Small to Mid-Sized Chinese Factories Show Growth While there’s been lots of coverage about how manufacturers are trying to diversify their reliance on Chinese manufacturing, the outflow of customers from the larger Chinese factories doesn’t seem to be the same as the small to mid-sized factories who are experiencing growth. Where’s the Beef? If you…
Finland Abundant with Clean Energy With the war in Ukraine affecting energy prices in Europe in recent times and many countries in Europe worried about an energy crisis and whether they could pay for heating and cooling, Finland has had a completely different experience: an abundance of clean energy. In fact, Finland had such an…
Post-Brexit Woes for UK Car Makers A post-Brexit requirement by the EU requires 40% of electric vehicle parts to be sourced from the UK or EU, specifically for vehicle to be sold within the EU. Otherwise, those sales are hit with a 10% tariff. However, currently auto manufacturers are still importing the majority of batteries…
Poor Factory Work Conditions Being Investigated…in the US We’re used to seeing news headlines about poor working conditions in factories in overseas countries, but this time, the investigations into poor factory conditions are for US-based factories. As George Takei would say: “Oh Myyyyyyy.” Canada and India Look to Close a Free Trade Agreement Bilateral trade…
Oil Prices Dropped for 3 Consecutive Weeks Despite the tight supply of oil, oil prices still managed to drop for three consecutive weeks. Shopify Sells Logistics Unit Former e-commerce darling, Shopify, is unloading its logistics unit to supply chain company Flexport. As Shopify is also amidst a round of layoffs for the beleaguered e-commerce SaaS….
Why Retailers Need Better Inventory Management Many of the retailers in my city are constantly out of stock on items, which results in me ignoring their “sales” since they never actually have anything in stock. In 2021, 7.4% of retail sales were “lost” due to items not being in stock. That’s why inventory management is…
Sriracha Shortage Incoming Last year saw Huy Fong Foods, maker of the beloved spicy sauce Sriracha, issue a warning about supply shortage due to supply shortages of Mexican chiles. It looks like those issues are overflowing into this year as well due to bad weather conditions affecting crop yields. Investments in US Manufacturing Surges As…
Intel Foundry Partners with ARM to Make Next-Gen Mobile Chips Intel’s Intel Foundry Services unit, has partnered with British chip maker, ARM Ltd, to manufacture next-generation mobile chips. As chip demand surges around the world, we may see more and more chip rivals collaborating with each other (which is great to see). Canada Wants in…
Fedex Streamlines Operations Fedex to combine their Ground and Express divisions in an effort to streamline operations for more efficiency. Robot Orders Trending Up The automotive industry is leading the way with using and ordering more robots, accounting for more than 50% of robot sales in 2022. Oil Prices Increase OPEC decided to cut oil…
Alibaba’s Logistics Arm Goes Public Cainiao Network Technology, Alibaba’s logistics arm, is getting ready to go public in Hong Kong. Retail Supply Chains Has AI-Written All Over It Apparently AI can do more than just write articles, take tests and create fake images of religious leaders. Any step you look at in retail supply chains,…