January 2023
An evolution
The world is a very different place than it was two years ago.
Many of the pandemic related cost increases that helped surge inflation to its highest level in 40 years have either started to fall or have completely returned to pre-pandemic levels. In most places, we’re back to normalized ocean transit times, little to no port congestions and healthy inventory levels. And yet it’s hard to describe things as “normal.” We still worry about material pricing or receiving the products we ordered on time, and the threat of a recession still looms large. From China, to Europe to North America, 2021 and 2022 have left their mark on world trade flows and how organizations think about their supply chains. What comes next remains to be seen, but it’s clear trade has a slightly different texture.
In that spirit, the GCP Cost Report which has been published monthly since Q2 2021 is evolving. As we know, costs are forever a part of business, but it is no longer the only major theme we wish to center around. That doesn’t mean our cost coverage is going away. We still plan to report on previous metrics like ocean freight, raw material pricing, trucking costs and so on. However, we also want to widen the scope to include non-financially driven topics impacting trade, specifically with GCP and globally. These encompasses subjects like transit times, port operations, political developments and so forth.
As the ever present cost increase environment of the past two years gives way to a new reality of global business and trade, our report is adapting too.
Welcome to the new GCP Industrial Products Trade Report.
For a deeper look into all these topics and more open the full report in the link below.
This months report is 2514 words, 8 minute read.
