David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
One of the promotional slogans the state of Ohio has used over the years is "Ohio, the heart of it all." Although it might not be quite what the sloganeers had in mind, the motto seems particularly apt from a logistics perspective. Centrally located in the nation's heartland, Ohio offers easy access to virtually all major markets on the eastern half of the continent.
"From a supply chain perspective, Ohio is ideally situated to reach the majority of the U.S. population and its businesses," says Art van Bodegraven, president of the Columbus-area supply chain consulting firm Van Bodegraven Associates. "Ohio also has a very business-friendly government structure," he adds.
Ohio's government has become more business-friendly than ever over the past six years. During his 2007-2011 term in office, former Gov. Ted Strickland eliminated over 250 state business regulations and revised another 1,800 in a bid to attract industry. He also streamlined business taxes, eliminating the corporate franchise and inventory taxes. On top of that, the governor used $100 million in federal stimulus money to invest in infrastructure, including a new intermodal hub in North Baltimore, Ohio, to handle goods moving via rail to and from Mid-Atlantic ports. The initiative is expected to save Ohio $70 million in highway maintenance and reduce logistics costs for Ohio companies by $350 million.
Under Strickland's leadership, Ohio's business climate jumped in the rankings from 38th in the nation to number 11. Those efforts have continued under Gov. John Kasich, who was sworn into office last year.
JOB ONE
Ohio's efforts to attract business have gone beyond regulatory and tax reform. The state has also made job creation a priority. To that end, it established JobsOhio early last year. (JobsOhio was privatized as a nonprofit entity in July of that year.) The agency has been given power by the state to negotiate incentives, grants, and other enticements to lure new business and to encourage growth in existing operations.
Significantly for the transportation and supply chain community, one area of focus is logistics. "The state government identified nine industry clusters that it felt was important to growth, and logistics is one of the nine," says Mark Patton, general manager of bio/health, information services, and logistics at JobsOhio. He says that manufacturing and logistics are tightly coupled in Ohio, and many companies are moving their operations back from China to Ohio as automation has reduced China's labor cost advantage. "They are finding it is more expensive to move products a long distance than to manufacture it here," Patton explains.
To meet expected growth in manufacturing, transportation, and distribution, the state has committed to supporting logistics infrastructure in several key areas. One of those areas is its extensive interstate highway system, which allows easy reach to both U.S. and Canadian commercial and population centers. Some 60 percent of U.S. citizens and 50 percent of Canadians live within a 600-mile radius of the state.
Ohio also offers easy rail access. Containers arriving at the Port of Norfolk (Virginia) can reach Ohio within a day by rail. The state also boasts 13 intermodal terminals. That compares favorably with California, which has 10 intermodal terminals in a much larger geographic region. In addition to rail, shippers of bulk products have the option of moving goods via Lake Erie to the north and along the Ohio River, which makes up the state's southern border.
As for air service, cargo handling facilities are available at the state's commercial airports as well as the Rickenbacker Inland Port in Columbus, a freight-only airpark. And the field is about to get bigger: The former DHL hub in Wilmington, Ohio, is now being redeveloped as a logistics air hub. After DHL pulled out in January 2009, the company donated the airport and adjacent buildings to the Clinton County Port Authority. Last year, the county hired real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle to develop a master plan for its use.
"The plan calls for the airpark to become a multi-use, aviation-based business park. Among the uses is as an international air freight center," says David Lotterer, a senior associate with Jones Lang LaSalle. "If you're going to bring in products by air and then distribute by land, it is an excellent site."
HOME GROWN
Just as Ohio is a convenient location for logistics and distribution, it is well situated for businesses that serve the supply chain community. For example, Intelligrated, one of the world's largest automated material handling systems manufacturers, is located in Mason, Ohio, just a stone's throw from Cincinnati. Company officials say the Midwest location makes it easy to ship products to the majority of its customers as well as to visit their sites.
"Clearly, having many of our customers nearby is a great advantage," says Chris Cole, Intelligrated's CEO. Key Intelligrated customers in Ohio include Anheuser-Busch, Big Lots, Cardinal Health, Georgia Pacific, Kraft, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Staples, to name just a few.
In 2009, Intelligrated partnered with the Ohio Department of Development and JobsOhio, receiving a $24 million incentive package to help the company expand. In return, Intelligrated promised to increase its workforce from 537 to 804 by the end of 2012. The company actually surpassed that goal in 2011, and it continues to open new slots, many of which are high-paying engineering and technical positions.
This past January, Intelligrated broke ground on a new 108,000-square-foot facility at its Mason headquarters to accommodate its engineering, customer service, research and development, and testing facilities - in all, 450 workers will be housed there.
"The state has been great to work with, including the various port authorities. And the city of Mason has also been a tremendous partner in helping our company to grow," says Cole. "We have seen that in an era when many have doubted America's manufacturing abilities, we have proven that a quality product can be made right here at home."
Among the reasons why companies like Intelligrated choose to locate or expand in Ohio is the region's talent pool.
"We have a very well-educated workforce with a strong work ethic," says Van Bodegraven. "Ohio is good at developing job skills. People can start learning about logistics in high school and end up with a Ph.D. in logistics at Ohio State."
John Ness, president of ODW Logistics, concurs. "People here have a Midwestern work ethic that is to 'promise your best, and deliver [on] your promise,'" he says.
ODW, a Columbus-based third-party logistics service provider, operates from 16 locations in nine states, with half of its operations in Ohio. Ness cites Ohio's labor pool, available and affordable real estate, low labor costs, freight access, and favorable business climate as major reasons why logistics has a strong foothold in the state.
In addition to his duties at ODW, Ness serves as co-chair of the Columbus Regional Logistics Council, a group formed to promote growth in the region's logistics capabilities. Recently, the council has been working with Columbus State Community College to retrain dislocated workers for jobs in logistics. Administered through the Central Ohio Workforce Commission, the training program has utilized a federal grant of $4.6 million to graduate over 600 logistics students over the past two years. It also has a 74-percent job placement rate for its grads.
DEEP ROOTS IN THE BUCKEYE STATE
Another material handling equipment maker with deep roots in the Buckeye State is Crown Equipment Corp. Since 1956, Crown has shipped lift trucks made at its facilities in New Bremen, north of Dayton, to customers worldwide.
Like Intelligrated, Crown has partnered with the state on a number of initiatives. Jim Mozer, Crown's senior vice president, points to fuel cell development as an example. Ohio has awarded Crown Equipment two $1 million grants for the development and testing of fuel cell-powered forklifts, he says. With these funds, Crown has built more than 500 new fuel cell forklifts and reconfigured many of its existing vehicles to operate with fuel cells.
During the past three years, Crown has also received more than $250,000 in training grants from the state. In return, Crown has purchased and revitalized empty facilities within Ohio. Last year, it acquired a vacant 75,000-square-foot facility in Minster to house its wire harness assembly operations. Crown also revitalized the former Huffy bicycle manufacturing site in Celina, turning it into a vibrant 850,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for lift truck products.
"Ohio has been a key part of Crown's growth as a global material handling company, and I hope that state officials would say the same thing about Crown's role in Ohio's emergence as an international logistics hub," says Mozer. "The supply chain and logistics community in the state has provided a valuable ecosystem of resources for our customers. We've found that Ohio is an excellent place for us to do business."
Nearly one-third of American consumers have increased their secondhand purchases in the past year, revealing a jump in “recommerce” according to a buyer survey from ShipStation, a provider of web-based shipping and order fulfillment solutions.
The number comes from a survey of 500 U.S. consumers showing that nearly one in four (23%) Americans lack confidence in making purchases over $200 in the next six months. Due to economic uncertainty, savvy shoppers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality or style, the research found.
Younger shoppers are leading the charge in that trend, with 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials buying pre-owned items weekly or monthly. That rate makes Gen Z nearly twice as likely to buy second hand compared to older generations.
The primary reason that shoppers say they have increased their recommerce habits is lower prices (74%), followed by the thrill of finding unique or rare items (38%) and getting higher quality for a lower price (28%). Only 14% of Americans cite environmental concerns as a primary reason they shop second-hand.
Despite the challenge of adjusting to the new pattern, recommerce represents a strategic opportunity for businesses to capture today’s budget-minded shoppers and foster long-term loyalty, Austin, Texas-based ShipStation said.
For example, retailers don’t have to sell used goods to capitalize on the secondhand boom. Instead, they can offer trade-in programs swapping discounts or store credit for shoppers’ old items. And they can improve product discoverability to help customers—particularly older generations—find what they’re looking for.
Other ways for retailers to connect with recommerce shoppers are to improve shipping practices. According to ShipStation:
70% of shoppers won’t return to a brand if shipping is too expensive.
51% of consumers are turned off by late deliveries
40% of shoppers won’t return to a retailer again if the packaging is bad.
The “CMA CGM Startup Awards”—created in collaboration with BFM Business and La Tribune—will identify the best innovations to accelerate its transformation, the French company said.
Specifically, the company will select the best startup among the applicants, with clear industry transformation objectives focused on environmental performance, competitiveness, and quality of life at work in each of the three areas:
Shipping: Enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable navigation through innovative technological solutions.
Logistics: Reinventing the global supply chain with smart and sustainable logistics solutions.
Media: Transform content creation, and customer engagement with innovative media technologies and strategies.
Three winners will be selected during a final event organized on November 15 at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, during the 2nd Artificial Intelligence Marseille (AIM) forum organized by La Tribune and BFM Business. The selection will be made by a jury chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the Group, and including members of the executive committee representing the various sectors of CMA CGM.
The global air cargo market’s hot summer of double-digit demand growth continued in August with average spot rates showing their largest year-on-year jump with a 24% increase, according to the latest weekly analysis by Xeneta.
Xeneta cited two reasons to explain the increase. First, Global average air cargo spot rates reached $2.68 per kg in August due to continuing supply and demand imbalance. That came as August's global cargo supply grew at its slowest ratio in 2024 to-date at 2% year-on-year, while global cargo demand continued its double-digit growth, rising +11%.
The second reason for higher rates was an ocean-to-air shift in freight volumes due to Red Sea disruptions and e-commerce demand.
Those factors could soon be amplified as e-commerce shows continued strong growth approaching the hotly anticipated winter peak season. E-commerce and low-value goods exports from China in the first seven months of 2024 increased 30% year-on-year, including shipments to Europe and the US rising 38% and 30% growth respectively, Xeneta said.
“Typically, air cargo market performance in August tends to follow the July trend. But another month of double-digit demand growth and the strongest rate growths of the year means there was definitely no summer slack season in 2024,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief airfreight officer, said in a release.
“Rates we saw bottoming out in late July started picking up again in mid-August. This is too short a period to call a season. This has been a busy summer, and now we’re at the threshold of Q4, it will be interesting to see what will happen and if all the anticipation of a red-hot peak season materializes,” van de Wouw said.
The report cites data showing that there are approximately 1.7 million workers missing from the post-pandemic workforce and that 38% of small firms are unable to fill open positions. At the same time, the “skills gap” in the workforce is accelerating as automation and AI create significant shifts in how work is performed.
That information comes from the “2024 Labor Day Report” released by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), the firm’s government relations and public policy arm.
“We continue to see a labor shortage and an urgent need to upskill the current workforce to adapt to the new world of work,” said Michael Lotito, Littler shareholder and co-chair of WPI. “As corporate executives and business leaders look to the future, they are focused on realizing the many benefits of AI to streamline operations and guide strategic decision-making, while cultivating a talent pipeline that can support this growth.”
But while the need is clear, solutions may be complicated by public policy changes such as the upcoming U.S. general election and the proliferation of employment-related legislation at the state and local levels amid Congressional gridlock.
“We are heading into a contentious election that has already proven to be unpredictable and is poised to create even more uncertainty for employers, no matter the outcome,” Shannon Meade, WPI’s executive director, said in a release. “At the same time, the growing patchwork of state and local requirements across the U.S. is exacerbating compliance challenges for companies. That, coupled with looming changes following several Supreme Court decisions that have the potential to upend rulemaking, gives C-suite executives much to contend with in planning their workforce-related strategies.”
Stax Engineering, the venture-backed startup that provides smokestack emissions reduction services for maritime ships, will service all vessels from Toyota Motor North America Inc. visiting the Toyota Berth at the Port of Long Beach, according to a new five-year deal announced today.
Beginning in 2025 to coincide with new California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards, STAX will become the first and only emissions control provider to service roll-on/roll-off (ro-ros) vessels in the state of California, the company said.
Stax has rapidly grown since its launch in the first quarter of this year, supported in part by a $40 million funding round from investors, announced in July. It now holds exclusive service agreements at California ports including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Hueneme, Benicia, Richmond, and Oakland. The firm has also partnered with individual companies like NYK Line, Hyundai GLOVIS, Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (Shell), and now Toyota.
Stax says it offers an alternative to shore power with land- and barge-based, mobile emissions capture and control technology for shipping terminal and fleet operators without the need for retrofits.
In the case of this latest deal, the Toyota Long Beach Vehicle Distribution Center imports about 200,000 vehicles each year on ro-ro vessels. Stax will keep those ships green with its flexible exhaust capture system, which attaches to all vessel classes without modification to remove 99% of emitted particulate matter (PM) and 95% of emitted oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Over the lifetime of this new agreement with Toyota, Stax estimated the service will account for approximately 3,700 hours and more than 47 tons of emissions controlled.
“We set out to provide an emissions capture and control solution that was reliable, easily accessible, and cost-effective. As we begin to service Toyota, we’re confident that we can meet the needs of the full breadth of the maritime industry, furthering our impact on the local air quality, public health, and environment,” Mike Walker, CEO of Stax, said in a release. “Continuing to establish strong partnerships will help build momentum for and trust in our technology as we expand beyond the state of California.”