Globalization

The latest DHL Global Connectedness Tracker shows trade expanding faster in early 2025 than in any half-year since 2010.

Globalization is losing its power. National unilateralism, sanctions, wars, and protectionism are threats to free world trade—and thus to global supply chains. Readjusting the compass and preparing for challenging times is now the motto of many companies in Europe.

In this podcast, Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman interviews Jim, Tompkins, Chairman, Tompkins Ventures.

Company finds that most companies are accelerating nearshoring, reshoring efforts

When top executives at high-profile logistics companies share a stage together, it stands to reason that their opinions and insights will be valuable. That was certainly the case earlier this month, when Hamid Moghadam, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of San Francisco-based real estate investment trust Prologis, and Fred Smith, founder and executive chairman of Memphis-based freight transportation and logistics services provider FedEx, took the stage in London at Prologis’s annual Groundbreakers conference.

As reported by LM earlier this month, after a statutory four-year review process of Section 301 tariffs levied on United States-bound imports from China conducted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the final outcome, the White House announced, that those tariffs are remaining intact, with ones for certain products, to see increases.

A three-decade expert in supply chain, the Reshoring Institute’s Rosemary Coates explains how the reshoring trend has progressed.

More companies are moving to reduce their sourcing exposure to China, finds AlixPartners survey.

Improving efficiency and customer satisfaction

Even before the pandemic, the idea of managing a streamlined global freight transportation network was considered by many as the single biggest challenge facing U.S. companies looking to build a universal brand—no matter the industry.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has, in some ways, fundamentally changed certain logistics processes and operations, due to the shifts it brought about in consumer behavior, and, more specifically, consumption and buying preferences, one area that remains on solid footing is globalization.

Global express delivery and logistics services provider DHL announced earlier this month that it is spending more than $360 million between 2020-2022, in an initiative focused on building new and expanding existing facilities in the America’s region, spanning the United States, Canada, Mexico, South and Central America and the Caribbean, coupled with investing millions of dollars into its Americas air network, for things like the introduction of new direct flight routes.

When looking at the last three-to-four years in the logistics and freight transportation sectors, it is clear that there has been an “unusual and high level of activity” occurring. That was a key theme of a keynote speech at this week’s SMC3 Connections conference held at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia by John Wiehoff, CEO of global logistics services provider and freight forwarder C.H. Robinson. In a wide-ranging speech, Wiehoff categorized some of the bigger...