Supply Chain Strategist | Nov. 10, 2022

Ocean Rates Level Off; Sustainably Made Jeans - with Very Flexible MOQs, China Yarn Prices Slide

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“The balance of power is starting to shift back to employers as economic storm clouds gather and hiring slows,” said Josh Graff, managing director for Europe at LinkedIn, referring to the ongoing decline in adverts for remote workers.

Increasing staffing cuts and hiring freezes – most notably at Big Tech and the banking sector – are a reality check that times are changing.

LOGISTICS

Ocean rates out of Asia were overall stable again this week, suggesting the sharp drop off that began this summer may be leveling out as capacity is removed to meet falling demand, according to Freightos.

Although carrier reliability is up from last year, port and rail congestion is still seen at the major US gateways, said Flexport.

Import volumes have fallen sharply in Europe, and are decreasing in the US as well though US imports are projected to remain more than 10% higher than in 2019 to the close of the year, per Freightos.

Global air cargo capacity continued to recover in October but at a slower pace and remained 7% below the pre-Covid 2019 level, per Xeneta data.

SUPPLY CHAINS

Costs are continuing to increase for manufacturers, as hence brands. Raw materials prices are leveling off but interest rates are set to continue to rise, and most analysts expect energy prices to continue to increase.

Liquidity is becoming an issue at a growing number of factories and likely weaker brands will struggle to service their debt.

That means that the entire supply chain will move towards caution and consolidation.

A snapshot view of key developments in Asia sourcing – all in our INSIDE SOURCING November report. Read more

ENERGY

The World Bank said it expects energy prices to decline by 11% in 2023 after this year’s 60% surge following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, although slower global growth and COVID restrictions in China could lead to a deeper fall, according to Reuters.

PODCAST

Simple Ways to Make Email and Text Messages More Effective

From email to text messages, we spend most of our days writing – to customers, team members, friends and even family.

Unfortunately, while technology has made written communication faster and easier, it has not made it better.

This often leads to misinterpretations and misunderstandings.

In this podcast Rob Ashton, founder of Emphasis, a global learning company that has enabled more than 80,000 people to make much more impact with their professional writing, shares easy to implement techniques to make us master communicators.

You’ll Learn:

Typical mistakes that can make many of the messages we write backfire.
What a neural circuit breaker is – and why they stop us from getting the decisions we want.
The real (and surprising) reason that email makes us angry.
Why often it’s better to not write, but to talk instead.

🎧 Listen to the podcast

MATERIALS SOURCING

Cost Crunch

Liquidity is becoming an issue at a growing number of factories and likely weaker brands will struggle to service their debt.

That means that the entire supply chain will move towards caution and consolidation.

A snapshot view of key developments in Asia sourcing – all in our INSIDE SOURCING November report. Read more

MARKETS

US consumer price inflation fell to its lowest year-on-year level since January in figures released on November 10.

The British pound soared as the dollar slipped in anticipation of slower Federal Reserve interest rate rises.

MATERIALS

Cotton prices remained about 50% down from their May peak, pressured by a stronger dollar and lingering demand concerns due to challenging economic conditions.

Yarn prices in China fell on weaker global demand.