All The Supply Chain News You Need To Know 3.18-3.22
Carrier earnings begin to feel impact of softening trucking freight market. On Monday, Convenant Transportation became one of the first carriers to show the results of a depressed freight market as their first quarter earnings failed to meet expectations. The company has seen per tractor YoY revenues drop by 4.8%. “The truckload freight environment has been weaker this year from late January through mid-March,” Covenant CEO David Parker said in a news release, as reported by FreightWaves. “We attribute the softer demand to factors such as late 2018 inventory growth in advance of the perceived impact of tariffs, the effects of the partial government shutdown on spending and extended periods of inclement weather that impacted the timing of shipping seasonal goods, as well as our ability to safely dispatch our equipment.”
Adidas running out of sneakers as supply chain lags behind demand. The German footwear giant warned investors that “supply chain shortages” have hamstrung 1st quarter earnings, according to their annual report. "The volume grew quicker than anticipated and we didn’t respond quickly enough to that demand signal," CEO Kasper Rorsted said at a news conference where Adidas presented its 2018 results, SupplyChainDive reported. The company is working on unifying its supply chain operations after acting "like 20 small companies," CFO Harm Olmeyer explained on the earnings call.
Counterfeit goods account for over $500 billion of global trade. Counterfeit products rose to 3.3% of total global trade in 2016, according to a new report from OECD. While footwear and apparel are the most coveted goods by pirates, nearly any IP worth stealing could be at risk. Counterfeiters subvert customs regulations by laundering goods through reputable intermediaries. The rise of e-commerce has compounded problems by offering duplicitous actors numerous points of distribution.
Latest ransomware attack underscores shipper vulnerability to cyberattacks. Norsk Hydro ASA was struck by the attack on Tuesday, leading to the shutdown of some of their automated production lines. The company now has to manually sift through their databases to determine which orders need to be fulfilled. “We can get that either through cleaning the systems and restoring the backups and in some cases, we are able to go back into the backup systems and pull data more manually,” CFO Eivind Kallevik said in an interview on Tuesday, according to Insurance Journal. “That is a big task at all the plants.”
Forward Air expands last mile service with FSA Logistics acquisition. The two firms agreed on a price of $27 million with additional performance based financial considerations. If approved, the deal will close at the end of next month, company officials said, according to SupplyChain247. “We are extremely pleased to have FSA join the Forward Air family,” said Tom Schmitt, Forward Air president and CEO, in a statement. “Together, we will significantly grow our existing final mile service offerings and take our precision execution directly to consumers’ homes.”
Toyota MR2 Spyder 1 Semi-truck 0.
Scott Shepherd of Rincon,
Georgia was driving his 2001 MR2 Spyder on Monday morning when the crash
occured, reports WTOC. Shepherd was attempting to dodge a bucket that fell off
a pickup truck when he found himself directly in the path of an oncoming semi.
The Spyder’s frontend collapsed around Shepard, pinning him to the driver’s
seat. By getting his shoes off, cutting through the roof, and then bending its
frame out of the way, he says he was able to get out, according to The Drive. Miraculously,
neither driver was injured in the collision.
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