Tradeshift’s Index of Global Trade Health Q3 2022
US normalizing, Europe sliding, as world trade slows for the third successive quarter
World trade data from Tradeshift’s Q3 Index of Global Trade Health shows activity across supply chains dropped for the third quarter in a row. Transaction volume growth slowed by 5 points against the expected range as trade activity across retail, manufacturing and transport & logistics fell sharply.
Tradeshift’s analysis places Europe at the epicentre of the latest slowdown. Supply chain activity across the Eurozone fell by a further 6 points in Q3 as the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wiped out consumer spending and placed significant cost pressures on supply chains. In the UK, which faces a similar range of challenges, trade activity fell by a further 5 points in Q3.
A different picture is, however, emerging in the US. Momentum is slowing but at a much gentler rate than elsewhere in the world. Total transaction volumes tracked at just 2 points below the expected level in Q3. In China, local supply chain activity also grew at a relatively healthy rate in Q3, just 1 point below the expected range. However, activity levels across China’s supply chains have been very erratic since the beginning of the year, and this is unlikely to change as long as the lockdown policy remains in force.
“Covid helped dispel the antiquated notion of the Supply Chain as a necessary, but unimportant backwater of the business, subsequent events have merely reinforced that change in perspective,” says Christian Lanng, CEO of Tradeshift. “Every business should be looking at the sustainability and resiliency of its supply chain in terms of a radical opportunity for competitive advantage. There are no shortcuts to this transition, but technology has a foundational role to play in helping forward-thinking supply chain leaders on that journey.”
Read the full report to find out how your business can prepare for the months ahead, and check out the brilliant Q&A with Niels Boersema, Supply Chain Integration Director at Danone, who took time to talk to us about how he is using technology to embed security and agility through the supply chain.
