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India’s Concentrated Growth; Prime Target; Supply Chains Influencers

By Paul Page

 

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai, India. PHOTO: DHIRAJ SINGH/BLOOMBERG NEWS

India’s accelerating efforts to overhaul its economy and become a power in global supply chains rest on a handful of dominant conglomerates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is relying on firms including petrochemicals, textiles and retail juggernaut Reliance Industries and energy and infrastructure giant Adani Group to execute projects with a scale and speed that have eluded India in the past. The WSJ’s Niharika Mandhana and Newley Purnell write that the government subsidies and privatization plans that underpin the modernization program are aimed in part at positioning India as a credible alternative to China for the manufacture of high-value goods. The program has led to growing concentration of the country’s industrial base, including holdings in port capacity, steel making and coal imports. The mammoth firms can lead large breakthrough projects, but experts say the rising industrial concentration can also stifle competition and leave India’s plans vulnerable without broader private investment. 

  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the electric carmaker will set up operations in India “as soon as humanly possible.” (BBC)
 

Quotable

“Our strategy is simple. To create scale.”

— Arun Bansal, CEO of Adani Group’s airport business
 
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E-Commerce

An Amazon sort center under construction in the Otay Mesa neighborhood of San Diego. PHOTO: BING GUAN/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Amazon.com is facing new pressure from regulators. The Federal Trade Commission is suing the e-commerce giant, the WSJ’s Jan Wolfe and Dave Michaels report, alleging that Amazon worked for years to enroll consumers without consent into its Prime program and made it difficult to cancel their subscriptions. The complaint targets a pillar of Amazon’s model, the Prime service that counts more than 200 million members and gives the company the ability to cross-sell across numerous business lines. Amazon established the service by giving members access to free two-day shipping, a bedrock of Prime’s growth that has enabled the company to invest in other services. But the FTC says Amazon has used “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user interface designs” to dupe users into automatically renewing Prime subscriptions. The complaint is the latest in a series of regulatory cases against Amazon in the U.S. and in Europe.

 
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Supply Chain Strategies

A stylist at Edikted, a fast-fashion company that releases 150 monthly styles based on TikTok clips. PHOTO: TARA PIXLEY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Consumer-facing companies looking to build resilient supply chains didn’t count on TikTok. The social app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance has become an unavoidable consideration for anyone running a consumer-facing business today, the WSJ’s Chavie Lieber and Suzanne Vranica write, upending conventional wisdom about product cycles, testing, manufacturing and distribution. Chipotle Mexican Grill discovered that early this year when an online influencer’s twist on the traditional quesadilla called the “Keithadilla” became a sensation, forcing the chain to rush to meet demand for the off-menu item. It’s one example of how companies upend their carefully-crafted supply chains and scramble to mass-produce products, or fix existing ones, based on feedback that often has a very short shelf life. It’s a gamble, but one that many executives say is necessary if they want to win over younger shoppers and keep up with the competition.

 
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Number of the Day

115.4

The American Trucking Associations for-hire truck tonnage index for May, up 2.4% from April but 1.3% behind the year-ago level, in the third straight year-over-year decline.

 

In Other News

A poll shows the confidence of international businesses in China is at a record low. (WSJ)

U.S. regulators gave the green light for two California-based companies to sell “cell-cultivated” chicken grown outside of animals. (WSJ)

Uber is laying off 200 people in its ride-sharing recruiting team. (WSJ)

Recreational-vehicle maker Winnebago’s quarterly profit fell by half and revenue tumbled 38%. (MarketWatch)

The European Union is targeting “ghost trade” in new enforcement efforts aimed at countries that help Russia avoid sanctions. (Financial Times)

South Korea’s exports expanded in the first part of this month for the first time since last August. (Korea Economic Daily)

FedEx Freight is closing 29 of its less-than-truckload service centers in August, most of them in the Midwest. (Transport Dive)

Evergreen Marine is planning to order 24 new container ships with methanol-fuel capability. (TradeWinds)

Overseas Shipholding shares neared a six-year high after the oil tanker operator doubled its stock repurchase program. (MarketWatch)

Container ship owner Danaos has accumulated a 10% stake in Eagle Bulk Shipping. (Splash 247)

Target is opening a facility outside Atlanta to test faster delivery of e-commerce orders. (CNBC)

Singapore-based food-delivery app Grab Holdings is cutting 1,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce. (Reuters)

Parcel-delivery technology startup Arrive is planning an initial public stock offering next year. (DC Velocity)

Nine in 10 retail and industrial executives in a survey say they plan to prioritize diversifying their sourcing in the next three to five years. (Sourcing Journal)

3M named Kelly Bysouth, the former chief supply chain officer at auto parts supplier IAC, as chief procurement officer. (Automotive Logistics)

Consumer-goods supplier VF named Bracken Darrell president and CEO. (Retail Dive)

Women mariners are talking more about sexual assault in a shipping industry that remains overwhelmingly male and hostile to their presence. (Mother Jones)

 

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 Twitter at @WSJLogistics.

 
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