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Nearshoring and reshoring remains a threat to offshoring, on which much depends
THERE is much said about nearshoring and reshoring of late, particularly in the United States where one presidential candidate made it a major plank in his campaign platform and his opponent dared not dispute it.
But when the dust clears and settles on the reality of what a US president faces, the general configuration of economic forces will largely dictate policy whatever the rhetoric employed on the hustings. That is, because options for 180 degree turns are delusional and whatever use one can make of them is largely symbolic to be deployed in electoral politics.
That doesn't mean that ambitious trade deals will fare any better, because often the are like the proverbial sausage that is a lot less appetising once one knows what it contains.
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Illegal immigration into the US - the good, bad and the ugly
ONE of the big issues that has kept the United States electorate in its thrall has been illegal immigration from Mexico with some arguing that it is a good thing, at least not a bad thing, while others insist it is ruinous to the nation and its economic prospects.
Illegal immigrants are five per cent of America's work force. There is almost no way for low-skilled Mexicans who lack American relatives to go north legally.
That means Mexicans make up half of all illegal immigrants, but only a fifth of all legal ones, reports London's Economist newspaper.
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US east coast to take more west coast market share, says Atlanta bankerTHE east coast-west coast battle for Asian import market share rages on with both sides seeing omens of plenty for their coast and portents of incipient ruin for the other side of the coast.
It's largely an American battle though through the still tiny port of Prince Rupert the west coast wins a goodly number of import boxes. But Vancouver, Canada's biggest port, is out of the game from the start because more than 95 per cent of its import cargo is bound for Canadian destinations.
And while Mexico's Lazaras Cardenas was supposed to relief congestion at southern California ports when started with a tie-up with the Kansas City Southern Railway, using El Paso as a gateway, there was a general downturn of 2008 and no congestion to relieve.
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Can the FMC be deployed to protect BCOs hit by events like the Hanjin collapse?
At this year's TPM Asia conference in Shenzhen, the city that borders Hong Kong and whose population now touches 20 million, the focus was mostly on the Asia-Europe trade.
But at the BCO (beneficial cargo owners) session, there was greater emphasis on the transpacific, and American problems than there had been with earlier sessions oriented as they were to the Asia-Europe trade.
Before getting to the BCO panelists main concern with the Hanjin collapse and having boxes still at sea, they agreed on one aspect of liner reliability - that it was less to do with ships being on time and more to do with the boxes being on time.
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