Supply Chain by the Numbers
   
 

- July 14 , 2011

   
 

Supply Chain by the Numbers for Week of July 14, 2011
   
 

Australia Finds Carbon Emissions Taxing; Goya Foods Plans for Improved Fill Rates; Truckload Capacity Harder to Find; Oil Prices Settle in Over the Century Mark

   
 
 
 

52%

Increase in the Longbow Research Truckload Barometer Index over the past year, meaning that there has been a significant tightening of capacity over that time in the US, as most shippers have experienced. While there was a sharp drop in the index this week for seasonal reasons, the index had been rising steadily for weeks. Longbow’s regional data says right now truckload capacity is tightening in the Southwest, Mountain States and West Coast as the produce season begins. The weekly index measures available freight against available truckload equipment, rising as available capacity contracts.
 
 



 
 
 

$25.00

Roughly the cost in US dollars that will be imposed on 500 large companies in Australia per metric ton of carbon emissions starting in July of next year, according to a new plan announced by the government there late last week. This is a direct carbon tax, not a cap and trade program, though it expected to turn into a cap and trade program in 2016. There is much concern about the impact from the program on Australia's global cost competitiveness and internal inflation - and the world will be watching to see how it plays out. See Green Supply Chain News: As Australia Announces Plan for Carbon Tax, Fallout and Impact on Economy and Business There is Unclear
 
 
 
 
 
98%

The level of customer service/line fill rates that Hispanic food company Goya Foods has been able to achieve after improving processes through adding new supply chain planning tools (demand management, order fulfillment, etc.), according to the company's executive vice president Peter Unanue in a recent Videocast on our Supply Chain Television Channel. That was up from about 95% previously, adding a nice boost to sales as a result, and was achieved while keeping inventory levels flat. See Supply Chain News: Goya Foods Shows Path to Success for Mid-Market Companies from New Supply Chain Planning Tools.
 
 
 
 
 

 100

Number of consecutive days the price for Brent crude oil futures have been over $100.00 as of this week, currently holding at just over $115.00. This is the first time this has happened since 2008. Once closely aligned with the other benchmark oil price for West Texas Intermediate , this year there has been a significant divergence, with WTI currently about $20.00 per barrel less at the moment, but still at just south of $100.00. Some economists are saying the fact that the global economy has weathered these high oil prices reasonably well this year (slow growth, but not recession) is actually a bullish sign.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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