Today’s Pickup: multinational firms strategize next moves in Iran after U.S. nuclear withdrawal

Good day,

President Trump said he would pull out of a multilateral deal that removed most economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear ambitions, according to WSJ. He also promised new U.S. penalties, although no specifics have yet been announced.

European executives, who plunged back into Iran more quickly than their American rivals after the nuclear pact took effect in 2015, are now reviewing ambitious investment plans there. In some cases, they are weighing contingencies if the new U.S. policy bars their Iran activities.

The U.S. Treasury said it would revoke authorization for aviation exports to Iran within 90 days, all but prohibiting big orders Iran placed for Boeing Co. and Airbus SE jets.

Airbus, after securing U.S. government approvals, completed a deal for 100 planes to Iran in late 2016. Three of those aircraft have been delivered. All aircraft were shipped with U.S. licenses that were required because American parts are used on the planes.

“We’re carefully analyzing the president’s announcement and will be evaluating next steps consistent with our internal policies and in full compliance with U.S. sanctions and export control regulations,” Airbus said on Tuesday.

Did you know?

In the past 27 years, since the passage of the Andean Trade Preference Act of 1991, the amount of cut flowers grown in the United States has fallen 95%. Today we import the vast majority of flowers for bouquets from two countries, Colombia and Ecuador.

Quotable:

“The period between 2014-2017 was a special era in trucking. Many years from now when students of freight mobility will study global trucking industry, they will look at these 3 years as the period when the industry changed focus from products to services.”

–Sandeep Kar, Chief Strategy Officer, Fleet Complete

In other news:

Walmart Ends Failed Uber Lyft Online Grocery-Delivery

Walmart’s online grocery delivery partnerships with ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft have ended, a potential setback for the retailer’s ambitions to challenge Amazon.com head-on with the speedy delivery of groceries to people’s homes. (SupplyChain247)

CNS 2018: Air cargo community faces challenges in executing digitalization

The e-commerce boom may be breathing life back into airfreight, but industry leaders are now experiencing major growing pains as a result. (Air Cargo World)

New Terminals Drag Down ICTSI’s Q1 Profit

Drag from the new terminals has seen Philippine-based terminal operator ICTSI report a lower profit in the first quarter of 2018. (World Maritime News)

UPS and Teamsters Discuss Two-Tier Wages, Sunday Deliveries

Proposal for lower-paid ‘hybrid’ drivers to work weekends divides labor union during contract discussions. (WSJ)

Balancing Green: A Practical Guide to Corporate Sustainability

Yossi Sheffi, Director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, has recently published a must-read book on sustainability. Balancing Green: When to Embrace Sustainability in a Business (and When Not To) is a well-researched book that cuts through many of the fallacies and wishful thinking that surrounds sustainability. (Forbes)

Final Thoughts:

The job openings rate in transportation, warehousing, and utilities has outpaced the rest of the economy for much of the past year, and also set a record high of 4.8% in March. The hiring rate fell well short of openings in the transportation sector at 3.7%

The size of the gap between hires and opening would suggest that businesses in the industry are having a particularly tough time filling available positions. This sheds further light onto the challenges in the industry, particularly in freight transportation where demographic shifts and difficulties in recruiting and retaining employees have led to a shortage of labor.

Hammer down everyone!

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