[#292] Supply Chain in Numbers - Jun 30, 2025
Europe installed 23k industrial robots in 2024, Avg free shipping is $100+ per order, PSS of $4k for India outbound containers, Eitzen receives $20M for EV containership, $165-mile guideway in Austin
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.
23,000 industrial robots installed
Investment in automating the car industry in Europe remains high. The total number of industrial robots installed reached 23,000 in 2024, which is the second-best result in five years. As a comparison, 19,200 units installed in North America in 2024. At a global level, Europe´s car manufacturing is highly automated: Six European countries are among the top ten in the world’s robot density ranking for the automotive industry in 2023: Switzerland is in first place, with a ratio of 3,876 robots to 10,000 factory workers. Slovenia is in third place (1,762 units), Germany in sixth (1,492 units), Austria in eighth (1,412 units), Finland in ninth (1,288 units), and the Benelux countries are in tenth place with 1,132 units. [MMH]
Free shipping threshold of $103 per order
Some online merchants are scrapping free shipping, while others are requiring customers to spend more to qualify for it as retailers try to offset the steep costs of new tariffs.The small businesses selling directly to consumers online are tinkering with their free-shipping thresholds to offset rising expenses without directly raising their prices. The average minimum-order threshold for retailers to offer free shipping has risen to $103 this year from $82 in 2023. The average cost to ship a parcel, including surcharges, is $12.50 today, up from $9.53 in 2019. [WSJ]
Peak Season Surcharge of $4,000 per container
Container carriers on the India-US East Coast trade lane appear optimistic about the market outlook ahead of the onset of traditional peak season bookings despite tariff-linked uncertainty. Major lines have already announced hefty rate hikes for July, with Maersk leading the pack. The Danish carrier plans to implement a peak season surcharge (PSS) of $4,000 per container for Indian loads to the US and Canada beginning July 16. July rate hike announcements from other major carriers are generally in the range of $1,000 to $2,000 per box, although some liners have lined up multiple rounds for the month. [Journal of Commerce]
NOK 200 million for battery-powered containership
Norway’s Eitzen Group has plans to build what will be the world’s largest battery-powered containerships. Its Eitzen Avanti unit is to receive NOK 200 million (about $20.2 million) in support from the Norwegian Government’s Enova innovation scheme to build two ships that will each have battery packs of over 100 MWh and be able to transport 850 containers. They will operate between Norway, Sweden and Germany. The Eitzen Avanti battery-powered containerships are part of a group of projects that will see seven electric vessels and four charging facilities get a total of NOK 362 million in Enova support. [Marine Logistics]
165-mile long elevated guideway
An Austin startup has a novel, $10 billion plan to help ease chronic congestion at the busiest U.S. land port. The company, Green Corridors, says its design for a 165-mile-long, elevated “guideway” would complement truck and rail operations at Texas’s Port of Laredo, which handled more than 3 million truck crossings from Mexico into the U.S. last year. If the plan, approved by President Trump earlier this month, comes to fruition, truck drivers hauling freight would drop off their 53-foot dry van trailers, which would then be loaded onto autonomous diesel-electric hybrid shuttles. At the other end of the guideway, truckers would pick up a trailer and carry the goods farther into the U.S. or Mexico. The permit Trump signed expires in five years if construction hasn’t begun. The company has several other permits to secure, and is working to acquire the real estate it needs to complete construction and start testing the system, as planned, in 2031. [WSJ]