Monthly Supply Chain Pulse - 21

📰 Supply Chain Pulse | Monthly Edition – August 11, 2025

Your Go-To Source for Supply Chain Insights, Trends, and Actionable Advice

Supply Chain Theme of 2025: Success will be measured by resilience and cost efficiency.

📊 Key Metrics

Staying competitive means keeping an eye on the data that matters most. Here are four supply chain metrics that we monitor and will provide updates on within each newsletter.

🛳️ Drewry World Container Index (WCI)

The 40ft container shipping rate from Shanghai to New York decreased by 20.9% this month, dropping from $4,839 to $3,826.

Why it matters: The drop suggests extra capacity on this lane and immediately lowers your landed costs. It’s a quick way to recapture margin or pass savings to customers.

What to consider: Pull forward shipments to lock in today’s lower rates and refresh spot quotes now, ongoing trade negotiations could reverse this dip quickly.

🚚 DAT Truckload Freight Rate Index

The national average Van Spot Rate decreased by 2.4%.

Why it matters: While van spot rates ticked down 2.4%, we don’t see this as a market signal. Moves this small are common in midsummer as capacity and fuel fluctuate. Treat it as noise and keep your routing guide steady. Keep your eye on multi-week trends.

🛢 Commodity Research Bureau (CRB) Index

The CRB index measures a basket of 19 commodities including energy, agriculture, and metals. It’s widely considered a leading indicator of inflation, economic health, and overall cost trends for goods across the market. An increase tends to signify an increase in economic activity while a decrease tends to signify a slowdown in economic activity.

This month, the index decreased by 3.1%.

What to consider: Keep watching the CRB and the inputs beneath it and use those trends in supplier talks. Drill down by commodity to find leverage, for example, copper is down ~19% month-over-month. So if you buy copper-based parts, ask for immediate repricing.

🇺🇸 🏭 Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index

To create this index, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia surveys around 250 manufacturers, asking about factors like employment, working hours, new and unfilled orders, shipments, inventory levels, delivery times, prices, costs, and business forecasts for the next six months. An index level above zero signifies improving conditions, while a level below zero indicates worsening conditions. Read more here.

The diffusion index for current general activity jumped from -4.0 in June to +15.9 in July.

Why it matters: A jump from -4.0 to +15.9 flips the Philly Fed from mild contraction to solid expansion pointing to stronger orders and shipments ahead. If this holds, expect tighter capacity and the risk of longer lead times and firmer pricing.

What to consider: Firm up production schedules and reserve supplier capacity now. Lock in quotes on critical parts before pricing tightens. Recheck safety stock on A-movers and align staffing/labor plans in case demand accelerates through late summer.

🇺🇸 US Hot Topic: Full List of U.S. Tariffs (Click To Read Article)

The U.S. has activated a new wave of “reciprocal” tariffs after months of delays and pivots, setting a blanket 10 % duty for most countries while striking separate frameworks with the U.K., EU, Canada, India, and many others. Several partners face steeper rates: Brazil and India up to 50% (India is at 25% now, stepping up), Canada 35%, and Mexico 25% with further changes paused pending talks. China is an exception under a détente that lowered earlier triple-digit levels; it currently faces 30% tariffs until a truce expires August 12, 2025. Uncertainty remains as nations like Switzerland continue negotiating to reduce the new levies.

Why It Matters:
This is a sweeping reset of trade costs that will raise landed prices for a wide range of inputs, from metals and machinery to components used deep in supplier tiers. Even companies not directly importing from the highest-tariff countries can see indirect cost pass-through as their vendors absorb new duties. The patchwork of rates by country and product adds planning and compliance complexity, shortening quote validity and clouding delivery timelines. Expect renewed pressure on margins, more origin shifts in sourcing, and faster repricing across global supply chains as the policy landscape changes again in August.

Our Take:
We support tariffs when they are targeted. When applied to strategic sectors such as precision machining for aerospace/defense, grid hardware (transformers, switchgear), semiconductors, advanced packaging, and critical medical devices they can catalyze domestic investment, protect IP, and strengthen resilience. Broad, across-the-board tariffs simply raise costs in sectors where the U.S. lacks scalable capacity or where production carries unfavorable environmental impacts such as bulk chemicals, commodity rubber molding, low-end electronics, and basic textiles, leaving no practical near-term substitute. The right approach is calibrated protection via tariffs for strategic segments, paired with open access to routine inputs, so U.S. manufacturers compete on innovation, quality, speed.

How Ena Source Helps:
We maintain strategic supplier partnerships in the U.S., Europe, South America, and Asia, so you can buy American when it makes sense and re-source to more tariff-favorable countries when it doesn’t. We act as your outsourced sourcing/supply chain manager: mapping tariff exposure, modeling landed costs, benchmarking prices, and standing up alternate suppliers fast. Our clients typically see ~20% savings while building more resilient, multi-sourced supply chains that can flex as policies change.

📈 Ena Monthly Stock Pick

$IBIT– If you’re crypto-curious but don’t want to mess with wallets or exchanges, IBIT is the simple way to own bitcoin in a regular brokerage account. It holds spot bitcoin, so your shares track the coin directly. Since launching, it’s become one of the most actively traded crypto ETFs, which makes getting in and out straightforward. As more advisors and platforms allow spot bitcoin ETFs, the pool of potential buyers keeps widening. For a small, speculative sleeve, IBIT offers clean, low-friction exposure. Just remember bitcoin is volatile and policy headlines can move it fast, so size your position with care.

• As always, it’s not about timing the market, it’s about time in the market

• Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or a recommendation for any investment. The content is for information purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

🚀 Your Supply Chain, Your Competitive Edge

Supply chains aren’t just about logistics, they’re about your bottom line, your growth, and your ability to outpace the competition. At Ena Source, we don’t just find suppliers; we engineer strategic supply chain solutions that cut costs, build resilience, improve reliability, and free up your cash flow.

If you’re curious how much you could be saving, let’s talk. No pressure. No cost. Just clarity.

📩 Click here to book a meeting. Resilient supply chains don’t happen by chance, they happen by choice. Let’s build yours, strategically.

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