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LogisticsLogistics

Auto Workers Target Supply Chains; Apple’s Trips on Insourced Chips

By Paul Page

 

Striking auto workers stop a truck from entering a Stellantis parts distribution center in Center Line, Mich., last Friday. PHOTO: JIM WEST/ZUMA PRESS

The United Auto Workers union is taking direct aim at carmakers’ supply chains as it widens its week-old work stoppage. The union extended its strike to 38 parts-distribution centers in 20 states that supply General Motors and Stellantis dealerships even as the UAW spared Ford from additional walkouts. The WSJ’s Nora Eckert, Mike Colias and Ryan Felton report that the new stoppages hit the facilities that ship service parts to dealerships, potentially disrupting service operations and triggering longer wait times for customers. UAW President Shawn Fain says Ford was spared because the automaker has recently sweetened its offer. The downstream impact of closing the distribution centers could disrupt the retail side of the business sooner than assembly-plant shutdowns, which will take longer to affect new-car availability. Stellantis has said it wants to close more than a dozen such facilities and consolidate its North American operations.

  • Ford factory workers in Canada ratified a contract that provides a 15% wage increase over the three years of the agreement. (WSJ)
  • The UAW in its job actions is adopting a tactic known as Chaos, showing how a limited number of unpredictable strikes could be more powerful than a mass work stoppage. (WSJ)
 
 

Quotable

“The goal here is to maximize the hurt on the companies while minimizing the risk for the workers.”

— Barry Eidlin of McGill University
 
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Supply Chain Strategies

The inside of an Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max. PHOTO: TECHINSIGHTS

Apple’s new iPhone models carry a feature the consumer electronics giant won’t be trumpeting: A lesson in the difficulties of insourcing crucial parts of the supply chain. The smartphones are missing a proprietary silicon chip that Apple had spent several years and billions of dollars trying to develop in time for the rollout. The WSJ’s Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie report that Apple had hoped to have its own modem chip ready for use in the new iPhone models and to sever its grudging dependence on longtime chip supplier Qualcomm. But modem chips are trickier to make than standard processing chips and Apple found its in-house chips were too slow, the circuit board was too big and they was prone to overheating. Development also faced technical challenges, as well as internal hurdles that included poor communication and teams that worked in silos as they worked toward unrealistic goals and deadlines.

  • Micron Technology began construction of a $2.75 billion semiconductor plant in northwest India. (Hindustan Times)
 

Number of the Day

6%

Growth in airfreight tonnage from Asia to North America and Europe in the two weeks ended Sept. 17 from the previous two-week period, leaving Asia outbound flows up 11% from the same period last year, according to WorldACD.

 

In Other News

The S&P U.S. manufacturing-sector index rose slightly this month but remained in negative territory. (MarketWatch)

American crude oil production is on track to hit a record 13 million barrels a day in September. (WSJ)

Amazon plans to invest up to $4 billion in artificial-intelligence company Anthropic and will use the company’s technology across its business. (WSJ)

U.S. regulators are investigating poultry plants operated by Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods over allegations of child labor. (WSJ)

Union Pacific planned to reopen the rail bridge at the Eagle Pass, Texas, border crossing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection closed last week. (WSJ)

An Australian union alliance called off strikes at two major Chevron liquefied natural gas export facilities that had threatened to disrupt global energy supplies. (Reuters)

An influx of Asian manufacturers is turning France's Dunkirk region into a hub for electric-vehicle battery production. (Nikkei Asia)

Amazon is scrapping a planned fee on merchants that don’t use its shipping services. (Bloomberg)

Container spot rates from China to North Europe have fallen by half since the start of September. (The Loadstar)

Shanghai is stepping up expansion of the deepwater container terminals at the seaport's Yangshan islands. (South China Morning Post)

Loaded container imports into the Port of Oakland fell 17.5% in August from last year and declined 7.2% from July. (Supply Chain Dive)

Grimaldi says a truck used to load autos caused the fatal fire aboard a car carrier at Port Newark in July. (Maritime Executive)

Oaktree Capital Management extended its pullback from the bulk shipping sector with the sale of a large stake in Star Bulk Carriers. (TradeWinds)

A federal bankruptcy court approved Estes Express Lines’ stalking-horse bid for failed trucker Yellow’s properties. (Journal of Commerce)

Heavy rainfall in southwest Nigeria is disrupting cocoa bean processing. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Walmart launched a service allowing customers to “subscribe” to regular, scheduled deliveries of everyday essentials. (Winsight Grocery Business)

 

About Us

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @bylizyoung and @pdberger. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on X at @WSJLogistics.

 
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