Precision News Round-Up: 25 September 2020

Global Trade

IRISH HAULIERS SAY ALTERNATIVE ROUTE TO EUROPE NEEDED

Irish hauliers and exporters have said that it is essential to establish an alternative route to Europe to avoid the possibility of long queues at British ports from the beginning of January. A leaked British government letter suggested that exporters to the EU may face possible truck queues of up to 7,000 vehicles-long at ports if the industry fails to prepare. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has said that 30 to 50 percent of trucks crossing the channel will not be ready for the new regulations from January 1 2021. This has the potential to cause adverse effects lasting up to three months. For more information, please see RTE.

EURO ZONE BUSINESS GROWTH SLOWS

This month, the euro zone's business growth stalled due to the resurgence of the coronavirus. In response, governments reimplemented restrictions and asked citizens to stay home. As a result, IHS Markit's Flash Purchasing Managers' Index has declined from 51.9 in August to 50.1. This is just above the 50 mark separating growth from contraction. According to the data, the services industry has been hit particularly hard. A flash PMI for the euro zones dominant service industry plunged to 47.6 in September from 50.5 last month. However, manufacturers in the euro zone fared significantly better. This month's factory PMI increased to 53.7 from 51.7. For more information, please see RTE.

CBP TARGETS CHINESE E-COMMERCE

The US Customers & Border Protection (CBP) has put forward a proposal which, if approved, could see US importers of Chinese goods valued below $800 losing their exemption from tariffs. Should Section 301 duties be applied to e-commerce imports from China, online merchants and their logistics providers would face a number of compliance issues. Furthermore, it would increase the landed costs, with clearance fees and assorted charges in addition to the duty. For more details on this news item, please see The Loadstar.

Carriers

UPS TO BUILD $262 MILLION FACILITY IN NC

UPS has received approval to build a $262 million facility in Mebane, North Carolina. The planned 525,000 square-foot facility will have the capacity to process approximately 45,000 packages per hour once complete. Furthermore, the facility will create 451 full-time jobs, plus an unspecified number of part-time. UPS said that this approval will help to increase the speed and flexibility of their ground operations for its customers in the greater Greensboro area. For further details, please see the full article at Freight Waves.

FEDEX LOOKS AT USING SMALL AUTONOMOUS CARGO PLANES IN REMOTE AREAS

FedEx Corp. Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith has announced that FedEx is looking to use small self-flying cargo planes in remote areas. The carrier has been conducting experiments with an autonomous aircraft startup. Additionally, in June, Silicon Valley’s Reliable Robotics demonstrated a fully automated remote landing of a FedEx Cessna 208 Caravan turboprop. Nonetheless, Mr. Smith also said it would take decades for automation to replace humans in controlling large freight planes. For more information on this news story, please see Supply Chain Brain.

Retail

CHINA’S DEMAND FOR E-COMMERCE WANES

In August, China’s online shopping growth declined, revealing signs of slow economic recovery. The Chinese government is aiming to develop domestic demand to drive growth. However, figures in August reveal challenges to increasing home consumption. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales in August increased by 0.5 percent year-on-year. This was largely driven by car sales which saw an increase of 11.8 percent. E-commerce sales of consumer goods and services were up 13.3 percent. However, this is a decrease from 18.8 percent in July and 19 percent in June. For more details on this news item, please see CNBC.

Precision News

WHY INTEGRATE EXPORT MANAGEMENT AND TRANSPORTATION

As companies grow and expand into new markets, facilitating export

management and ensuring all shipments meet international trade regulations becomes critical.

To create an efficient and cost effective global shipping strategy companies should consider integrating export management with multi carrier transportation execution. This allows organizations to streamline processes and reduce time-consuming manual labor, while ensuring compliance with global trade regulations.

Multiple, disparate systems and manual processes leave a company vulnerable to higher costs, missed delivery deadlines and compliance missteps. In this Precision Report, we discuss the benefits of integrating shipping and export management on a single platform. Read the full report here.