Logistics companies in many corners of the industry are cheering the official signing today of a new North American trade agreement that they hope will delivery much-needed clarity to a business climate that has been roiled by a global manufacturing slowdown, trade wars, and a presidential election cycle.
The new agreement will impose tougher rules on labor and automotive content but will leave $1.2 trillion in annual U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade flows largely unchanged, according to published reports. One more step remains before the USMCA can take effect, as it must still be ratified by Canada's parliament, since Mexico has already approved the deal.
"The certainty this newly negotiated deal brings will allow retailers to invest, plan for the future, create jobs, and provide their customers with the widest possible selection of affordable and quality products," RILA President Brian Dodge said in a release. "This deal is particularly important to grocers who rely heavily on trade with Mexico to supply affordable produce to American families, and its enactment will ensure those trade relationships continue."
Likewise, the National Retail Federation (NRF), which has often criticized Trump's on-again-off-again tariff policies for creating confusing business conditions and for imposing financial penalties on consumers, praised the passage of the bill.
"We believe this agreement will bring continued decades of economic prosperity that will benefit American consumers and the millions of U.S. workers whose jobs depend on the free flow of trade with our nation's two closest trading partners," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a release. "Goods and materials have easily crossed North American borders for more than a quarter-century, and this modernized agreement will do the same for the new digital economy and set the stage for innovations yet to be seen."
"Thanks to the tireless efforts at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, renewed trade ties with our closest neighbors will benefit all three countries for years to come," AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies said in a release. "As an industry built on connecting goods and businesses, railroads know that free and fair trade makes both our supply chains and individual economies stronger. Coupled with the Phase I trade deal with China, USMCA will provide certainty rail customers and American businesses need to grow and compete in world markets."
Easing the flow of cross-border trade will also be good for logistics and parcel delivery operations, according to FedEx Corp.
"FedEx applauds Congress and the Administration for approval of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)," FedEx President and COO Raj Subramaniam said in a release. "This agreement will help to streamline trade across the North American market, which is of critical importance to FedEx and our customers. Highly integrated North American supply chains will continue to benefit all three economies and make them more competitive around the world."
The port worker strike that began yesterday on Canada’s west coast could cost that country $765 million a day in lost trade, according to the ALPS Marine analysis by Russell Group, a British data and analytics company.
Specifically, the labor strike at the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and Fraser-Surrey will hurt the commodities of furniture, metal products, meat products, aluminum, and clothing. But since the strike action is focused on stopping containers and general cargo, it will not slow operations in grain vessels or cruise ships, the firm said.
“The Canadian port strike is a microcosm of many of the issues that are impacting Western economies today; protection against automation, better work-life balance, and a cost-of-living crisis,” Russell Group Managing Director Suki Basi said in a release. “Taken together, these pressures are creating a cocktail of connected risk for countries, business, individuals and entire sectors such as marine insurance, which help to mitigate cargo exposures.”
The strike is also sending ripples through neighboring U.S. ports, which are hustling to absorb the diverted cargo, according to David Kamran, assistant vice president for Moody’s Ratings.
“The recurrence of strikes at Canadian seaports is positive for U.S. ports that may gain cargo throughput, depending on the strike duration,” Kamran said in a statement. “The current dispute at Vancouver is another example of the resistance of port unions to automation and the social risk involved with implementing these technologies. Persistent disruption in Canadian port access would strengthen the competitive position of US West Coast ports over the medium-term, as shippers seek to diversify cargo away from unreliable gateways.”
The strike is also affected rail movements, according to ocean cargo carrier Maersk. CN has stopped all international intermodal shipments bound for the west coast ports of Prince Rupert, Robbank, Centerm, Vanterm, and Fraser Surrey Docks. And CPKC has stopped acceptance of all export loads and pre-billed empties destined for Vancouver ports.
Connected with the turmoil, Maersk has suspended its import and export carrier demurrage and detention clock for most affected operations. The ultimate duration of the strike is unknown, but the situation is “rapidly evolving” as talks continue between the Longshore Workers Union (ILWU 514) and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), Maersk said.
In addition to its flagship Clorox bleach product, Oakland, California-based Clorox manages a diverse catalog of brands including Hidden Valley Ranch, Glad, Pine-Sol, Burt’s Bees, Kingsford, Scoop Away, Fresh Step, 409, Brita, Liquid Plumr, and Tilex.
British carbon emissions reduction platform provider M2030 is designed to help suppliers measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions. The new partnership aims to advance decarbonization throughout Clorox's value chain through the collection of emissions data, jointly identified and defined actions for reduction and continuous upskilling.
The program, which will record key figures on energy, will be gradually rolled out to several suppliers of the company's strategic raw materials and packaging, which collectively represents more than half of Clorox's scope 3 emissions.
M2030 enables suppliers to regularly track and share their progress with other customers using the M2030 platform. Suppliers will also be able to export relevant compatible data for submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global disclosure system to manage environmental data.
"As part of Clorox's efforts to foster a cleaner world, we have a responsibility to ensure our suppliers are equipped with the capabilities necessary for forging their own sustainability journeys," said Niki King, Chief Sustainability Officer at The Clorox Company. "Climate action is a complex endeavor that requires companies to engage all parts of their supply chain in order to meaningfully reduce their environmental impact."
Supply chain risk analytics company Everstream Analytics has launched a product that can quantify the impact of leading climate indicators and project how identified risk will impact customer supply chains.
Expanding upon the weather and climate intelligence Everstream already provides, the new “Climate Risk Scores” tool enables clients to apply eight climate indicator risk projection scores to their facilities and supplier locations to forecast future climate risk and support business continuity.
The tool leverages data from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to project scores to varying locations using those eight category indicators: tropical cyclone, river flood, sea level rise, heat, fire weather, cold, drought and precipitation.
The Climate Risk Scores capability provides indicator risk projections for key natural disaster and weather risks into 2040, 2050 and 2100, offering several forecast scenarios at each juncture. The proactive planning tool can apply these insights to an organization’s systems via APIs, to directly incorporate climate projections and risk severity levels into your action systems for smarter decisions. Climate Risk scores offer insights into how these new operations may be affected, allowing organizations to make informed decisions and mitigate risks proactively.
“As temperatures and extreme weather events around the world continue to rise, businesses can no longer ignore the impact of climate change on their operations and suppliers,” Jon Davis, Chief Meteorologist at Everstream Analytics, said in a release. “We’ve consulted with the world’s largest brands on the top risk indicators impacting their operations, and we’re thrilled to bring this industry-first capability into Explore to automate access for all our clients. With pathways ranging from low to high impact, this capability further enables organizations to grasp the full spectrum of potential outcomes in real-time, make informed decisions and proactively mitigate risks.”
Third party logistics provider (3PL) C.H. Robinson has applied generative AI tools to automate various steps across the entire lifecycle of a freight shipment, the Minnesota company said last week.
C.H. Robinson said it created AI-based technology that reads incoming email then replicates tasks a person would do, including giving customers a price quote, accepting a load, setting appointments for pickup and delivery, and checking on the load in transit. The company has used the approach to automate more than 10,000 of those routine transactions per day, allowing shippers who use email to get the same speed-to-market and cost savings as customers who use C.H. Robinson’s online platform.
After starting with price quotes, the company said it has applied generative AI to increasingly complex tasks. “We announced in May that we’d been using our new tech for emailed price requests. Within a few short months, we created new models to automate more shipping steps and have already implemented them at scale,” Arun Rajan, the company’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, said in a release. “This a major efficiency breakthrough for the industry and for supply chains around the world. When you think about retailers that need hundreds of different products on their shelves or automakers that rely on just-in-time delivery for the 30,000 different parts in a car, saving hours and minutes on every shipment matters.”
The technology also saves time, cutting the task for a person to take care of an emailed load tender from as much as four hours to 90 seconds, according to Mark Albrecht, the company’s Vice President for Artificial Intelligence.
“Once a person got to the email in their inbox, it still took an average of seven minutes to manually enter all the shipment details into our system – and that’s for a single load,” Albrecht said. “If the email tendered us 20 loads, a person would be stuck manually entering the information one load at a time. With generative AI, we can process all 20 loads simultaneously in the same 90 seconds. That’s an enormous time savings, especially when you consider we’ve scaled this to thousands of shipment orders per day just since June.”
An overwhelming majority (81%) of shoppers do not plan to increase their holiday spend this year over last year, revealing a significant disconnect between retail marketers and shoppers in the weeks before peak season, according to online shopping platform provider Rakuten.
That result flies in the face of high confidence levels from retailers who have been delaying their marketing spend, as 79% of marketers are optimistic they will reach holiday sales objectives, and 65% are timing their spend as late as November.
However, consumers are nervous about supply chain disruptions. Almost half (42%) of shoppers have started their shopping early to avoid shipping delays, while 32% plan to do more shopping in-store to avoid potential delays. The results come from a survey conducted online within the U.S. by The Harris Poll on behalf of Rakuten from Sept. 5 – Sept. 9 , among 2,100 consumers aged 18 and older and 101 retail marketers.
"There's a clear disconnect between marketer perception and consumer realities, but this presents a unique opportunity for retailers to capitalize on the shortcomings of their competition," said Julie Van Ullen, Chief Revenue Officer at Rakuten Rewards. "As shoppers plan to spend less overall, there become fewer opportunities for retailers. This makes it evermore important for retailers to invest in strategies that set them apart throughout the entire holiday season.”
Three reasons behind the diverging views are:
Inflated prices. Even with softening inflation rates, nearly half (46%) of shoppers report that it will have the greatest impact on their holiday shopping strategy. Conversely, only 20% of marketers believe that to be true.
Election nerves. Shoppers anticipate that the upcoming election will have an impact on inflation, with 57% believing it will increase.
Weak brand loyalty. A majority of marketers (98%) believe shoppers will remain loyal to brands, but fully 42% of shoppers indicate they will prioritize finding the lowest prices by trading down to lower-quality brands and products for more affordable alternatives.
"Loyalty is up for grabs this holiday season, and success for retailers will hinge on offering value beyond just reduced prices," Julie Van Ullen, Chief Revenue Officer at Rakuten Rewards, said in a release. "Our research revealed that shopper concern extends beyond just price, and retailers will need to address those concerns with comprehensive deals that include several table-stake incentives. Incentives like free shipping, buy now pay later services, and elevated Cash Back will be important for maintaining a loyal shopper base."