Today's Top Supply Chain and Logistics News From WSJ
21 Agosto 2017 - 08:10AM
Dow Jones News
By Paul Page
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The "Amazon effect" is shaking up the big and tradition-bound
business of industrial suppliers. Amazon.com Inc.'s expansion in
the business-to-business market has been going on without the
fanfare the e-commerce giant generates in consumer initiatives, but
the WSJ's Brian Baskin and Laura Stevens report the company now
counts more than one million customers in the field, and its moves
are rippling across distribution in the industrial supply world.
That business, estimated at roughly $130 billion in annual sales,
has been slow to adapt to e-commerce, but business-to-business
supply companies including W.W. Grainger Inc. and MSC Industrial
Direct Co. are moving to catch up, lowering prices and updating
sales strategies long built around weighty printed catalogs. Amazon
is upending conventions by allowing distributors and manufacturers
to sell directly on its marketplace, eliminating middlemen and
often undercutting traditional local suppliers, especially for
one-time "spot" sales. Industrial suppliers depend on bigger,
long-term sales, of course, but even that business faces upheaval
in the face of the sheer convenience of online ordering.
The budding U.S. armada of tankers transporting natural gas is
facing new competition. Russia is moving quickly to contain the
openings U.S. suppliers of liquefied natural gas are seeking in
Europe, the WSJ's Georgi Katchev reports, with state-run companies
lowering prices and developing their own LNG export facilities to
protect their grip on the country's largest energy market. The U.S.
is making small inroads in Europe, including the delivery to
Lithuania this week of the first shipment of U.S. natural gas to a
former Soviet republic. There are widespread predictions that the
American exports will help break Russia's dominance of the European
energy market, and with it Russia's political leverage there.
Europe's consumers are looking beyond politics for the lowest
prices, however, and U.S. exporters will have to find ways to lower
their delivery costs to go beyond just grabbing Russia's attention
and take a meaningful share of the market.
The increasingly fierce competition in retail's sportswear
market is triggering new conflicts between supplier and sellers.
Under Armour, Dick's Sporting Goods and Kohl's have gotten ensnared
in a love-hate triangle, the WSJ's Miriam Gottfried reports,
highlighting how brands and retailer are tripping over each other
as they try to address changing consumer shopping patterns. Store
owners like Dick's and Foot Locker Inc. have been foundering as
suppliers look for new sales outlets, including big-box retailers
and online markets. Under Armour struck a deal with department
store Kohl's that Dick's Sporting Goods suggests is cannibalizing
its sales. That's the kind of impact store owners fear as
sportwear's heavyweight supplier Nike Inc. rolls out a new
agreement to support sales of its goods on Amazon. The apparel
makers are trying to protect themselves from a downturn that has
led to an epidemic of store closings. But the sales strategies
carry risks for the suppliers, opening their products to more
discounting and deeper reductions in revenue.
SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES
A disconnect in electronics supply chains looks to be sending
suppliers and manufacturers in different financial directions. A
shortage of memory chips is hampering Lenovo Group Ltd.'s
turnaround strategy, the WSJ's Dan Strumpf reports, pushing the PC
and phone maker to its first quarterly loss in nearly two years.
Surging demand for memory chips has led to shortages and higher
prices of the components across the electronics industry. The
tighter supply has boosted the bottom lines of top semiconductor
makers like Samsung Electronics Co. and Intel Corp. But the higher
costs have squeezed Lenovo's margins, and the company has had
difficulty passing the higher costs along because prices for most
large customers are set by long-term contracts. Chip makers look to
be scaling up production: Research group Gartner Inc. sees
"aggressive investment" underway, and recently raised its forecast
for semiconductor industry capital spending world-wide this year.
That should make more chips available, although there's no
guarantee manufacturers will want to bring prices back down.
QUOTABLE
IN OTHER NEWS
A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S will sell its Maersk Oil operations to
Total S.A. in a deal worth $4.95 billion, separating the energy
business from the ownership of Maersk Line. (WSJ)
U.S. consumer sentiment increased in the first half of August to
its highest level since January. (WSJ)
The first round of North American trade talks ended with deep
fissures over a Trump administration proposal to require a
"substantial" portion of autos and auto parts be made in the U.S..
(WSJ)
The U.S. formally launched an investigation into Chinese efforts
to secure technology and Beijing's treatment of intellectual
property. (WSJ)
United Parcel Service Inc.'s rollout of virtual-reality training
for drivers is part of the growing corporate acceptance of the
technology. (WSJ)
Deere & Co. farm-equipment sales rose 17% in the last
quarter amid declining dealer inventories of used equipment.
(WSJ)
Four workers were killed in an explosion at an STX Offshore and
Shipbuilding shipyard in South Korea. (Korea Times)
Non-operating ship owners Döhle and Costamare are seeking
approval for a chartering brokerage joint venture that could become
the largest such operator in the world. (Lloyd's List)
Thieves are using increasingly sophisticated methods to hack
into shipping and logistics systems to garner information and
divert funds. (BBC)
Canada's Port of Vancouver is asking cargo ships to slow down to
protect killer whales. (Vancouver Sun)
The Suez Canal will sharply reduce transit rates for container
ships effective Oct. 1. (American Shipper)
TOTE Inc. will expand U.S. domestic container shipping
operations with service to Hawaii. (MarineLink)
Australia's Port of Melbourne is starting a rail project aimed
at having shuttle trains replace 3,500 trucks movements a day. (The
Age)
South Korea's Hyundai Merchant Marine is studying the launch of
a polar shipping route starting in 2020. (Splash 24/7)
Overstock.com is in talks with XPO Logistics Inc. to outsource
distribution and provide two-day delivery of furniture and other
bulky items. (New York Post)
A survey shows Amazon overtaking Flipkart in consumer popularity
in India, mainly because of its Prime service and logistics. (Times
of India)
Pennsylvania and other states are worried about road funding as
growing use of fuel-efficient vehicles cuts into gas tax receipts.
(Sharon Herald)
U.K. parcel carrier Hermes opened a 270,000-square-foot sorting
hub in the Midlands region. (Logistics Manager)
ABOUT US
Paul Page is deputy editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Follow him
at @PaulPage, and follow the entire WSJ Logistics Report team:
@brianjbaskin , @jensmithWSJ and @EEPhillips_WSJ. Follow the WSJ
Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.
Write to Paul Page at paul.page@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 21, 2017 06:55 ET (10:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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