It was an intersting first six months of 2025, dominated by tariff chaos and geo-political issues, with a decent if uncertain economy.
Here, my choices for the top or most interesting stories by month in the first half of the 2025:
Gilmore Says.... |
 |
There were many other important stories so far this year - what did I leave out?
|
 |
What do you say? |
|
| Click here to send us your comments |
| |
|
|
|
January
New that supply chain software provider Logility will be acquired by Aptean.
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.
Once high-flying green truck maker Nikola Motors end its tumultuous history and files for Chapter bankruptcy. That sad end came to an end after having a market cap of $30 billion at its peak in 2020, when the company was worth – briefly – more that Ford Motor Company, after if signed a strategic partnership deal with General Motors. All that is distant memory now, as the maker of freight trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells announced it had begun selling off its assets. The company’s downfall played out over several years, with problems ignited by scandals and lies involving its founder and former chairman and CEO, Trevor Milton. The disgraced executive was eventually convicted of wire and securities fraud in 2022 for misleading investors about Nikola’s operations and zero-emissions technology.
The Trump administration ends the so called “de minimis” policies that let shipments valued at under $800 to come into the country duty free. That law, first passed in 2016 with a $200 ceiling, later increased to the $800 maximum. The suspension of de minimis is widely expected to impact new-age Chinese ecommerce companies Temu and Shein. The two low-cost etailers have relied on de minimis rules to get goods into the US without duties and tariffs, based on huge numbers of small orders, and have seen tremendous growth. 1.3 billion parcels came into the US 2024 under the rule.
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.
In addition to the broad plan for tariffs, the Trump administration announces a regime for fees on Chinese-made ships docking at US ports, in a move designed to aid the flagging US ship building sector. The fees will be charged once per voyage and not per port, as originally proposed. Effective as of April 17, 2028, a fee in the amount of $140 per net ton for the arriving vessel will be levied.
Truck maker Kenworth, a subsidiary of Paccar, announces that it is discontinuing its obviouslypopular, W900 model, launched 62 years prior in 1963, saying production of the iconic cab will end in 2026. Kenworth stated that its decision came from the need to embrace cleaner, more efficient solutions. The transition will pave the way for next-generation trucks better suited to meet modern standards. The W900, known for its classic long hood, conventional design, and rugged durability, quickly became a favorite among owner-operators and fleet drivers over many decades.
Consumer package goods giant Procter & Gamble says that it expects additional supply costs in the range of $1.0-1.5 billion that it will incur this year as a result of the Trump tariffs. That according to senior company executives at a company earning call. That full year estimate is based on the pretax effect of $100 million to $160 million seen in the first month of higher tariffs, said CFO Andre Schulten. P&G also said that it is likely to raise prices as one of several steps to offset the impact of tariffs on its costs amid a “challenging and volatile environment.”
May
Large supply chain software vendor E2Open announces that it is being acquired by Australian shipping software firm WiseTech.
News that 3PL giant DHL will buy more than 1000 robots from Boston Dynamics, according to a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the two firms. The agreement is for deployment of Boston Dynamics' Stretch robot - designed for case handling and initially deployed by DHL to automate container unloading. The agreement paves the way for the global deployment of more than 1,000 additional units, with DHL planning to expand the range of applications for the robots, including additional use cases such as case picking.
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%.
Reports that Amazon is investing millions in humanoid robots for delivering parcels to the customer’s door. The idea is that the package delivery robots will be transported in Amazon’s fleet of Rivian electric vans and will soon be ready to start real-world testing at a new facility.
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.
There you have it. What would you add?
Any other top supply chain stories in the first half of 2025? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
Your Comments/Feedback
|
