November 2021

Editorial

November 2021 – The global supply chain crisis continues to escalate. US government intervention has helped to reduce the backlog of ships waiting for offloads in Long Beach CA. The overall surge in demand for goods and inability to get those goods into the hands of consumers - due to lack of stock, labour, reduced freight capacity etc. – continues to take its toll on company performance.

Discrete activities have been undertaken to improve the supply chain crisis - Biden’s port policies, fining lingering ships, increased air cargo, designing foldable shipping containers, to the increase of chip manufacturing capacity. Apple has reported that the crisis has cost the company 6 billion dollars in sales, and Gap is reporting 4 billion in lost sales. Malcolm Wilson – CEO of the XPO spin-off GXO - has said “we have reached the peak of the supply chain crisis “, but DSV – expected to be confirmed as the world’s 3rd largest logistics provider (after K&N and DHL) - warns that further issues are expected going into CNY 2022.

The surge in demand for goods is still evident! Marks and Spencer reporting an increase in food sales that is more than seasonal. Alibaba surpassed its previous record for singles day, with a surge in festive-related shopping, Amazon too, continues to hire new warehouse staff to meet increasing demand, while trying to manage increased employee unrest – poor working conditions, low pay, masks, Covid risks etc.! The latter triggering increased conversation around automation, robots, and of course the ethicality of rendering “human-jobs” obsolete. McDonalds is also investigating automation.

The COP 26 summit in Glasgow, has re-invigorated the “sustainable” supply chain discussion. The U.N suggests that even though many countries have pledged to reduce fossil fuel emissions it is more likely that global emissions we will surpass the current agreed thresholds This will lead to devastating effects on the planet, with more extreme weather patterns , (droughts and floods) taking a toll on global food supply.

A somewhat fun fact circulating about COP 26, is that the "new” furniture donated by Ikea for use during the two-week summit is now sitting in an empty carpark in Scotland. The future plan is to donate the furniture to local housing projects; The 2nd hand goods market is increasing – The high street store – Selfridges – has multiple outlets selling 2nd hand good on its fashion floors. Elsewhere - India has plans to build a net-zero emission airport just outside Delhi and Apple is pushing to release its self-driving electric vehicle!

Finally, In other news - Peloton sales have significantly slumped as people begin returning to life as-usual, Facebook is rebranding as Meta to represent the metaverse; an effort to combine virtual and augmented reality technologies in a new online realm. Dyson is distancing itself from its Malaysian manufacturer ATA over poor labour conditions. The United States is boosting its vaccine manufacturing to provide doses to less-developed nations. Twitter has decided to focus its efforts on transforming its platform to challenge QVC and other online retail stores.