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supply chain crisis

The New York Times | Dec 03, 2021

How These N.Y.C. Companies Are Skirting the Supply Chain Crisis

Focusing on local parts and production, some manufacturers have been rewarded during the pandemic.
Clogged ports. Product shortages overseas. Overburdened container ships. Price increases.For businesses that rely on the global supply chain, this holiday season has become particularly stressful. But at manufacturers like Nanotronics, a science technology company in the Brooklyn Navy Yard that sources most of its components locally, things are going swimmingly.“There is nothing we have right now that is behind schedule,” said Matthew Putman, the chief executive of the company, which makes items like robotic microscopes. “We don’t rely on ships right now that are stuck at ports in Los Angeles.”Nanotronics makes many of its components at its 45,000-square-foot office and factory space in Brooklyn. What it can’t make, it acquires locally. Sheet metal comes from Ferra Designs, about 20 feet away in the Navy Yard complex, which also houses 3-Dprinting and finishing services the company uses. Nanotronics buys its cameras in Manhattan’s Financial District and its plastics and springs in Brooklyn, from businesses in Williamsburg and Sunset Park.Early in the pandemic, several businesses in the Navy Yard pivoted to produce some 10 million units of personal protective equipment when masks and hospital gowns were scarce. Now companies there like Nanotronics are successfully steering clear of logjams in the supply chain wrought by the pandemic by sourcing and manufacturing hard-to-get items locally.

“We just got a call yesterday from a company that does this gene therapy that is really important for vaccines and therapeutics,” Mr. Putman said. “They need a machine that no one else can make for them right now. I know we will be able to get it to them quickly.”

Businesses that emphasize local production have been rewarded during this tumultuous time. They’ve been able to fulfill orders quickly for existing clients and have attracted new ones who can’t get what they need from manufacturers overseas.“We’ve had people reach out to us to start new businesses who thought they would be sourcing abroad,” said Joanna Reynolds, the associate director of Made in NYC, an initiative of the Pratt Center for Community Development that supports local manufacturers and makers. “Now they want to make their products in New York City.” So far, the group has added 171 new members during the pandemic.City manufacturing hubs have also expanded over the past 18 months. The Brooklyn Navy Yard has leased an additional 300,000 square feet, and Industry City, in Sunset Park, has filled an additional 800,000 square feet. “More companies are understanding they want their office, their design, their manufacturing, even their customers right next to their warehouse distribution,” said Andrew Kimball, the chief executive of Industry City. “We can do all those things here.”

supply chain crisis

The New York Times | Nov 14, 2021

supply chain disruptions May Mean Crisis for American Farms

Backlogs and cancellations are hitting growers as costs rise, profits slump and overseas customers shop elsewhere.
It’s just 60 miles from El Dorado Dairy in Ontario, Calif., to the nation’s largest container port in Los Angeles. But the farm is having little luck getting its products onto a ship headed for the foreign markets that are crucial to its business.The farm is part of one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, California Dairies Inc., which manufactures milk powder for factories in Southeast Asia and Mexico that use it to make candy, baby formula and other foods. The company typically ships 50 million pounds of its milk powder and butter out of ports each month. But roughly 60 percent of the company’s bookings on outbound vessels have been canceled or deferred in recent months, resulting in about $45 million in missed revenue per month.“This is not just a problem, it’s not just an inconvenience, it’s catastrophic,” said Brad Anderson, the chief executive of California Dairies.A supply chain crisis for imports has grabbed national headlines and attracted the attention of the Biden administration, as shoppers fret about securing gifts in time for the holidays and as strong consumer demand for couches, electronics, toys and clothing pushes inflation to its highest level in three decades.

yet another crisis is also unfolding for American farm exports.The same congestion at U.S. ports and shortage of truck driversthat have brought the flow of some goods to a halt have also left farmers struggling to get their cargo abroad and fulfill contracts before food supplies go bad. Ships now take weeks, rather than days, to unload at the ports, and backed-up shippers are so desperate to return to Asia to pick up more goods that they often leave the United States with empty containers rather than wait for American farmers to fill them up.The National Milk Producers Federation estimates that shipping disruptions have cost the U.S. dairy industry nearly $1 billion in the first half of the year in terms of higher shipping and inventory costs, lost export volume and price deterioration.

“Exports are a huge issue for the U.S. right now,” said Jason Parker, the head of global trucking and intermodal at Flexport, a logistics company. “Getting exports out of the country is actually harder than getting imports into the country.”Agriculture accounts for about one-tenth of America’s goods exports, and roughly 20 percent of what U.S. farmers and ranchers produce is sent abroad. The industry depends on an intricate choreography of refrigerated trucks, railcars, cargo ships and warehouses that move fresh products around the globe, often seamlessly and unnoticed.U.S. farm exports have risen strongly this year, as the industry bounces back from the pandemic and benefits from a trade deal with China that required purchases of American agricultural products. Strong global demand for food and soaring commodities prices have lifted the value of U.S. agricultural exports more than 20 percent over last year.“Exports are a huge issue for the U.S. right now,” said Jason Parker, the head of global trucking and intermodal at Flexport, a logistics company. “Getting exports out of the country is actually harder than getting imports into the country.”Agriculture accounts for about one-tenth of America’s goods exports, and roughly 20 percent of what U.S. farmers and ranchers produce is sent abroad. The industry depends on an intricate choreography of refrigerated trucks, railcars, cargo ships and warehouses that move fresh products around the globe, often seamlessly and unnoticed.U.S. farm exports have risen strongly this year, as the industry bounces back from the pandemic and benefits from a trade deal with China that required purchases of American agricultural products. Strong global demand for food and soaring commodities prices have lifted the value of U.S. agricultural exports more than 20 percent over last year.