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Supply
Chain by the Numbers |
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- August 9, 2012
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Truckload Carriers Hauling Profits; Foxconn Buys into Sharp Factory; Baltic Dry Index Continues to Plummet; Chinese Manufacturing Growth Slows
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9.2 |
Level of manufacturing output growth in China in July, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. While that level of growth would be coveted by nearly every country in the world, it is actually the lowest level of manufacturing growth for China since May 2009, as the global economy, which has been heavily dependent on robust Chinese growth, continues to wobble.
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55%
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Approximate decline year to date in the Baltic Dry Index, which measures pricing for non-containerized ocean cargo such as grains and other commodities. Things have gotten so bad in the past few years that this month, the world’s oldest shipping company, UK’s Stephenson Clarke Shipping, sold its last vessel and is going out of business, according to a liquidator this week. The company started business in 1730. “News of the closing of Stephenson Clarke clearly shows how challenging the current economic climate is for shipping,” the U.K. Chamber of Shipping said in an e-mailed statement this week.
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The ownership percentage that Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer which assembles Apple iPads and iPhones in China, will attain of Sharp’s massive new flat screen manufacturing facility in Sakai, Japan, under a deal near closure this week. The Sharp factory was a huge bet for Sharp when it announced the multi-billion dollar investment in a highly automated factory in its home country a few ago. Both companies will jointly run operations at the plant and share revenues proportionately. Through this deal, Foxconn hopes to gain greater access to the supply of components that go into the assembly of the iPhone, the iPad and future orders of a much-rumored Apple TV as well. 
