New round of tariffs may create new challenge for logistics managers, says Blume Global

When President Trump announced plans to impose 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods starting on September 1st, it begs the question, how is the supply chain handling these changes? 

Steve Dowse, SVP of Product Management at Blume Global says that regardless of your strategy, logistics managers across all industries  will be impacted. 

“In this era of global integration, the measures implemented on a single country or industry will have broad effects on additional countries and sectors. Even before the latest trade tensions, companies have sought to build more resilient supply chains, by diversifying suppliers and increasing digitization.

The most prominent effect was felt at the end of last year, when the threat of early-2019 tariffs on goods imported from China drove a buying binge of “unprecedented volumes”of U.S. imports — in an effort to beat impending duties — that put pressure on all parts of the supply chain, in particular the ports. 

Dowse says logistics managers  have taken a few paths to navigate tariffs including alternative sourcing, raising prices, buying ahead, and embracing a digitized supply chain that can help  anticipate disruptions and ultimately, optimize operations.

“Real-time analysis of integrated data spanning customers, partners and suppliers will lead to outcomes that better match supply and demand while containing costs. For example, supply-chain visibility is critical to stay ahead of sourcing and logistics challenges from tariffs,” he says. “Visibility would empower a company to anticipate potential logistics delays at ports from pre-tariff traffic, and make alternate arrangements if delays would impact deadlines.”

According to Dowse, AI and machine learning can power optimization to minimize costs, maximize capacity and increase agility — and anticipate potential tariff impacts while recommending potential solutions.

“In this era of global trade unrest, strategies that utilize real-time data analysis and AI-powered optimization can support the sourcing and inventory management required to help obviate the impact of tariffs,” he maintains.