Supply Chain by the Numbers
   
 

- June 6, 2018 -

   
  Supply Chain by the Numbers for Week of June 6, 2018
   
 

Logistics Jobs Keep Coming and Coming; Major Cargo Theft Gang Headed to Prison; Last Gasp for Apparel Manufacturing in Manhattan; Hyundai Merchant Marine Stuns with New Megaship Orders

   
 
 
 
 

73,000

Rather amazingly, that is the number of US jobs in the trucking and warehouse sectors since the start of the year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics report released last Friday. The hiring spree continued into May, during which 8,700 jobs were added. And the growth is accelerating, with warehouses and trucking fleets hiring up 6,600 jobs from April to May, while parcel carries added companies added 4,800 new workers. Yong Kim, co-founder of staffing platform Wonolo, said his company has seen a 15-20% increase in hourly wage growth in the logistics sector just this year. "Workers are not only chasing after places that offer higher wages, but more importantly ones that provide more flexibility, work-life balance, higher quality of work and career fulfillment," Kim noted. "We are seeing an interesting empowerment movement among workers."

 
 
 
 
 

388,000

That is how many TEU of ocean container capacity that South Korea’s Hyundai Merchant Marine has just announced it is ordering with 20 new megaships to be delivered by three different builders. That when the carrier has only a little bit more than the new orders in its current capacity of 458,247 TEU. Samsung Heavy Industries has been contracted to build five giant 23,000 TEU vessels, while another seven 23,000 TEU ships will be built at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. A further eight 14,000 TEU vessels will be constructed at Hyundai Heavy Industries. The twelve 23,000 TEU ships will be delivered beginning in Q2 2020, and the 14,000 TEU ships starting in Q2 2021. Hyundai Merchant Marine, the world’s 12th largest container line by TEU capacity, is making a play to leapfrog its competitors by embarking on this new order spree. HMM is the only remaining South Korean deep-sea containership line since Hanjin Shipping went bankrupt in 2016. That as the largest container carrier, Maersk Line, complains of too much capacity in the sector that keeps rates way down.

 
 
 
 

$30 Million

That was the total value of goods stolen by a four-man team of ringleaders in a gang of cargo thieves that operated from the Midwest to the East Coast. The four men were recentlly convicted for their  roles in the thefts in federal court in New Albany, IN. Nine other participants were named in the original indictment for a conspiracy that operated from August 2012 to May 2015. Members of the group would reconnoiter distribution centers run by national companies that distributed products including electronics, clothing, pharmaceuticals and cigarettes. The crooks would watch a center, then follow loaded trucks leaving the building. They would steal the tractor and trailer when the driver stopped at a truck stop. The crooks typically abandoned the tractor less than 20 miles from the truck stop and hooked up the trailer to another tractor driven by a member of their gang. The load would be driven to Louisville, KY, from where the stolen goods were resold. Watch your freight!

 
 
 
 
 

11,900

That is how many apparel manufacturing jobs are left in New York City, down from an amazing 334,182 in 1950 and as many as 93,986 in 1990, as clothes makers moved first to low cost Southern states and then of course off shore. That decline is a key factor in a proposal to end a decades-old zoning rule in the Garment District in midtown Manhattan that protects manufacturing space. Real estate developers see more profitable use for much of that space if owners are freed from having to house apparel facilities. The current rules preserve millions of square feet of apparel-production space on certain side streets in the Garment District, which is bounded roughly by West 40th and West 35th streets and Broadway and Ninth Avenue. While big changes are coming, proponents say the plan would preserve a garment-industry presence in midtown partly by using up to $20 million in city funds to acquire a building dedicated to manufacturers. A last gasp for apparel manufacturing in Manhattan, it seems.

 
 
 
 
 
 
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