Procurement Bulletin

Procurement and Supply Chain Highlights from the Recent Week You Should Know About:

Consumer Test: “Made in America” vs “Made in China”, who won? All the talk about tariffs lately has probably got you feeling a little annoyed (understatement?). This business decided to put the argument to the test: Would consumers buy more expensive “Made in America” items versus cheaper Made in China versions. A filtered shower head

Apple is Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place While Apple designs its products in the U.S., most of their products—such as iPhones—are mostly made in China, where Apple has built a huge supply chain over the past few decades. As the current US administration threatens to impose high tariffs on many Chinese goods,

Losing Tax Incentives Could Decimate EV & Battery Manufacturing in the US As the current US Administration leaves the world in chaos with tariff threats in the hopes of bringing manufacturing back to the US, the plan to repeal current tax incentives/credits for the EV industry could end up decimating the domestic EV and battery

Demand for Commodities Could See a Huge Drop You’d have to be living under a rock or an obscure island with penguins to not hear about tariffs being slapped on a multitude of products by the US. All of this leading most business executives to expect a global recession. We’re already seeing falling demand for

Why Are Coffee Futures Surging? As coffee bean prices have surged over the last couple of years, mainly due to climate and weather events, ​here’s a deeper dive​ into what’s driving coffee bean prices (a must read if your business buys coffee beans).

Tariffs Are Starting to Hit Consumer Confidence The threat of a trade war through tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China and now the EU is coming to a head. Tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese imports are set to go into effect March 4th with an additional 10% on Chinese imports. All this tariff talk has

How e-Commerce Supply Chains are Preparing for Potential Loss of De Minimis As the potential threat of losing the “de minimis” exception and potential tariffs on all sorts of imported goods into the US, ​here’s how​ some e-Commerce supply chains are dealing with these uncertainties. A Deep Dive into Humanoid Robots Your next warehouse co-worker

Canadian Tire Reviews Sourcing Amidst Tariff Threats Canadian retailer, Canadian Tire, is ​re-assessing their product offerings​ and where they source products amidst the continued threat of trade tariffs from the US. 15% of their products are sourced directly from the US. Autonomous Trucks On the Job Autonomous vehicle (AV) startup, Kodiak Robotics, ​have their AV’s

De minimis no more New tariffs ended a loophole​ that let Chinese companies like Temu and Shein ship small packages to the US duty-free. This loophole, called the de minimis exemption, saw a huge increase in these shipments with the rise of low-cost shopping apps like Temu and Shein. The change could cost US consumers

UPS Stock Plummets on Amazon Announcement UPS shares plummeted 14% last week after announcing a gloomy forecast AND that they will ​cut their business by with Amazon by 50%​. UPS found that smaller package deliveries (i.e. Amazon package deliveries) were not very profitable so they mutually agreed to lower their commitments to each other. Amazon

Your Next iPhone Could Be Made by a Robot Apple’s main manufacturing partner, Foxconn, ​signed a deal with UBTech​, to integrate their humanoid robots for iphone production. The humanoid robots have already completed “training” in their Shenzhen factory. Bird Flu Wreaking Havoc for Egg Supply The spread of bird flu among egg farms is ​wreaking

Threat of Tariffs Encourages Supply Chains to Return to US As Trump’s return to office gets closer, his threats of slapping tariffs on many imports, means there’s incentive for businesses to consider moving their supply chains back to the US, ​just like this example here​. Canada Looking to Take Advantage of Uranium Demand As countries

US Manufacturing Continues to Decline According to a report ​by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM)​, manufacturing in the US contracted last month despite the overall economy expanding. Some American manufacturers are excited about prospectively better outlook with incoming President Trump. US Oil Looking to Disrupt Saudi Arabia’s Dominance Saudi Arabia has long dominated oil

How This Startup Is Solving the Charging Problem When It Comes to Electrification As supply chain and logistics providers work towards electrifying their fleet of vehicles, one of the hurdles is charging infrastructure. Israeli startup, Electreon, is trying to ​solve this problem by introducing wireless charging​. To Tariff or Not to Tariff? President Elect Trump

How Robots and Humans Will Work Together in Warehouses Let’s face it, automation will always happen, but human jobs won’t completely disappear. A hybrid of humans working along side robots is likely the future we’ll see. And Robust AI’s ​Carter Pro robot​ is likely to be one you may find working alongside your human workers.

Canadian Government Says No to Port Strikes We sound like a broken record when we write about port strikes (or potential strikes) in Vancouver and Montreal. As talks between both sides were going nowhere and Canada got tired of losing billions ($1.3 billion per day) of dollars in trade each day as the strikes prolonged,

Retailers Getting Ready for Tariffs Now that the US Presidential elections are done, retailers have a clearer picture of what they need to do to prepare for potential tariffs that President Elect Trump has said he may enact. Brands like Steve Madden ​have a plan in place​ to counter potential additional tariffs on Chinese imports.

Canada Post Strike Looming As holidays start to ramp up, Canada Post has a looming strike hanging over everyone’s heads. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) announced they have voted ​in favour of going on strike​ should labour talks not come to agreement. Montreal Dock Workers Go On Partial Strike Canadian supply chains are

Case Study: How General Mills Improved Its Supply Chain Snack giant, General Mills, deals with over 20,000(!!!) suppliers every year. The supply chain operations had still been operating the same it had since the late 90’s. That changed when new CEO, Jeff Harmening, came on board and implemented a goal of being the supply chain

How AI is Changing the Manufacturing Industry 93% of manufacturing business leaders are already using AI in some form in their business(!!!). Of course the biggest concern is how does AI affect human jobs? ​This report takes a closer look​. AI is Powering Shift to Nuclear Speaking of AI, running all those AI chatbots requires

Montreal Dockworkers Strike Threatens Supply Chains Dockworkers at the Port of Montreal are planning to halt all overtime work indefinitely starting 10th Oct 2024 in an effort to pressure management for a new contract. The Maritime Employers Association has expressed concerns about the drawn-out negotiations and their impact on shippers and Canada’s reputation as a

Handling the Supply Chain Talent Shortage Apparently there’s a shortage of talent in the supply chain and logistics fields, and universities are trying to catch up to providing adequate foundational knowledge in the area. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects there will be a 19% increase in hiring within the logistics industry between now and

Here’s What Shipping Companies are Doing to Manage the Shorter Holiday Season Delivery Window This year’s holiday season will see five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, meaning less time to prepare and clear out any backlog of orders between holidays. Here’s a glimpse at what some shipping companies are doing to manage this.

Intel To Build AI Chips for Amazon With help from the US CHIPS Act, Intel is flush with $3 billion to play with. Just in time as they secured a multi-year deal with Amazon, specifically AWS (the cloud services division), to produce AI Chips for the the tech giant. Want to Electrify Commercial Your Fleet?

“Tariff Wars, Begun They have.” For Star Wars fans, you’ll have read that title in Yoda’s voice. For non-Star Wars fans, you’ll be scratching your head at our grammar… In any case, Canada has begun applying new tariffs on Chinese-made batteries (for EV’s) and critical minerals. A 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum products

No Technology for YOU As countries keep slapping new tariffs (e.g. semiconductor chips), the U.S. has announced new tariffs on exports of advanced technology such quantum computers. While not the only country to not want to share with others, other countries such as the UK and Netherlands also have similar technology tariffs in place. Canada

Case Study: Hasbro reduces supply chain costs As an 80’s child, Hasbro was the toy-maker of many beloved childhood toys when I was growing up. But present day toy sales just aren’t the same. To respond to that, Hasbro has started streamlining their supply chain and the process has led to some nice cost reductions.

Canadian Rail Work Stoppage Is Off/On Again? Earlier in the year, Canada had to deal with losing millions in trade business due to a work stoppage at the marine ports, now, the Canadian Government doesn’t want more of that trade hurt to come down and forcing the rail workers to continue working despite disagreement in

Steel Supply Heading Towards Crisis Levels? The demand for steel is heading towards “crisis” levels warns one of the industries biggest suppliers. Industry executives are preparing everyone for a Game of Thrones-level forewarning that “Winter is coming” to the steel industry as executives expect demand for steel to plummet around the world. Discount Furniture Sellers

Fedex & UPS Offering Competitive Prices, Who Knew? If you’re an SMB (small business), you might be eligible for competitive pricing from the big couriers like Fedex and UPS. As both delivery companies compete for more customers, the competition is benefiting small businesses. The Future of Auto Manufacturing: Robots AI robot startup, Figure, released new

In the Face of Supply Chain Challenges, Hasbro, Has Tackled This Head on As many businesses experienced during the pandemic years, supply chain headaches were experienced by business small and large. Take the established toy manufacturer, Hasbro, they tackled their supply chain challenges and have even turned the challenges into better profit margins. Here’s how

Your Coffee’s Costing More My daily coffee has been steadily increasing in cost in recent years (even if I brew it at home). As climate events such as droughts continue to wreak havoc on production of arabica beans in Brazil and Vietnam, even instant coffee is now being affected. The price of Robusta beans, which

What Happens When We’ve Mined Everything on Earth? A deepwater port and road project has been given the greenlight in the Nunavut (northern region of Canada). This project would create the first “road” linking Canada to the Arctic. Why? The Canadian Arctic is rich with minerals and rare earth metals but hasn’t been mined yet

Canada Planning Tariffs on Chinese EVs Last week, we wrote about tariffs. Now, Canada looks set to slap on tariffs on Chinese-made EV’s aligning with what the US is doing. While the details are yet to be confirmed and finalized, the tariffs are believed to be similar to the US, which could be upwards of

Do Tariffs Really Work? Small businesses are getting caught in the crossfire in the trade wars between the US and China. Tariffs imposed on products from Chinese manufacturers are borne by the US-based business importing the goods, meaning businesses are seeing their cost of goods increase approximately 25% just from tariffs. The US is not

Port of Baltimore Set to Reopen After having a container ship crash into and pretty much demolish the bridge and block the important shipping channel, the Port of Baltimore shipping channel is set to reopen after a LOT of hard work to remove the debris. US Customs Crack Down on Brokers of Cheap Online Orders

First Cocoa, Now Oranges Hit New Price Highs If you’re finding it getting far too expensive to have fresh orange juice with your breakfast, blame it on the weather again. Just like cocoa prices and crops, weather events are causing poor harvests of oranges in Florida and Brazil resulting in orange prices being double what

How Can Technology Help Manage Supply Chain Shocks The last few years has thrown a lot of obstacles at supply chains. From a global pandemic, Houthi rebels, bridge collapses and climate events. Here’s a look at how technology such as AI and the access to data (analytics) can help manage and mitigate supply chain crises.

IMF Chides US for Not Playing Nicely U.S. President Biden has been on a tariff spree targeting Chinese goods. Prompting IMF spokeswoman, Julie Kozack to comment: “Our view is that the US would be better served by maintaining open trade policies that have been vital to its economic performance…” Clearly, the U.S.’ aggressive tariffs are

Beloved sriracha brand suffers more supply shocks The beloved sriracha brand, Huy Fong Foods, has experienced supply problems over the last few years with supply of their chilli peppers. Now, the spicy sauce company has announced it is halting production due to a poor harvest of their red chilli peppers, stating the harvest is too

Canada Sees Trade Deficit in March Canada saw its largest trade deficit in nine months last March with a trade deficit of $2.28 billion. Total exports feel 5.3% whereas economists expected a trade surplus of $1.5 billion. (I guess the business for forecasting is still not an accurate thing.) US Government Procurement Stats There’s good

Honda Invests in EV Battery Facility in Ontario As Canada continues to lure manufacturers to invest in the country to build out its EV manufacturing industry, Honda is the latest auto manufacturer to invest US$11 billion in Ontario by building assembly and battery plants in the province. Canada is offering major tax-credits for companies willing

Dealing with Baltimore’s Bridge Collapse Supply chains just can’t catch a break. After obstacles resulting from the pandemic, the recent Baltimore bridge disaster is sending logistics and supply chains that go through Baltimore’s port scrambling to figure out work arounds to get supply moving again. It’s not been easy. The trucking industry has been hit

Potential Solution to America’s Electricity Supply As countries look at moving towards electrifying vehicles and renewable energy, the problem in the US is the existing electric infrastructure is currently insufficient. According to researchers at UC Berkeley, they may have a feasible solution: replacing the existing power lines with cables made from state-of-the-art materials, thus potentially

Summer of High Oil Prices My local news station has been warning drivers of surging gas prices as Summer nears. Oil prices are near a five month high. This coincides with the current production cuts by OPEC at least until June. UPS In, Fedex Out with USPS The collaboration between the US Postal Service (USPS)

Pain Ahead for Chocolate-Lovers We mentioned this just a couple of weeks ago, but cocoa futures has reached new highs this past week. The shortages in cocoa supply are mainly due to climate and weather events which can severely affect commodity prices such as cocoa. Baltimore Bridge Collapse In an absolutely tragic accident, a Sri

Port of Vancouver Handles Record Cargo Volume The past year has been somewhat chaotic for the Port of Vancouver, with worker strikes and a slowdown in global shipping, the Port of Vancouver actually saw a 6% increase in cargo handling from the previous year. Fast-Fashion Behemoth, Shein, Wants to Be Your Supply Friend Shein, the