Monthly Supply Chain Pulse - 24

📰 Supply Chain Pulse | Monthly Edition – November 10, 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.

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📊 Key Metrics

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

🛳️ Drewry World Container Index (WCI)

What to consider: The 40ft rate from Shanghai to New York jumped 19.9% this month. This is an abrupt reversal from last month’s lows. Expect slightly tighter space through Q4. Book earlier, negotiate rate caps, and pull ahead critical POs. For risk control, review inventory targets before the next round of GRIs.

🚚 DAT Truckload Freight Rate Index

Why it matters: Van spot rates dipped to $2.10/mile, but further declines are unlikely as winter weather and holiday imbalances slowly start to hit. We are expecting a slight uptick in these rates over the next few months.

🛢 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.

Why it matters: The CRB Index has held a tight range since May. This month’s +0.86% to 300.91 shows the continued trend of stability. Treat this as a steady-cost window: lock next-quarter pricing, top up critical materials, and avoid last-minute buys that get expensive if energy jumps.

🇺🇸 🏭 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.

Why it matters: The index plunged from +23.2 to −12.8, a hard swing from expansion to contraction. That usually means new orders and shipments cooled fast, hiring softens, and pricing power weakens across Mid-Atlantic factories—often a lead signal for broader industrial slowdown.

What to consider: We are not alarmed by this at the moment as a very similar result was reported in April, which corrected itself the following month. It still is good practice to shorten forecast horizons, trim non-essential inventory, and protect cash.

🧾 Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)

The PMI is an economic indicator derived from monthly surveys of private sector companies, measuring the performance of the manufacturing and services sectors. It covers metrics such as new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries, and employment. A PMI above 50 indicates expansion, while below 50 suggests contraction.

Why it matters: PMI eased to 48.7 from 49.1, still below 50, signaling mild contraction and steady caution in orders, production, and hiring. Backlogs are likely thinning and supplier delivery times stabilizing, which tempers price pressure but cap demand.

What to consider: Use the calm to rebid lanes and inputs, lock short-term price holds, and tighten PO intervals so you can flex up or down. Trim safety stock on slow movers, and keep buffers on A-items with single-source risk. Have a fast-ramp plan ready if PMI turns back above 50.

🌍 Global Hot Topic: Global Trade: From Corridors To Ecosystems (Click To Read Article)

Asia and the Middle East are set to power the next leg of trade growth. Asia could drive roughly one-third of global expansion through 2029, while Middle East exports are forecast to accelerate in 2026. The big shift isn’t just lanes; it’s ecosystems: intra-Asian corridors are rising, and banks are wiring financing directly into supply chains through pre-export loans, inventory-in-transit funding, project-linked terms, and digital, platform-level integrations. Working-capital efficiency and local-currency options are becoming standard tools as businesses scale energy-transition, infrastructure, and tech supply chains.

🇺🇸 US Hot Topic: Details of US & China Trade Agreement (Click To Read Article)

The White House announced a U.S.–China trade deal after the Trump–Xi meeting in Busan. China will suspend new rare-earth export controls, issue general licenses for rare earths (gallium/germanium/antimony/graphite), curb fentanyl precursors, lift retaliatory tariffs, resume select U.S. imports, and extend its tariff-exclusion process through Dec 31, 2026. In return, the U.S. will cut tariffs on Chinese imports by 10 percentage points on Nov 10, extend Section 301 exclusions to Nov 10, 2026, delay enforcement of a new export rule to Nov 10, 2026, and pause new actions tied to shipbuilding/logistics. China also pledged major soybean purchases through 2028.

Why It Matters:
A 10-point tariff cut will change landed cost overnight. Reprice China-origin SKUs, refresh quotes, and time entries on/after Nov 10 where possible. If you rely on magnets, batteries, or micro-components, the licensing relief on rare earths and key metals could ease availability; lock supply and pricing now, but assume policy can snap back after 2026. Add tariff-adjustment language to contracts, verify HTS and origin with your broker, and watch agency guidance (CBP/BIS/USTR) to capture the benefit without compliance risk.

📈 Ena Monthly Stock Pick

$AMZN– Amazon enters peak season with a logistics and Prime flywheel built to capture holiday demand, lifting order frequency and basket size. The real earnings engine is higher-margin AWS and advertising, both still expanding and less seasonal than retail. Regionalized fulfillment and cost discipline improved unit economics, so incremental Q4 volume should convert better to profit. For a core position, AMZN combines commerce scale with cloud and ads tailwinds into year-end.

• 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.

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