The Biden Administration issued guidelines Monday for the materials to be used on projects funded through the infrastructure passed in November. As of May 14, federally funded projects must use materials manufactured in the United States, including iron and steel. Component costs for a final product must be greater than 55% of the total cost.Howeve...

President Joe Biden signed two bills into law Friday: one that revokes normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus and another that bans imports of energy products, including mineral fuels, oils and waxes."Revoking normal trade relations, which requires congressional action in the United States, would end Russia's status as a 'most favored natio...

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) stood at 57.1% in March—following a February reading of 58.6%, according to the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM) March 2022 Manufacturing Report On Business. This decrease in 1.5 percentage points indicates expansion in the overall economy for the 22nd month in a row and is the PMI's lowest rating since Se...

Shanghai, China's largest city and finance and international business hub, began lockdown measures today following the country's worst COVID outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, according to CNBC. Oil prices already have dropped by more than $9 due to the lockdown and an expected decrease in demand.Further disruptions to supply chains are ...

Prices for new nonresidential construction rose more than 21% from February 2021 to February 2022, according to an Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) analysis of government data. (The association noted that more recent price announcements made after the February data was collected suggest contractors are experiencing even worse cost pr...

Protests along Ambassador Bridge, the busiest international crossing on the U.S. and Canadian border, could lead to shipping delays and more inflation, according to Morning in America. The fallout from these protests could land a major impact to the U.S. supply chain in particular.Both governments have indicated the automotive industry and agricult...

U.S. officials are calling for China to meet its commitment to purchase $200 billion in additional U.S goods and services during 2020 and 2021, according to multiple news reports. The agreement was set in place under "Phase 1" of the trade deal signed by former President Donald Trump.The U.S. government will release its full-year trade data tomorro...

Bottlenecks along the busiest ports of the West Coast are expanding to the Eastern side of the country, including South Carolina, New York and Georgia, according to news reports.The twin ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles handle about 40% of the U.S.'s inbound containers; and after receiving record amounts of imports in 2021, delays continue to pe...

Supply-chain disruptions are widespread. Railcar thefts in Los Angeles County increased by 160% over the past year and 356% from last October compared with October 2020, according to news reports."This increased criminal activity over the past 12 months accounts for approximately $5 million in claims, losses and damages to Union Pacific," wrote Adr...

China's central bank cut its interest rate on 700-billion-yuan ($110.19 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions by 10 basis points from 2.95% to 2.85%, according to news reports.While prices have remained stable for China, policymakers are likely to shift their focus toward boosting growth,...

The construction industry recovered 92.1% of the jobs lost during earlier pandemic stages and added 22,000 new jobs in December, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.Nonresidential construction employment added 27,000 jobs in December: 12,900 in nonresidential specialty trade 10,400 in heavy and civil engineering 3,700 in nonresidentia...

After experiencing moderate growth from 2015-2020, the global trade finance market is projected to grow by 3.7% from 2021-2026, according to IMARC's latest report, Trade Finance Market Size: Global Industry Trends, Share, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026. This prediction may change as the pandemic continues to be tracked and evaluated as ...

New bankruptcy filings across all chapters declined by 5.6% in November from the previous month, according to Epiq's November 2021 bankruptcy filing statistics from its AACER bankruptcy information services business.The total for new commercial filings across all chapters also decreased by 10.3% from October to November. For 2021 through November, ...

Material suppliers are expecting costs to rise over the next year, according to Construction Products Association (CPA) recent State of Trade survey for Q3. Data shows that cost pressures are expanding from raw materials to fuel, energy, wages and salaries.This expansion is likely due to the rise in global gas, electricity and crude oil prices—alon...

Container ships located at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA, are averaging a 17-day wait time, according to a Bloomberg report. As of November 12, 83 ships remain either at anchor or in a holding zone, compared to the previous high of 81 from earlier that week."We are trying to add capacity by searching for vacant land to store container...

Congress passed the much-awaited infrastructure bill on Friday, which includes $550 billion in spending for new infrastructure and $110 billion for improvements to roads and bridges. Overall, the $1.2-trillion package is about $1.1 trillion less than President Joe Biden's March proposal, known as the American Jobs Plan.It also includes funds for tr...

The U.S. and EU have reached an agreement to lift U.S. tariffs on some steel and aluminum products coming from Europe, beginning Dec.1, the White House announced Sunday. This agreement sets a threshold for the amount of steel and aluminum coming from the EU before being subject to tariffs.In return, the EU states that it will remove its retaliatory...

 U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced an agreement with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that addresses U.S. concerns in the Vietnam Timber Section 301 investigation. This is the first 301 investigation to address environmental concerns. (Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. §2411) grants the Office of the United State...

According to a recent Germany corporate payment survey by Coface, payment delays have steadily decreased from 2020 to 2021. Among the companies responding to the survey, only 59% are reporting payment delays this year – a 9% decrease from 2020.Companies are also reporting a drop in the duration of payment delays resulting in an 8-day decline to an ...

President Joe Biden and the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are developing an emergency temporary standard (ETS) that would require companies that employ more than 100 workers to ensure their employees are either fully vaccinated or test negative each week if unvaccinated in order to come into work sp...