Supply Chain Research

European business sentiment regarding the outlook for global trade continued to diverge in July. Export sentiment in France, shown by the latest INSEE survey, remained at near record lows while sentiment in Germany shown by the IFO survey returned to positive territory. An IFO reading of +6.9 (where zero indicates neutral) compares to -2.2 a month earlier and April’s -50.3 trough while “one of the biggest winners was the car industry” according to IFO. The improvement in the fortunes of the auto sector can be seen in the slowing rate of decline in shipments to the U.S. from Europe. Panji...