News Round Up 1st April

All things impacting global supply chains this week.

• Cause for concern that inflation is driving the movements in the banking sector at present. Two recent regional bank failures are at the mercy of central banks as they try to dampen inflation. Last week interest rates increased by 0.25 per cent.
• GlenFlat has created solutions to lowering cost of moving empty containers
• AI concerns have been raised and there are calls to halt experiments with AI. Of course if this happens in the US or Europe there wil still be experiments elsewhere in the world.
• Cyber attacks on supply chains are back in the news this week.
• British supermarkets have been defrauded by suppliers labelling contaminated meat as British when its country of origin is elsewhere in South America and Europe.
• The UK strikes an Asia Pacific trade deal with 11 countries.
• The spat about microchips between the US and China continues as China claims it could be threatened from the importation of US microchips which present security risks for China according to the Cyber Security Administration in China. Similar claims have already been made by the US about Chinese microchips. Micron is the US company impacted by the claims.
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says 50 per cent of trucks will be electric by 2035. Other states have followed suit. Transport is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas.
• Consumer spending in the US is modest at 2 per cent in February. Economic growth eases risks of credit crunch.
• Inflation in Europe is also falling. Energy and food costs remain volatile.
• President Macron visits China 5-8th April escaping Paris protests about pension rises.
• EU suppliers of seeds withdraw from UK supply because of post Brexit difficulties with certifications and it is costing them too much to maintain supply.
• Lithium prices have been fixed in China.
• Looming potato crisis as UK farmers reduce land used to produce the crop by 10 per cent beacuse of higher energy costs according to Farmers Weekly.
• Ex-President Trump is the firs

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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…