[#281] Supply Chain in Numbers - Apr 14, 2025
US has less than 10k merchant mariners, Contoro Robotics raised $12M, C.R. England to install 3.5k driver facing cameras, Fresh Del Monte buys Avolio, DHL plans $2B investment in healthcare logistics
Welcome to “Supply Chain in Numbers.” This newsletter tracks significant numbers from the supply chain world. Five prominent numbers are published every Monday. If you have any feedback, please send it to me.
Fewer than 10,000 merchant mariners
President Trump’s push to reclaim U.S. commercial sea power and counter China’s shipping dominance faces a daunting obstacle: America doesn’t have nearly enough merchant mariners. To fly American flags, those ships must be crewed by U.S. mariners. U.S.-flag operators already are struggling to find American crews. The U.S. is estimated to have fewer than 10,000 merchant mariners, about a fifth of the available sailors in 1960. One inducement: Merchant-marine jobs pay well. Maritime academy graduates can expect starting salaries of $90,000 to $120,000. This also explains why global carriers employ so few American sailors, favoring less costly crews from the Philippines, Indonesia, and China. [WSJ]
$12 million Series A
Contoro Robotics, an Austin, TX-based AI-powered trailer and container unloading robot maker, raised $12M in Series A funding. The company, which has raised $22M in total funding, intends to use the funds to scale its fleet of unloading robots, expand into new logistics markets, and launch its AI-driven palletizing system. Contoro Robotics makes AI-powered robots, which leverage customer-specific AI models, innovative grasping techniques, and human-in-the-loop oversight to support logistic operations. The company is actively deploying its robots in warehouses, distribution centers, and e-commerce fulfillment hubs. Early deployments have already doubled unloading speed, reduced dependency on manual labor, and saved hundreds of human hours per month for customers facing rising labor costs and operational bottlenecks. [Fin SMEs]
Driver-facing 3,500 cameras
C.R. England will install Lytx driver-facing cameras across over 3,500 trucks in its fleet. The Salt Lake City-based truckload carrier will use Lytx’s AI-powered DriveCam Event Recorders to monitor driving risks such as distracted driving, handheld cellphone use, unworn seat belts, and close following. Many drivers consider being monitored by the camera while behind the wheel an invasion of privacy, and union contracts at ABF Freight and TForce Freight ban the carriers from using the technology. But other large carriers, such as J.B. Hunt Transport Services and Prime Inc., have taken the driver-facing camera plunge. Fleets have found reasons to install cameras: Driver-facing footage exonerates drivers in more than half of insurance claims and almost half of litigation cases. [Trucking Dive]
140 metric tons of avocados
Fruit and vegetable giant Fresh Del Monte bought Avolio, a Ugandan supplier of bulk crude and edible avocado oil. Suppose avocado oil wasn’t already the next big thing. In that case, this kind of acquisition from one of the titans of the produce aisle all but assures its position, with current estimates seeing the avocado oil market growing from $637 million last year to $1.2 billion by 2032. Fresh Del Monte is particularly exposed to the banana business — bananas were responsible for a third of sales in 2024 — and a dip in the banana business meant the whole company’s revenue took a ding. The company already plans to scale up Avolio until it’s processing 140 metric tons of avocados daily. [NumLock]
$2 billion for healthcare logistics
Under a new brand called DHL Health Logistics, DHL is investing $2 billion through 2030 to grow its life sciences and healthcare logistics business, with $860 million going to North America. The money will go toward expanding cold storage, building new pharma hubs, and adding more temperature-controlled vehicles to support sensitive medical shipments like clinical trials, vaccines, and gene therapies. Of the $2 billion total, 40% will be spent in North America, 25% in both EMEA and Asia Pacific, and 10% in Latin America. The company has nearly 600 life sciences and healthcare sites in 130 countries. DHL also recently bought CRYOPDP, a courier specializing in clinical trials and biopharma, to help grow its network and strengthen services for customers working on next-generation therapies. [Supply Chain 24x7]