Supply Chain Research

Global trade volumes expanded for a 34th month in November according to CPB data, though the 0.7% year over year expansion was the slowest since Oct. 2016. The U.S.-China trade war was not the reason why – there was a decline in exports from the EU of 2.5% and Japan of 2.4% being the major drivers. Worse is likely yet to come. Panjiva’s analysis of 10 measures indicates even slower growth in December. For January the earlier lunar new year and progress on U.S.-China trade talks make for an uncertain outlook.