The Supply Chainer

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have sent packaging material costs soaring. Brent crude has jumped from around $73 to over $100 per barrel, pushing up prices for plastics, corrugated board, and transportation. For shippers, e-commerce companies, and manufacturers, the pressure on margins is intense. Yet unlike many other areas of operations, transit packaging offers practical and immediate ways to fight back. The Plastic and Voi

The latest Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, hosted by Tom Raftery, examines why corporate carbon reduction efforts often miss the most material sources of impact. The guest is John Beath, CEO and Chief Technical Director of John Beath Environmental, a lifecycle assessment specialist and professional engineer with deep experience in environmental consulting. The discussion focuses on carbon footprinting, lifecycle assessment, supplier data, waste, green claims and the operation

Supply chain has become more complex and intertwined with business performance, competitive advantage, and brand perception. This puts industry communicators consistently in the spotlight and creates new challenges, especially as the dynamics of visibility, influence, and authority quickly evolve. Brand-side supply chain organizations are tasked with building customer and investor confidence. Technology and service providers must differentiate in crowded markets while respond

This year at MODEX 2026, the scale of automation on display was familiar, but the emphasis has continued to shift. Beyond robotics and point solutions, discussions across the floor pointed to systems that move from supporting decisions to executing them - continuously, and across operational layers. While the spotlight shone on emerging infrastructure and orchestration solutions, the industry giants also delivered notable advancements that reinforced the broader shift from st

Geopolitical disruption is once again distorting global logistics flows, but its impact is proving uneven. Tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, fluctuating fuel costs, and shifting carrier behaviour are creating instability across key trade lanes. Yet rather than triggering a broad-based surge in costs and delays, the effect remains fragmented and dependent on underlying market conditions. Global Signals Remain Fragmented Rates on major routes have moved only modestly. Freig

Career paths across logistics and supply chain are becoming less predictable. Many of today’s founders, operators, and senior executives did not follow a clean, step-by-step progression. They started in billing, on warehouse floors, or in entry-level sales roles, and built their way up through exposure to real operations. The shift is not just about ambition. It reflects how the industry itself works - complex, fast-moving, and dependent on people who understand how things ac

In the latest episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery speaks with Constantine Komodromos, Founder and CEO of VesselBot, about a problem hiding in plain sight across global operations: most companies still lack a single, real-time view of their logistics performance. The discussion centres on transport data, emissions visibility, and the growing gap between what organisations think they know and what is actually happening across cost, service, and execu

Earlier this year, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down a set of tariffs imposed under emergency economic powers, effectively requiring the government to return funds already collected from importers. These tariffs had been embedded in pricing, sourcing, and cost structures across global supply chains. Now, with CBP launching the CAPE system to process refunds, companies are being pulled into a complex recovery process - one that sits at the intersection of trade complianc

With U.S. retail return rates estimated at roughly 15–20% annually, reverse logistics is becoming a central factor in retail profitability rather than a secondary operational concern. Retailers and logistics providers are increasingly rethinking how returned goods are processed, moving away from centralized national facilities toward regional returns infrastructure designed to shorten processing times and reduce costs. The shift reflects broader pressure on retailers to contr

Retail e-commerce sales topped $6 trillion globally in 2024, fueling continued growth in international parcel flows. Cross-border orders now account for roughly one in five online purchases worldwide, with about 59% of online shoppers reporting purchases from overseas retailers, according to recent consumer research. Amid this growth, tariffs, de minimis caps, currency fluctuations, and geopolitical tensions are adding new volatility to global parcel networks. Facing shifting

These were the 10 most read articles in the first quarter of 2026, which was also the beginning of the second quarter of the 21st century. The Top 10 articles that generated the highest readership and engagement among the supply chain community (Shippers, Service Providers & Carriers) were: Food Safety Risks Loom; Sysco and DHL Address Recall Questions (January 21), highlighting how food safety risks and recalls have become a major pressure point with Sysco and DHL facing to

April 2026 reflected a continued focus on execution, structural scaling, and internal capability building across logistics providers, consultancies, and food-linked supply chains. Alongside selective leadership appointments, companies are investing in operational depth, digital procurement, and physical network expansion to support resilience and growth. 4C Associates Promotes Retail and Supply Chain Transformation Leaders to Associate Partner 4C Associates promoted Katy Gall