The world's largest collection of global supply chain intelligence
The restructuring of global supply chains away from China is continuing. Apple has just announced that it is shifting some of its component sourcing to the US, stating on Tuesday (23/5), that it had agreed a “new multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement with Broadcom
Volumes are falling at the Port of Los Angeles. The numbers of containers handled has dropped by 22% year-on-year in April, for a total in the month of 688,110 TEUs. However, there are signs of the situation stabilising as comparative volumes have improved from a low-point in February.
Royal Mail’s latest preliminary results for the full year show a loss of £748m (US$930m) for whole group. Revenue fell by 5.3% but the whole group crashed from a profit of £577m in 2022 to a loss, with even the express parcel business, GLS, seeing a dip in its profits, although it remains strongly in the black by £296m.
The shipping sector is supposed to be in the eye of the storm, with falling freight-rates and demand. Hapag Lloyd has seen profits halve but it is still making money.
Ceres Terminals is rumoured to be up for sale. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Macquarie Asset Management, the owner of Ceres Terminals, is preparing to sell, stating that the “Australian investment fund is looking for about $1 billion”. The Wall Street Journal comments that the reason it wishes to sell is that the investment fund used to purchase Ceres, is maturing, and it needs to realise its investment.
Maersk’s latest results are another example of the “normalisation of global demand and supply” after the crises of 2020-2023. As Maersk commented, this has resulted in “significantly lower profitability of the three main businesses compared to Q1 2022, particularly in Ocean, where the profit was lower due to lower volumes and freight rates”.
Deutsche Post-DHL (DP-DHL) seems to have weathered the first quarter of 2023 somewhat better than its rivals, something that the management of the company is probably justified in ascribing to what it calls a “well-balanced portfolio” of businesses.
“A deceleration in U.S. retail sales growth and certain non U.S. markets remain challenged”. This is the key message from UPS’ latest results for the first quarter 2023. Certainly, the past quarter has not been buoyant for UPS. At the core US Domestic Express business volumes fell by 5.5% year-on-year for business-to-consumer and 5.4% for …
The era of booming freight-forwarder profits has ended. Both Kuehne and Nagel and DSV have reported that sales and profits in the first quarter of 2023 fell back in the face of rapidly declining volumes of freight.
There’s a clear shift towards creating sourcing locations outside of China which is having a noticeable impact on the container shipping business but also must be affecting other sectors such as airfreight.
CMA CGM is negotiating with Bolloré SE about buying Bolloré Logistics.
Global trade growth is slowing, implying a tougher environment for logistics services worldwide.
