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Supply Chain by the Numbers

September 5, 2025

Supply Chain by the Numbers for September 5, 2025

The demise of de minimis. US PMI Show Manufacturing Contraction again in August. PepsiCo stays Committed to Green Trucks. Ocean Container Shipping Rates have Plunged


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1.4 Billion
That is about how many import shipments came into the US in the last year under the-called “de minimis” exemption from tariffs on imports valued at less than $800. That equates to 3.7 million per day over the period, worth some $65 billion annually, according to US Custom department data. The growth was fueled by e-tailers such as Amazon and China’s Shein, which used the program to source goods from offshore suppliers for delivery to US consumers. But that all came to end this week, as the long-time program was canceled by the Trump administration. Even if the sender pays the tariff, “In many cases, sellers will pass on the cost of the tariffs to the consumer in the form of higher prices,” according to the New York Times. All this leaves much uncertainty about how it will all play out

100+

That is how many battery-electric heavy duty semi-trucks food giant PepsiCo has in service. That according to Adam Buttgenbach, the director of fleet engineering and sustainability at PepsiCo, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published this week. In addition, the company in total operates more than 1750 electric trucks and vans in its total fleet. That despite a number of moves by the Trump administration to end incentives and mandates to go electric. Buttgenbach also noted that “We use battery-electric trucks for last-mile distribution and for regional distribution. From a range and charge-speed perspective, last-mile distribution, which can cover about 75 miles per day, is a much easier duty cycle to electrify with a wide variety of manufacturers and vehicles.



32
That is how months out of the last 34 that the US Purchasing Managers Index from the Institute for Supply Management has been below the key 50 score that indicates manufacturing expansion. That trend continued in August, with a PMI of 48.7, up a little from 48.7 in July but still showing contraction, according to the ISM report released last Friday. Other economic indicators in the month were mixed. The other PMI numbers we track were mixed. The New Orders Index indicated growth in August following a six-month period of contraction; the figure of 51.4 is 4.3 percentage points higher than the 47.1 recorded in July, in good news for future US manufacturing activity. However, the August reading of the Production Index (47.8) moved to negative territory, falling 3.6 percentage points lower than July’s figure of 51.4.



68%
That is the decline in the average cost to ship a container from China to the US West Coast currently from the recent highs in June. This indicates this year’s peak shipping season was earlier and shorter than usual. The rate slide also signals that some US retailers and manufacturers are taking a cautious approach to new orders ahead of the year’s busy fall and winter shopping periods amid tariff uncertainties, shifting trade policies and concerns about consumer spending. Worldwide, the cost to ship a 40-foot container has fallen for 11 consecutive weeks, to $2,119, according to London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants, down 40% from its mid-June high. The average short-term contract rate to ship a box from China to the US West Coast on Sept. 1 was $1,802, down from a high of $5,553 in June, according to data firm Xeneta.

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