Supply Chain Aftershocks: The Real Cost of Tariffs in 2025

Описание: Logistics analyst Cathy Roberson shares her latest thinking and analysis on how shifting trade policies, tariffs, industry consolidation, and last-mile innovation are reshaping global supply chains. Mid-episode, learn how ALOM is helping its customers mitigate tariff uncertainty and cost, and build resilience in a fast-changing logistics environment. As the industry stands at a crossroads, this conversation offers sharp insight for supply chain leaders to explore strategies on how to stay ahead.

TRANSCRIPT

Shireen Garrison 00:07
Welcome to Smart Supply Chain, a podcast for supply chain professionals who think and work smarter. I'm your host. Shireen Garrison, usually I'm here with my sister in supply chain, Sarah Garrison, but today I have a special hosting guest with me. Steve Brown is here today. He works with me in the strategic client space. Hi Steve.

Steve Brown 00:26
Hi Shireen, thanks for having me today.

Shireen 00:26
Today we're going to talk about all things freight and logistics and all the things that are changing in the world. But Joining us today is Cathy Roberson. She's the founder and head analyst at Logistics Trends and Insights, where she's led customized research and consulting in the logistics industry. Cathy has more than 20 years of experience in the logistics market, and that's including more than a decade at UPS supply chain. She serves as a research manager in the Reverse Logistics Association, and she also contributes as a research analyst with the Journal of Commerce. Cathy publishes a weekly freight forward newsletter on LinkedIn, which has more than 20,000 subscribers, I've discovered. So welcome, Cathy. You're very busy these days.

Cathy Roberson 01:11
Thank you so much for inviting me.

Shireen 01:14
You're welcome. We're really excited to have you here. I have read a lot of this stuff that you've been putting out recently, and you are a busy person, there's a lot happening. I hope that you're ready to share some of it with us, to keep it all together, because there's so many things going on in the world today.

Cathy 01:31
I'll try, like there, there are a lot of things going on, and it's really hard to keep tabs on everything.

Shireen 01:40
You're doing a good job. You've got it all in all of your different posts and sub stacks and LinkedIn and all the things that you've got going on. So we want to hear about it. You're keeping yourself busy. For sure, so many things are shifting and changing on a nearly daily basis. But what are you hearing in relation to tariffs and trade wars, and how do you think that's impacting, in general, the global trade and freight industry.

Cathy 02:03
That's all that everyone wants to talk about, is the tariff situation. And what I'm hearing there's more questions than there are answers. But I mean, for the most part, retailers in particular, have been moving their sourcing, their manufacturing, away from China. And I think a lot of these tariffs are really primarily targeted to the imbalance of trade between the US and China, more so than other countries. And back during the pre pandemic, days when Trump was in office, the first time around, a lot of these retailers learned then, when he started implementing tariffs, that we needed to diversify sourcing locations. So most of them did, and they did a really good job of it. So now that we're in Trump 2.0 I guess you can call it, you know, a lot of them have diversified away, but they've also started generating more revenue from other countries as well. And I think that's it's interesting. I was talking to a journalist this morning, and we both agree with the earnings reports coming out for first quarter, that we're going to hear more retailers emphasize how they are generating more revenue from other countries and not just the United States. I mean, Levi Strauss, for example, made a special note of saying that over 60% of their total revenue is now outside of the US, which was a big surprise to me.

Shireen 03:36
That is surprising.

Cathy 03:38
Yeah, yeah. So I think he's seen a lot of this diversification, but also a lot of still unknown.

Shireen 03:45
Are you seeing changes that people are doing more near shoring, or are you seeing more that they're going to other countries outside of China?

Cathy 03:53
From my perspective, I'm seeing more going to other countries instead of that near shoring. There have been a lot of recent announcements of various companies announcing that they were going to open up a new manufacturing facility here in the US, but they're few and far between. Still, right now, people talk about the death of global trade, that this is it. I think it's just a reimagination of global trade. I think it, we still have it. It's not going anywhere. It's just gonna look a little different.

Steve 04:25
Yeah, I was gonna ask you that based on your experience when you think about this current tariff situation is it at a level you've never seen before.