Economy

Low water levels have caused a backlog of container vessels at the Panama Canal, and that could impact the ability of businesses to restock inventories in time for the holiday shopping season.

Pressure from various stakeholders to make supply chains more sustainable has grown steadily over the last three years and shows no signs of abating.

A conversation with Danielle Kahler and Jon Laing of Lansing Public Schools.

How inflation is driving up the costs of just about everything that impacts the supply chain and how your business can respond effectively.

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another quarter of a point (0.25%), in its most recent maneuver to continue to stave off the effects of still-high inflation levels on the United States economy and get inflation down to 2%. Yes, inflation is trending down, but many economists have indicated it is not occurring at a swift enough pace.

A theme within freight transportation, supply chain, and logistics circles, which is always among the key “top of mind” themes, is the state of the economy, from various perspectives, whether it be, in our case, a freight or macroeconomic perspective.

In its forecast, NRF is calling for 2023 retail sales to see an annual increase between 4%-to-6%, coming in between $5.13 trillion-to-$5.23 trillion. This annual forecast, trails the 7% rate of annual retail sales growth seen in 2022, for a total of $4.9 trillion. And NRF said that the 2023 forecast tops the pre-pandemic, average annual retail sales growth rate of 3.6%.

A few weeks ago, in this space, I wrote a column, entitled “The only thing certain about the economy remains economic uncertainty.” Well, guess what, not much has changed, regarding that thesis, and that should surprise exactly nobody, really.

In this podcast, Jeff Berman, Group News Editor for Logistics Management and the Peerless Media Supply Chain Group, interviews Mike Regan, Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Officer, at TranzAct Technologies.

Shippers hoping to capitalize on excess capacity in the trucking industry are advised to act fast as top trucking executives say they expect boom times in the second half of this year. Meantime, those executives are bracing for a so-so first half followed by what they hope will be a solid second half of 2023.

In this podcast, Jeff Berman, Group News Editor for Logistics Management and the Peerless Media Supply Chain Group, interviews Mike Regan, Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Officer, at TranzAct Technologies.

Supply chain and procurement professionals are being called to manage their organizations' value chains in highly challenging macroeconomic conditions, it is important to have visibility into inflation indices like the consumer price index and producer price index inflation.

There is, and has been, a fair amount of commentary and data pointing to a recession. The primary reason for that has to do with United States GDP (Gross Domestic Product) readings issued by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) over the course of 2022. First and second quarter GDP readings came in at -1.6% and -0.6%, respectively. Two straight months of GDP typically signal that a recession is underway. But it was not as linear, in this case,...

The trucking industry is usually a reliable early indicator of any economic slowdown affecting the economy. Usually, but in late 2022, not always. There are mixed signals emanating from the usual barrage of economic figures released by various sectors of the trucking industry.

Shares of the delivery giant sank 21% Friday, wiping out $11 billion in market value, and dragging the broader market to its worst week since June, as the results fueled concern of weaker e-commerce and business-to-business activity.