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Supply
Chain by the Numbers |
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- Jan. 4, 2024
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2023 Holiday Sales Up Decently, Mastercard Says; US Manufacturing Falls Again in December; Shipping Chaos in Red Sea; Amazon has Started to Make its Own Lift Truck Hydrogen |
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3.1% |
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That was the growth in spending in the just ended retail holiday season for 2023, according to a new estimate from Mastercard SpendingPulse this week. The numbers do not include automotive sales but do include restaurants. The report also says that on-line retail sales increased 6.3% year over year, while in-store sales were up a more modest 2.2% year-over-year. Apparel sales did a little bit better than the overall average, rising 2.4%, Mastercard estimated. Jewelry sales, however, fell 2.0%, while sales of electronics were basically flat, dropping 0.4%. “This holiday season, the consumer showed up, spending in a deliberate manner” said Michelle Meyer, chief economist, Mastercard Economics Institute. |
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| That is how many consecutive months that the US Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) has now been below 50, with the December reading coming in at 47.4, as released from ISM earlier this week. That’s important because 50 is the line of demarcation. A score above 50 means US manufacturing is expanding, while below 50 signals contraction. What’s more, the New Orders Index remained in contraction territory at 47.1, 1.2 percentage points lower than the figure of 48.3 recorded in November, in a bad sign for future US manufacturing activity. The PMI has below that key 50 mark since November 2022, and it is now averaging just 47.1 over the past year. |
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10% |
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| That is about the share of global trade that normally travels by ship through the Red Sea, on its way to or from the Suez Canal. Those volumes have plummeted in recent days as a number of leading container shipping lines and oil shippers have recently diverted sailings through the Red Sea after a growing number of attacks by so-called Houthi militants operating out of Yemen. In fact, earlier this week the crew of the Maersk Hangzhou had to take evasive action and opened fire on Houthi boats that were aggressively swarming the ship, after it had been hit by an anti-ship missile just hours before. Military helicopters from the USS Eisenhower came shortly thereafter and sunk three of the four attacking Houthi boats. Ships avoiding the Red Sea are forced to take the long way around, circling Africa and the Cape of Good Hope to reach their destinations, in Europe, the US East Coast and other ports. |
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That is how many fork trucks are running on hydrogen produced at an on-site “electrolyzer” at an Amazon fulfillment center in Aurora, Colorado, according to reports this week. Amazon says it has worked with Plug Power – a company that markets a variety of hydrogen-related products - to install its first electrolyzer, a system that splits water molecules to produce hydrogen. Previously, the lift trucks, which use a hydrogen engine from Plug Power that can convert a standard battery powered vehicle to use hydrogen fuel cells, were supplied by hydrogen transported to the FC in tanker trucks. The hydrogen trucks produce only water vapor, though fossil fuels are generally still used to produce the hydrogen from either methane or water. 
