May 2024
Supply Chain News to Know

MAY 2024

News To Know

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With AI continuing to shine in the spotlight, it’s easy to overlook the ways other innovations are driving meaningful change in the world around us — but supply chain leaders can’t afford to lose sight of all the ways different technologies can help them today. Let’s dive in.

The Lead: Don’t Call It a Comeback

“We haven’t seen numbers this high for this many months in almost two years. Regardless of what headlines about the economy might say, consumers are shopping and retailers are making sure they have merchandise on hand to meet demand.”
— NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold

Supply Chain Dive reports that May is projected to be the first month to reach the 2 million TEU threshold since October 2023 — is it a sign of a potential cargo recovery, or is the peak summer shipping season coming early? According to a Morgan Stanley survey, only 5% plan to increase inventory this year.

Despite the early summer surge, it seems shippers will continue to operate with leaner levels of inventory than they held these past few years. As Matt Elenjickal, FourKites founder and CEO, writes for Forbes, they face a familiar dilemma: How do you balance resilience and cost?

The answer lies in their supply chain network.

In View

With supply chains becoming much more digitized, data sharing is increasingly common among retailers and their suppliers. FourKites Principal Solution Consultant Stephen Dyke writes for Food Logistics that, while some suppliers might be skeptical of such extreme transparency, it can ultimately create a competitive advantage and value for all parties.

Speaking of digitization, Inbound Logistics argues that, while many supply chains managed disruptions with “manual muscle,” that approach is no longer sustainable. To do more with less, supply chain organizations need to invest in technology tools. And by leveraging dependable data and predictive estimated arrival times, cross-functional teams have access to critical global supply chain data when they need it.

Managing yard operations has long been one of the thornier aspects of transportation logistics — they can be a choke point between transportation and warehousing, creating inefficiencies that drive up labor costs, detention fees and delivery commitments. Matt shares tips for overcoming these challenges in his latest for Logistics Viewpoints.

Numbers to Know

China To US container spot rates (Frightos)

Container spot rates for shipments to the West Coast have increased 171% year-over-year to $3,873 per container, while rates for shipments to the East Coast have increased 114% to $5,093.

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Words of Wisdom

Whatever the use case may be, if you don't trust the data, then you can't build on top of the data. It's the biggest piece of the [supply chain visibility] puzzle that you have to nail.

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MIKE DEANGELIS
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS, FOURKITES

ICYMI

In 2023, the US bought more goods from Mexico than China for the first time in 20 years. And with the volume of shipments across the US-Mexico border likely to grow, shippers should look to streamline operations with Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programs like the United States’ Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) and Mexico’s Authorized Economic Operator (OEA) program. Check out this FourKites blog to learn how to achieve customs compliance and streamline US-Mexico trade with real-time visibility.
If you manufacture high-tech goods like electronics, semiconductors, or computer hardware, your supply chain is likely a tangled web of complexity. Dan Abramson, FourKites’ Senior Vice President and Head of Sales, explores high-tech manufacturers’ unique supply chain visibility challenges and why lighter-weight, faster time-to-value projects are great stepping stones before initiating other more expensive software options that require lengthier implementations.
Being a shipper of choice can ensure consistent capacity at a great rate, and one surefire way to achieve such preference is by helping carriers optimize the one thing that doesn’t show up on your rate sheet: missed revenue due to a driver not optimizing their hours of service (HOS). Learn how to help in the latest Logistics Lifehacks.