Our Week 15 Top Logistics Stories
It’s week 15 and here are three stories you should be updating your customers and prospects on this week. They need your expertise!
Shippers may not be aware of what’s occurring or its importance, so offering your assistance and insights will help you build a stronger relationship with them.
Knowing what’s going on in the market is only half the battle. Your customers need to be told what to do about it and they should hear that from you.
1. Pushback on tariffs from China has started, and it is getting ugly. After announcing its own tariffs on the US to be effective this week but before they were even in place, President Trump implemented an additional 50% reciprocal tariff. So, the total tariff on US imports from China now stands at 84% for some goods. This situation is anything but over.
2. One impact of all the talk about tariffs has been that companies frontloaded their imports to avoid the eventual new duties. Whether that was a smart move is to be determined, but it has filled up warehouses. The result is that warehousing capacity is becoming scarce, and related costs are rising. Costs that are not rising include truckload, air, and ocean rates, as demand for those services has slowed now that tariff uncertainty reigns.
3. Another market shift has made delivery speed less critical to customers. The trend has been for alternate modes like intermodal stealing volume from truckload carriers. This is likely one result of the uncertainty about the tariffs and the overall economy. Companies are unsure where the tariffs are going and how their business will be impacted. So, there is a literal wait-and-see approach in a lot of places.
Of course, these stories are just a small part of what’s going on in the supply chain space right now. Updating your clients on how this and other information is relevant to their business is a way to provide more value and strengthen your relationships.
If you need help creating more complete and customized updates for emails, blogs, and social media, we can help. Visit www.shippingbrief.com to learn more.