully digitizing.
In this podcast, Andrew Cohen, Managing Director of Netsurit, a $30M MSP firm, talks about how companies can take advantage of cloud-based solutions, and get greater use out of solutions they are already paying for.
You’ll Learn:
- Barriers companies face in getting from discussing to implementing digitization in their organizations.
- How companies can establish metrics around both people and operational automation.
- What companies can do now to add more stability and resilience to their operations.
SUPPLY CHAIN INSIGHTS
An Automated Custom Sock Platform that’s Fast & Agile
Automating a customized product often leaves the customer feeling under served or requires a lot of manual input from the supplier.
Sockrates, an automated custom sock business, has cracked the code on making this work. In the four years since it started, the company now handles 200-300 orders each month, with order sizes ranging from 100 to 20,000 pairs.
“From when a lead comes in, to how we get back to the clients and then how we send them the designs, to how we then process the order and then how it then goes to the factory, how we quality control, check it and then how we deliver, this has to be a very streamlined process,” said Samuel Moses, CEO of Sockrates. Read more
MARKETS
U.S. Federal Reserve officials warned they would need to see “substantially more evidence” of easing inflation before they are confident that price pressures are under control as they backed fresh rate rises this year, according to an account of their most recent meeting.
Salesforce (USA) has become the latest major technology company to reduce its workforce after announcing it would lay off 10% of its employees and close some offices.
MATERIALS
Cotton futures have been trading around US$ 85 cents per pound since November amid weak demand, especially from the three largest consumers China, India, and Pakistan.
European gas prices have dipped to a level last seen before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, after warmer weather across the continent eased concerns over shortages.
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