Supply Chain Research

The specter of increased U.S. tariffs on Chinese exports is hanging over the back-to-school shopping season. The breakdown of U.S.-China negotiations in May may have lead to stockpiling of back-to-school products. Panjiva data shows U.S. imports of laptop computers rose 22.3% year over year in 2Q, led by a 50.6% jump in the month of June. Yet, there was a 1.6% year over year decline in July, including a slump in shipments associated with Dell and HP Inc, Panjiva data shows. Imports of backpacks and stationary meanwhile fell 8.8% and 20.2% respectively in the three months to July 31 – the...