Supply Chain Research

The growth in Mexico’s international trade activity slowed to just 2.0% year over year in December, the slowest rate since April 2017. An 11.0% drop in trade in petroleum products was only partly to blame. Underlying trade growth of 3.4% included import’s which inched ahead by just of 0.1%, compared to an 8.8% expansion in the prior three months. Shipments from the U.S. grew by just 1.2% while exports to the U.S. climbed 9.5%. When added to data from China, Japan and South Korea, U.S. exports to the four countries combined likely fell by 6.6%. If that is repeated at the national level it...