News 4th March

Tony Hines with all things impacting global supply chains this week.

•  UK Government agrees a revised Northern Ireland Protocol avoiding borders on the island of Ireland and in the Irish Sea. This should reduce supply chain frictions that hampered the post Brexit trading arrangement. 
• Brent crude closed the week at $85.47 per barrel which is about 1 per cent up on the week. UAE denied rumours that it is about to leave OPEC to pump more oil. China’s returning demand for oil is also pushing up prices.
• The U.S. Federal Reserve said it is “acutely aware” of the challenges high inflation poses to the economy and is “strongly committed” to its 2% target for price increases, the central bank said on Friday in its latest semi-annual report to Congress on monetary policy and the economy. 
• Russia’s ruptured undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines are set to be sealed up and mothballed as there are no immediate plans to repair or reactivate them, sources familiar with the plans have told Reuters. 
• Patrick and John Collison are seeking fresh funds for Stripe the company they co-founded 13 years ago while exploring options to take it public, according to people familiar to the matter.  Venture capitalist Paul Graham once called Stripe “the next Google”.
• Apple iPhones soon to be assembled at another site in the southern Indian state of Karnataka and 300 acres have been aside to set up a factory, the state government said on Friday. Bloomberg News had earlier reported that Apple partner Foxconn Technology Group planned to invest about $700 million in the Karnataka site to ramp up local production. 
• Volkswagen’s off-road brand Scout Motors said on Friday it would build a $2 billion manufacturing plant near Columbia, South Carolina, for trucks and SUVs. The investment could potentially create 4,000 or more permanent jobs and more than 200,000 Scout vehicles could be produced annually at the facility. VW last sold a pickup in the United States in the early 1980s.
• IMI is diversifying it’s supply chain away from China as a consequence of geopolitical tensions

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About Tony Hines and the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage
I have been researching and writing about supply chains for over 25 years. I wrote my first book on supply chain strategies in the early 2000s. The latest edition is published in 2024 available from Routledge, Amazon and all good book stores. Each week we have special episodes on particular topics relating to supply chains. We have a weekly news round up every Saturday at 12 noon…