Supply Chain by the Numbers: November 7, 2007

Supply Chain by the Numbers

-November 7, 2007

The Numbers Worth Knowing this Week in Supply Chain and Logistics

This Week: U.S. Using Billions of Pallets; Corn is a Mere Drop in the Transportation Fuel Supply Barrel; Many Still Believe that Outsourcing Doesn't Equal Savings; Inbound Container Volumes Flat with Last Year

Supply Chain by the Numbers is Brought to You by Optiant - Powering the Resilent Supply Chain



2 billion
The approximate number of wooden pallets in use at any time in the U.S. That’s a lot of pallets!

The amount of bio-diesel and ethanol currently used as a percentage of the world's transportation-fuel supply, according to the International Energy Agency.


39%
The percentage of companies not using 3PL services that said they were not doing so because they did not believe cost savings would be achieved from outsourcing, among respondents to the annual State of Logistics Outsourcing Report survey, led by Dr. John Langley of Georgia Tech. (See Part 1 of SCDigest’s review of the 2007 3PL report.)




1.51 million minus 3300
The number of inbound containers estimated to have moved through U.S. ports in October, generally the peak month for container volumes. The Port Tracker report from NRF and Global Insights estimates the October 2007 total will be about 3300 containers short of last year’s record 1.51 million TEUs, after many years of rapid year-over-year growth.