The calm before the storm is over.
Starting next week, I’m hitting the road to attend/speak at various industry events this month and next, including:
- o9’s aim10x Americas
- The Richmond Logistics and Supply Chain Forum
- Infor Nexus Connect 2025
- Transporeon Summit 2025
- SAP Supply Chain Connect 2025
If you’re attending any of these events, I look forward to learning and networking with you there!
Before I start packing, here is the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:
- Trump asks Supreme Court to save his emergency tariffs (CNN)
- EU to vote on South America trade deal with safeguards for farmers (BBC)
- US CBP enables Flexport, 9 others to handle postal duties (Supply Chain Dive)
- Ocean Shipping Rates Sink as Importers Balk at Trade Upheaval (WSJ – sub. req’d)
- US manufacturing contracts for sixth straight month amid tariff drag (Reuters)
- Trucking execs have mixed projections for back half of 2025 (Trucking Dive)
- PepsiCo Charges Ahead With Battery-Electric Big Rigs (WSJ – sub. req’d)
- AI logistics startup Augment, from Deliverr’s founder, raises massive $85M Series A (TechCrunch)
- Real-Time Transportation Visibility Data-as-a-Service from Shippeo – Now Available as SAP Endorsed App on SAP Store
- Magaya and Adelante SCM Publish Future-Focused Preparedness Report: Freight Forwarding at a Crossroads: Preparing for 2026 and Beyond
- Descartes Announces Fiscal 2026 Second Quarter Financial Results
The Supreme Court for Trump Tariffs
What if all this turmoil with tariffs the past nine months has been for naught?
As reported by CNN, “President Donald Trump on [September 3] urged the Supreme Court to step into the fray over his emergency tariffs…Trump is pressing the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that found his administration acted unlawfully by imposing many of his sweeping import taxes…The appeal follows a divided decision [August 29] from a federal appeals court in Washington that found Trump overstepped his authority by relying on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose the tariffs.”
The article adds that “the Trump administration has requested an unusually speedy review by the Supreme Court, asking that the justices decide whether to hear the case by September 10 and tee up arguments for early November. The plaintiffs in the case have agreed to that rapid timeline.”
What would happen if the Supreme Court ultimately rules that the Trump tariffs are illegal?
It will be a sh*t show, for sure.
“We’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars potentially in refunds affecting thousands and thousands of importers,” said trade lawyer Luis Arandia, a partner with the law firm of Barnes & Thornburg, as quoted in an AP article by Paul Wiseman. “Unwinding all that will be the largest administrative effort in U.S. government history.’’
“I would anticipate that if the administration did lose, they would turn around and start arguing why it would be impossible to give refunds to everybody,” said Brent Skorup, legal fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, as quoted in the AP article too. “I think there will be a lot of litigation about the nature of refunds and who’s entitled one. And I expect the administration will raise all sorts of objections.’’
So, the soap opera continues, and so does the uncertainty for companies around the world.
Will the Supreme Court decision, whatever it is and whenever it comes, be the last word on these tariffs? I sure hope so, but like all soap operas, this one may find a way to never end.
As Manufacturing Goes, So Does Trucking
When will conditions in the trucking market improve?
“Any day now, any day now,” has been the answer for the past three years, with various pundits and analysts continuously predicting an upturn is just around the corner. They’ll eventually be right, but not today.
TD Cowen’s Jason Seidl, managing director in research and senior transport analyst, said it best last month (as quoted in a Trucking Dive article by David Taube): “This is year three of the trucking downturn. Have things gotten worse? No. Have they gotten better? Very, very mildly.”
The fact is that the trucking market is tightly linked with the manufacturing industry. As manufacturing goes, so does trucking. And manufacturing remains in the slumps.
“Economic activity in the manufacturing sector contracted in August for the sixth consecutive month, following a two-month expansion preceded by 26 straight months of contraction,” say the nation’s supply executives in the latest ISM® Manufacturing PMI® Report.
In short, manufacturing economic activity has contracted in 27 of the past 29 months.
When will conditions in the trucking market improve? When the Manufacturing PMI Index goes above 50% and stays there for a sustained period of time is my guess. And that will happen any day now, any day now.
And with that, have a meaningful weekend!
Song of the Week: “Surefire” by Wilderado
