Supply Chain Research

China’s global trade activity fell by 3.4% year over year in October, the sixth straight month of decline. Imports led the way with a 6.4% slide, which bodes ill for global trade more broadly. An export decline of 0.9% was driven entirely by a 16.2% slump in exports to the U.S. Excluding the U.S. exports actually improved by 2.9%. At the product level, in terms of global exports, it was electronics that drove the downturn. Shipments of telecoms products fell 8.7%, which is a bad sign for the forthcoming telecoms peak selling season. A reversal in semiconductors and circuits to a 1.1% dec...