Having achieved a massive share of global e-commerce, Amazon is now leveraging its logistics infrastructure to service sales made on other platforms.
Newly launched Supply Chain by Amazon is an end-to-end solution that handles the product’s journey from when it leaves the manufacturer to when the shopper receives it.
And it’s open to non-Amazon sellers.
LOGISTICS
Reports of increased blank sailings in the weeks after Golden Week (1st week in Oct) indicate that carriers are expecting continued weak demand. A record 14% of sailing on Asia-N. Europe have been blanked so far, per Freightos.
Market trends are pointing towards the second half of 2023 returning to Jan/Feb blank sailing levels – when 26% of capacity was removed each week, per UPS. This is to help offset the accelerating pace of newbuild vessels deliveries that are flooding the market with more capacity.
Blanked sailings – often announced at the last minute – will mean poorer schedule reliability. And unreliable schedules are already starting to impact US exporters in the form of delays and higher costs from containers waiting in container yards, per Freightos.
FedEx has announced an average general rate increase of 5.9% in 2024 for FedEx Ground, Home Delivery, Express, and WW International services, per AMFS.
Air cargo market rates continue to decline but remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, per UPS.
Month-on-Month ocean and air rate changes … new services … seasonal outlook. Read More
THE CURRENT SITUATION IN SOURCING
The biggest winner of the ‘China + Plus One’ model is turning out to be India. While everyone was betting on Vietnam, India has been the place where more brands are choosing to go. In part because of India’s domestic cotton supply.
The nation also has fundamental strengths including a domestic supply chain, a huge labor force and seemingly greater commitment from the government to make the industry more competitive.
However sourcing directors are saying there are other key factors bringing more orders to India. Read more
PODCAST
Positioning Your Company for Success (regardless of the competition)
Companies have always focused on growth, but now there’s increasing pressure to drive profitability.
Typically this means cutting costs. However in a highly competitive market Businesses are going to have to ‘invest their way to success’.
Winning companies will need to supercharge their creativity and build high performing teams.
In the podcast Tim Redmond, CEO of Redmond Growth Consulting, shares lessons learned from his previous experience with PriceWaterhouseCoopers to growing a software company from 2-400 employees and then selling it to Intuit.
He’s able to pinpoint opportunities that companies might be overlooking, help find creative solutions to a wide range of business challenges, and coach leadership on building high performing teams.
You’ll Learn:
- Costly mistakes that businesses are making – and what they should be doing instead.
- How to supercharge creativity to find innovative solutions and ideas.
- What successful team leaders get right that mediocre ones overlook.
SUPPLY CHAIN TECHNOLOGY
The Art of Integrating People & Technology
Digitization has been taking over technology – even before I became a big thing.
The technology simplifies many aspects of running a supply chain. What gets complicated is figuring out how to apply the technology to your current operations – and what role your human resources will now play.
And yes, experts agree that people will continue to play a vital role – but it might be a different role. Read more
MARKETS
UK inflation fell to 6.7% in August, from 6.8% in July. Analysts had expected inflation to increase on the back of higher gasoline prices, per the Office for National Statistics.
Analysts are expecting one final rate hike from the Bank of England, likely to come this week. However there is growing sentiment that the BoE might opt for a pause, per ING Bank.
Traders see a 99% chance of the Fed skipping a rate hike this month. They also see a nearly 70% chance the Fed leaves rates unchanged in November, per the CME Group.
The Asia Development Bank (ADB) lowered its growth forecast for developing Asian nations to 4.7% this year from 4.8%, on the back of economic weakness in China.
- Post-pandemic consumption across the region is ‘quickly losing steam’ per the ADB’s Asian Development Outlook report.
- It expects growth to rebound to 4.8% in 2024.
MATERIALS
Cotton prices softened on speculative selling, the dollar’s strength and demand concerns, especially from top buyer China. However prices remain supported by weaker supply outlook.
Oil prices remained near a 10-month high on reports of reduced output from the US and the possibility of Russia imposing duties on oil exports. OPEC and the EIA indicated surging demand could keep prices elevated, but analysts suggest they may not have much room to rise further, per Investopedia.
You can find the current Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year prices here.
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