The coronavirus pandemic upended our world, including our supply chains. While we all knew about the complexities of supply chains before COVID-19, the unprecedented interruption of normal life threw even more variables our way. To succeed in tackling these new challenges, a mindset of flexibility and visibility, along with a healthy command of data science, is paramount.

Join XPO Logistics Chief Information Officer Mario Harik, and President of North American Transportation Drew Wilkerson, as they discuss how the pandemic changed the way we need to think about supply chains, and how we can apply what we’ve learned to the long-term future of transportation and logistics. 

 Topics will include:

•        Lessons learned on the frontlines as an essential transportation provider managing employee safety and customer service

•        Transformative trends and technologies being accelerated due to the pandemic, which will forever change how supply chains are managed

•        Building new partnerships that define your mission during the post-COVID-19 era

•        Adjustments you can make to build resilience into your supply chain and prepare for future disruptions

In addition to the opportunity to get your specific questions answered this webinar will give shippers actionable insight to start planning for the challenges that their supply chains are going to face in the near future. Join us!

Moderator:

Alessandra Barrett, Senior Content Editor, JOC, Maritime & Trade, IHS Markit

Speakers:

Mario Harik, Chief Technology Officer, XPO Logistics

Drew Wilkerson, President, North American Transportation, XPO Logistics

After years of rapid growth despite weak economic growth, downward pressures are beginning to catch up to the Mexican logistics sector, as reflected by declining freight volumes through ports and over the border with the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic is only deepening the pain of a national economy that already had been stagnating, auto production is declining, and cargo volumes moving through the ports hit six-year lows in 2019.

The Mexican economy is struggling, with GDP increasing a mere 0.1 percent in 2019, according to JOC parent company IHS Markit, and set to slide as much as 8 percent this year as the full effects of the COVID-19 outbreak unfurl. Added to that, IHS Markit’s Mexico Manufacturing PMI plummeted to a record low of 46.9 in March, and automotive production, which accounts for nearly 4 percent of GDP, plunged nearly 25 percent in March, according to INEGI, the national statistics institute.

That’s forcing the industry to adjust to a new reality of lower freight volumes but with no let-up on the demands for reliability within Mexico’s supply chains. Freight volumes will rebound, making the next 12 months a critical period for logistics managers and their transportation providers to not only adjust to a new environment but to take steps so supply chains become more resilient and agile when the market turns.

Yet, there also are some positive signs, most notably the signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and relative strength and resilience in Mexico’s biggest trade partner, the US, COVID-19 impacts notwithstanding. Through its dozens of trade deals, Mexico has cemented itself as a factory floor for not just North America but much of the Americas, too, allowing it to ride the overall regionalization of trade. COVID-19 has exposed the weakness of US importers focusing on China sourcing, adding extra impetus to source from Mexico — when possible. When the pandemic threat ends, the agreement offers the potential for increased trade and cargo and the kind of certainty that could encourage investors to again put their money into the country.

Longer-term, Mexico’s logistics sector should benefit from continued infrastructure improvements, including a 30 percent expansion in capacity at Contecon Manzanillo SA de CV terminal and a dredging project that will enable the Port of Altamira to handle 14,000-TEU vessels. And the new rail line into Veracruz makes it the country’s first port to experience competition from two major railroads.

With market intelligence from the JOC, IHS Markit, and industry analysts, this webcast will analyze the impacts COVID-19 is having on the Mexican economy, the country’s freight flows, and the outlook on the other side of the pandemic.

No other logistics company has had a front-row seat to the COVID-19 crisis like LF Logistics, a division of Li & Fung, the world leader in consumer goods design, development, sourcing, and logistics.

Before most of us realized the impact of the burgeoning pandemic, Simon Oxley, LF Logistics’ executive director of global business development, read the warning signs from his headquarters in Hong Kong and moved aggressively to strengthen their core business.

As the crisis in Asia appears to wane — LF Logistics’ Wuhan distribution center is back in production — Oxley joins us for a candid discussion, sharing what he did to reassure customers and associates, the rapid-fire process changes they implemented to ensure business continuity, and how he leaned on CRM software providers such as Winmore to turn risk into reward. 

Topics will include:

• How LF Logistics turned its core strength of managing remote employees in dozens of field offices into an agile “work-from-home” company policy, leading thousands of workers from home offices without missing a beat;
• The ways in which the RFP process changed with each stage of the crisis, and whether it will ever return to the “old way”.
• Why Oxley leaned on workflow-based CRM from Winmore to ensure that core businesses were followed rigidly, even as employees worked from home; and
• How LF Logistics seized the opportunity to emerge as a stronger, more aggressive and customer-aligned organization.

If you’re adapting to a new operating model in response to the COVID-19 crisis, managing dozens or even hundreds of workers in home offices while wondering how to turn this crisis into an opportunity for your logistics services, then this webinar offers invaluable information.

Moderator:

Alessandra Barrett, Senior Content Editor, JOC, Maritime & Trade, IHS Markit

Speaker(s):

John Golob, Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Winmore

Simon Oxley, Executive Director, Global Business Development, LF Logistics 

Register now. Webinar attendees will receive a copy of the case study on LF Logistics.