Jul
10
Apparel Suppliers Seeking Cheaper Garment Factories Explore Africa
For decades, Asia has dominated garment manufacturing due to inexpensive labor, but a new player has entered the ring: Africa. Global trade leaders are looking to Africa as the next trend in affordable clothing manufacturing due to a plentiful and low-cost workforce. Many countries on the continent have free trade agreements with the United States as well as an eager labor force, opening up limitless possibilities that corporations like Calvin Klein and H&M can’t help but notice. Africa also has another major advantage over it’s Asian competitor; the ability to grow cotton. Cotton farms would add to the appeal due to ease of accessibility to supplies and in close proximity to factories. Currently, factory workers in Asian are pulling anywhere between $67-$297 per month, whereas factories in Ethiopia are coming in at around $21 per month. Read more…
Transportation & Warehouse Industry Growing in Trucking Sector
Even in the face of a driver shortage, the Transportation & Warehouse sector is on track for growth in 2015. In June alone, 17,100 jobs were added to the industry, with trucking accounting for almost half of those. Trucking added around 7,400 jobs while as a whole, the U.S. economy added 223,000 changing the unemployment rate to 5.3%. the Bureau of Labor and Statistics forecasts the entire Logistics industry to grow at an average rate of 3% during 2015 with a job increase of 1.4% annually until 2022. With growth like this on the horizon, experts are predicting Logistics to be one of the healthiest industries in America. Read more…
11 Countries Come Together to Complete Pacific Trade Deal
Officials from the United States and 11 other pacific countries will come together in late July in hopes of closing some gaps in an automobile and agricultural trade agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Countries included in the agreement are Japan, Vietnam, New Zealand, Peru and more. The TPP is a fast-tracked legislative policy written by Barack Obama binding 12 countries into a trade agreement that aims to lower tariffs, enforce labor and environmental laws, and establish a dispute-settlement system. Experts close to the White House say there is much doubt that the treaty will be finalized during the July meeting, as the treaty has been in the negotiation stages for several years. Read more…
Crisis in Greece Worsens and Affects Supply Chain
As the crisis in Greece continues to worse with bank shut downs and the resignation the Finance Prime Minister, it was only a matter of time before the Greek supply chain was affected. Experts are predicting that importers and exporters of the country could be affected as early as next week, with several business owners reevaluating their relationship with Greek companies. Large companies such as DHL are preparing for the worse and stabilizing their facilities in the country – even going as far as to encourage carpooling in case of a fuel ration. While the crisis is expected to worse before it improves, European analysts are predicting that the crisis will remain within Greece’s borders and most likely, will not have an impact of the rest of the continent. That being said, supply chain officials have commented that even the slightest change in a country’s economy can affect global systems and that we may be feeling this a few months from now. Read more…