Amazon Web Services announced an app to help businesses increase supply chain visibility, the company said Tuesday. AWS Supply Chain is designed to help businesses make “faster, more informed decisions that mitigate risks, lower costs and improve customer experiences,” it said. The app combines and analyzes data across multiple supply chain systems, allowing businesses to view their operations in real time, find trends quickly and generate more accurate demand forecasts “that ensure adequate inventory to meet customer expectations,” it said.

Optical transport equipment revenue declined 6% year-over-year Q3, Dell’Oro Group said Wednesday. “The main culprit for this market revenue decline was the lack of component supply needed to make finished goods,” said Jimmy Yu, Dell’Oro vice president: “Optical vendors have a growing amount of backlog due to higher demand for [dense wavelength-division multiplexing] equipment but are not able to deliver completed systems when they are short on one component or two. Another factor lowering the market revenue is the strengthening US dollar. Since the market revenue is based on US dollars, most sales in Europe and Asia are converted to fewer US dollars and reducing the reported market size.” Among the regions studied, North America remained “slightly positive” while Europe declined at the highest rate. Dell’Oro said in a second report “preliminary findings suggest” the slow down in the momentum of the radio access network market in the first half of 2022 continued into Q3, declining “year-over-year for a second consecutive quarter.” Following “four years of extraordinary growth that catapulted the RAN market to record levels in 2021, the RAN market is now entering a new phase,” said Stefan Pongratz, Dell’Oro vice president: “Even with 5G still increasing at a healthy pace, comparisons are more challenging and the implication for the broader RAN market is that growth is decelerating. Still, one major difference between 4G and 5G is the fact there are now more frequency options for the operators to pursue, which helps to curb the decline in the post-peak rollout phase.” The top five global suppliers in the quarter were Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung, the report said.

In stark contrast from a year ago, imports at major U.S. container ports are slowing before the holiday shopping season, as demand has fallen from peak consumption during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, said a global port tracker from the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates Tuesday. Hackett Associates expects the “flattening of demand” that began mid-year to continue into the middle of 2023, said founder Ben Hackett. “This will depress the volume of imports, which has already declined in recent months,” he said, saying “carriers have begun to pull services and are looking at laying up ships.” U.S. ports peaked at 2.4 million 20-foot-equivalent containers (TEUs) in May; the number dropped to 2.03 million in September. The tracker estimates 2.02 TEUs million for October, 1.92 million this month and 1.9 million for December. “Cargo levels that historically peak in the fall peaked in the spring this year as retailers concerned about port congestion, port and rail labor negotiations and other supply chain issues stocked up far in advance of the holidays,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president-supply chain and customs policy. Gold referenced a possible rail strike this month, which could challenge the supply chain, but said “the majority of holiday merchandise is already on hand and retailers are well prepared to meet demand.”

Imports at major U.S. container ports are expected to hit their lowest level in almost two years by year-end, said a Friday report from the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said despite the lower volume, retailers are still experiencing challenges along the supply chain, citing U.S. ports and intermodal rail yards. “The growth in U.S. import volume has run out of steam, especially for cargo from Asia,” said Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett, saying recent cuts in carriers’ shipping capacity reflect falling demand for merchandise from well-stocked retailers “even as consumers continue to spend.” Retailers who planned ahead with orders “have plenty of merchandise on hand to meet demand,” said NRF’s Gold. The closing of factories during China’s Golden Week holiday the first week of October combined with the Chinese government’s continuing “Zero Covid” policy have affected production, “reducing demand for shipping capacity from that side of the Pacific as well,” Hackett said. U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 2.26 million 20-foot-long equivalent units (TEUs) in August, up 3.5% from July but down 0.4% year on year, said the report. September’s numbers haven’t been reported, but the port tracker projected the month at 2.07 million TEUs, down 3% from the prior year. It forecast a 6.1% drop in TEUs in December to 1.96 million, which would be the lowest since February 2021. For 2022, the report projects 26 million TEU, up 0.7% from last year’s record of 25.8 million.

Costco’s e-commerce sales increased 8.4% year over year in its fiscal Q4 ended Aug. 28, said Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti on an earnings call Thursday. “The largest e-com merchandise department in dollars, what we call majors, which includes everything from computers to appliances to TVs to audio, was up in the high-single digits,” he said. Costco has had “minor improvement in a few areas” in recent inflationary trends, said Galanti. “Pressures from higher commodity prices, higher wages and higher transportation costs and supply chain disruptions -- they’re still present, but we are seeing just a little light at the end of the tunnel.” Supply chain disruptions have “improved a little,” he said. Costco no longer is experiencing “any big capacity issues or container shortages,” he said. “Domestically, port delays have improved.” The rail strike “was thankfully averted, [but] in anticipation of a strike, there were some rail ramp closures and delays in restarting that,” he said. “But the view from our buyers is that this should be eliminated for the most part toward the end of this week.”

The National Retail Federation is “relieved and cautiously optimistic” that the “devastating nationwide rail strike has been averted,” said CEO Matthew Shay Thursday. Freight rail is “critical to the retail supply chain, and retailers of every size rely on it to move cargo every day,” said Shay in a previous statement Wednesday. “A strike would have devastating consequences for retailers’ supply chains and could cripple the U.S. economy.” The tentative agreement means “our economy can avert the significant damage any shutdown would have brought,” said President Joe Biden in a statement Thursday.

The U.S. and its 13 Indo-Pacific Economic Framework partners closed out their first in-person ministerial meetings in Los Angeles Friday with an agreement to “seek to coordinate actions to mitigate and prevent future supply chain disruptions and secure critical sectors and key products for our manufacturers,” said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The 14 IPEF countries have “the collective goal of resilient supply chains that can anticipate, withstand, or rapidly recover from shocks and strengthen the competitiveness of our economies within the Indo-Pacific region,” they said in a ministerial statement. “We recognize that strengthening logistics in supply chains, including land, air, waterway, maritime, shipping and port infrastructure, can have broad-based positive effects.”

Logistics maker Seko updated its communications offering to reduce the risk of returns of big and bulky items. New features include the ability to bring the client directly on the call for resolution, customizable tags that can be used to give insight into the full order journey, barcode and QR scanning and custom web links, Chief Technology Officer Mike Powell emailed Tuesday. Depending on the client requirements, it can be both. Some clients use Seko as the first line of service while more technical situations may require merging resources, Powell said. In addition to reducing returns, Seko Live is designed to cut down on failed white glove deliveries and installations; engage clients directly with consumers in real-time in instances when a sale may be affected; cut carbon emissions; and boost a consumer’s last-mile and post-delivery experience, Powell said. The service complements a retailer’s support team, he said. In instances where a retailer relies on a delivery partner to manage aspects of installation and setup, Seko Live can call on a trained in-house technician or merge the call directly with the client to avoid a poor experience that could lead to a canceled order, Powell said. Seko pegs the return rate for CE products purchased online at “at least 16%.” Returns cost U.S. retailers over $760 billion annually in lost sales and add significantly to their carbon footprint, "often because their customers can’t get timely information or product assistance to finalize a delivery and installation," Seko said.

Cisco expects to continue to experience supply chain inflation in the short term, “driven primarily by higher component, freight and logistics costs,” said CEO Chuck Robbins on an earnings call Wednesday for fiscal Q4 ended July 30. “We expect this margin pressure to begin to ease” as the new fiscal year progresses, he said. “After a challenging April due to the COVID-related shutdowns in Shanghai, and the impact on semiconductor and power supplies, overall supply constraints began to ease slightly at the back half of the fourth quarter and continuing into the start of Q1.” Though the component supply headwinds remain, “they have begun to show early signs of easing,” he said. “The multiple actions we have taken over the past two years are helping to improve our resiliency and will help offset cost inflation,” including adding new suppliers and “redesigning hundreds of products to use alternative components with similar capability,” he said.

Retail imports at major U.S. container ports are expected to “slow significantly” for the rest of the year, but 2022 should still have a net gain over 2021, reported the National Retail Federation Monday. “Retail sales are still growing, but the economy is slowing down and that is reflected in cargo imports,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president-supply chain and customs policy. “Lower volumes may help ease congestion at some ports, but others are still seeing backups and global supply chain challenges are far from over.” NRF’s “biggest concern” is the potential for disruption because of labor negotiations at the West Coast ports and the freight railroads, he said: “Concluding both sets of negotiations without disruption is critical as the important holiday season approaches.” U.S. ports handled 2.25 million 20-foot-long containers or their equivalents in June, said NRF, down 5.9% from the record 2.4 million in May but up 4.9% year over year. June’s results brought first-half imports to 13.5 million containers, a 5.5% increase from January-June 2021, it said.