It was an interesting 2025, dominated by continued tariff chaos and geo-political issues, with a decent if uncertain economy.
Here, my choices for the top or most interesting story by month in of 2025:
Gilmore Says.... |
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There were many other important stories so far this year - what did I leave out?
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January
After a 3-month contract extension, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) reaches a tentative deal with the US Maritime Alliance, preventing a strike. The deal is ratified by the rank and file in late February.
February
An Amazon fulfillment center near Raleigh, NC voted No to joining a union last Saturday, as Amazon kept its track record in unionization battles almost perfect, with a decisive rejection of a union. The vote came in with 2,447 votes (74%) opposing the union and just 829 in favor, according to the National Labor Relations Board. There were 77 challenged ballots, a number that’s too small to change the outcome of the election. The results, however, still need to be certified by the NLRB. In the US, that means there is still only one Amazon FC that has voted to organize. That vote, which occurred in 2022 at an FC in Staten Island, New York, has to date not led to a contract between Amazon and the workers there, as Amazon continues to fight the outcome. The workers at the facility had recently voted to join the Teamsters union in hopes the added muscle can get a contract done.
March
The US CDC announced that the number of US births in 2024 was 3.6 million. That figure represents a small increase - less than 1% - versus the number in 2023. But according to a report on the data, US birth rates rose only for one demographic: Hispanic women. Low birth rates are a major issue not only in the US but most of the rest of the world, except in parts of Africa. Low population growth leads to aging societies, and the related problem of not enough younger workers to help support an elderly population. The general fertility rate of 54.5 births per 1,000 women in 2023 was the lowest ever recorded since data collection began in 1909, according to the CDC report.
April
On what he calls Liberation Day, President Donald Trump publishes a wide schedule of tariffs on US imports from virtually every other country, creating supply chain chaos. From there, the tariffs are changed and delayed in many cases but also enforced in others, with the drama continuing to the present, creating huge uncertainty in the supply chain and reciprocal actions by US trading partners, with few trade deals completed to end the chaos.
May
Gartner releases its top 25 supply chains for 2025, with Schneider Electric coming out on top for the third straight year. The rest of the top 10 after Schneider Electric were: (2) NVIDIA; (3) Cisco; (4) AstraZeneca; (5) Johnson & Johnson; (6) L’Oreal; (7) Colgate-Palmolive; (8) Lenovo; (9) Microsoft; and (10) Danone.
June
CSCMP and partner Kearney release the 2025 State of Logistics Report, with the headline news: that what the report several years back started calling US Business Logistics Costs (USBLC) rose on an absolute basis in 2024 to $2.58 trillion, up from $2.44 trillion in 2023, for an increase of 5.4%. That left logistics costs as a percent of US GDP down a bit in 2024 to 8.7%.
Fred Smith, founder of FedEx who profoundly changed the shipping sector with a business model famously first described in an undergraduate term paper, dies at 80.
July
Rail carrier Union Pacific announces a bid for rival Norfolk Southern, in an offer of cash and stofy worth some $85billlion.The combination would create the nation's first railroad stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Will regulators approve the mega-merger? That is the $85 billion question. The largest rail workers’ union in the US says it will oppose the merger, though other unions wind up supporting the deal, which is still being looked at by US regulators.
August
The Trump administration ends the-called “de minimis” exemption from tariffs on imports valued at less than $800. Since its launch, volumes under the program have exploded, in recent years 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. For 2024, there were an amazing 1.4 billion shipments worth $65 billion using the exemption, which is now closed.
September
Ocado Group headed down after Kroger Co. questioned the future of their partnership, raising concerns that the major U.S. grocer could close some existing automated warehouses to cut costs. A grocer itself, Ocado has been selling the robotics technology it developed first for its own to other food merchants, like Kroger and Sobeys. One of the challenges it faces is that some supermarkets are favoring fulfilling online orders themselves from their stores, while the Ocado system is meant for fulfillment centers.
October
The US leads a successfully lobbying effort to delay implementation of a new fee schedule from the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) based on the “green-ness” of a ship’s fuel and other attributes. Just 49 states opposed the delay to at least 2026, versus 57 for a pause. The majority No vote was fueled by a vigorous campaign led by President Trump, who said on social media that he was “outraged” at the planned vote. He said the US would not back the “Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping ... in any way, shape, or form,” and he threatened to retaliate if nations supported it, such as by reducing its payments to other UN areas. The Administration also warned last it would consider imposing sanctions on any government that voted for the tax.
November
The so-called Houthi rebels announced an end to missile attacks on ocean carriers, which had gone on for more than two years from the Houthi base in south Yemen. The attacks caused most carriers sailing between Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal to take the much longer route around southern Africa to avoid any risk. That reduced the effective capacity of the fleets, propping up rates in a time of otherwise tepid demand. The attacks began in October 2023, with the Houthis stating their actions were in solidarity with Palestinians and aimed at pressuring Israel to end the war and blockade in Gaza.
December
China announces that its total trade surplus with the rest of the world through November was $1.07 trillion, virtually guaranteeing it will for the first come in over the trillion-dollar mark for a full year. In the first 11 months of this year, China’s overall exports grew 5.4% compared to the same period in 2024 while imports fell 0.6%, taking its trade surplus to $1.076 trillion this year as of November, up 21.6% year-on-year.
There you have it. What would you add?
Any other top supply chain stories for 2025? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
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