FreightWaves’ Baltimore coverage spans segments

O little town of Baltimore

I lived in Baltimore City for 12 years so it’s impossible for me to not have a lot of mixed thoughts about the town. It has a vibrant financial community and I loved the local running groups. It’s also the only place where I was ever punched in the head on my way home from work.

I toured the container and ro-ro terminals and the coal export terminals at Baltimore on separate occasions. What was memorable to me is that the Lamborghinis and luxury European imports are not considered the “expensive cargo” — that would be the helicopters, tanks and construction equipment that come off the ro-ro vessels.

I still can’t believe that the Francis Scott Key Bridge is no more. To get and stay caught up, there are plenty of FreightWaves articles here. 

SONAR data shows that a lot of cheap furniture comes through the Port of Baltimore. (Chart: SONAR)

Here are a few stats about Baltimore from the SONAR data product, according to Zach Strickland, SONAR head of freight market intelligence:

• Some 31,000 people per day crossed the Francis Scott Key Bridge — that’s not huge for trucking traffic but will be a bigger deal for maritime and subsequently drayage due to reduced port activity.
• The Port of Baltimore handles about a fourth of the volume of Savannah, Georgia, according to the SONAR IOTI (inbound ocean bookings at point of origin) and ICSTM (maritime import shipments clearing U.S. customs) data sets.
• The port is roughly the 12th-largest by volume of twenty-foot equivalent units in the U.S. over the past year (2.4% of TEUs in the SONAR Container Atlas app).
• Baltimore is the 24th-largest outbound trucking market in the U.S., as the metro areas are segmented in SONAR (1.24% Outbound Tender Market Share).
• Thirty-six percent of the tender volume stays in Maryland; 22% goes to Pennsylvania and 15% to Virginia, to round out the top three. I.e., Most of the freight is regional.

Fast fashion supply chain becomes profit center

On next week’s The Stockout show, which airs Monday at 10 a.m. Eastern time, Grace Sharkey and I plan to talk about Shein, the polarizing fast fashion company. Depending on one’s perspective, it’s a hero for bringing affordable accessories to the masses or an environmental demon for bringing tremendous material and packaging waste into style.

Setting that debate aside, Shein is clearly a supply chain innovator that creatively addresses the unpredictable nature of fashion industry trends. That includes this week’s news that the company is launching a “supply chain as a service,” which will make its supply chain infrastructure and technology available to outside brands and designers. The idea is to enable other brands to test new designs in small batches via Shein’s on-demand manufacturing model, which includes using real-time data to adjust production schedules. Unusual for clothing, Shein uses airfreight as a way to provide fast delivery to offset the typical slowness that would result from an on-demand and low-inventory manufacturing model.

If and when Shein releases a public prospectus, ripping it apart will make for great fodder for Grace and me to discuss.

Unilever cuts tail to move head

(Image: FWTV)

On Monday’s episode of The Stockout, FreightWaves’ show that focuses on CPG and retail logistics, I went through a few topics including last week’s announcements that Unilever plans to divest its ice cream business and cut 7,500 jobs. In some ways, the layoff announcement was the bigger news since Unilever telegraphed the ice cream divestiture when it restructured its financials in 2022. It’s also a strategy that is consistent with other publicly traded CPG companies, such as Nestle with its “cut the tail to move the head” strategy.

Other topics discussed on Monday’s show include General Mills’ cost inflation, record cocoa prices and a SONAR breakdown of the high-traffic Chicago-to-Atlanta lane. In addition, Baudendistel highlights why international intermodal volume is outperforming domestic intermodal volume and why that matters for investors, carriers and shippers.

Monday’s episode can be seen here, and the full playlist is available here.

Are unhealthy foods being unfairly targeted?
I found this article from Just Food to be timely in light of the intense investor and corporate focus on shifting resources in favor of food segments perceived to be healthy.

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Source: freightwaves - FreightWaves’ Baltimore coverage spans segments
Editor: Michael Baudendistel