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Podcast: Can Sustainability Survive? Highlights of SJ's Sustainability Report

Podcast: Can Sustainability Survive? Highlights of SJ's Sustainability Report

Yahoo31-03-2025

Can sustainability survive?
The political will toward sustainability is constantly shifting, and with the official exit from the Paris Agreement and a 'drill, baby drill' fossil fuel mentality, that answer becomes murkier every day. This has created a climate of uncertainty for eco-minded businesses seeking support from government sustainability requirements. That said, the underlying drivers of a sustainable future—innovation, tapping into cost-efficient renewable energy, and consumer demand for ethical practices—remain intact. In other words, eco-champions are a tenacious bunch.
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Sourcing Journal dug into the situation with its State of the Industry Sustainability Report, released the same day as its Sustainability Summit in New York. In this podcast, Lauren Parker, director of Fairchild Studio, chats with Jasmin Malik Chua, SJ's sourcing and labor editor, and Alex Harrell, SJ's sustainability & innovation reporter, about the industry's progress.
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Bangladesh Sets April 2026 Election Date, Prompting Mixed Reactions
Bangladesh Sets April 2026 Election Date, Prompting Mixed Reactions

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Bangladesh Sets April 2026 Election Date, Prompting Mixed Reactions

Interim Bangladesh leader Muhammad Yunus made the long-anticipated announcement late Friday that general elections will be held in the first half of April 2026. The declaration has sparked a wave of reactions and fresh deliberations across the country. Political parties had hoped—and many had negotiated—for elections to be held within the current year. The extended timeline has caused concern among several factions, given that it has already been 10 months since the political upheaval that led to the unexpected ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following student-led protests in August. More from Sourcing Journal A Sea Change in Bangladesh as New Leadership Takes Over BGMEA How Should Brands Think About Cross-Border E-Commerce Amidst Uncertainty? Upstream Focus: Do-Gree Fashions Ltd.'s Matthew Tock on Tariffs, Taking Risks and Transparency While numerous political parties continue to demand elections before the end of 2025, business leaders are increasingly voicing apprehensions about how the delay could affect their operations and strategic planning. This is particularly true in the apparel sector, which accounts for approximately 80 percent of the country's total exports. International buyers are seeking reassurances about policy continuity and clarity on issues such as tax volatility, geopolitical shifts, and rising gas and electricity prices. In his address to the nation, Yunus stated: 'After reviewing the ongoing reform activities, I am announcing to the people today that the next national election will be held on any day in the first half of April 2026.' He added that a detailed 'roadmap for the voting' would be shared 'at an appropriate time.' Manufacturers have been urging the government to hold elections sooner to ensure stability and continuity in policymaking. With critical developments underway—including U.S. trade deadlines, the initiation of free trade agreement talks with Washington, ongoing financing from the International Monetary Fund, and rapid global geopolitical changes—industry leaders argue that firm and credible political leadership is essential. Yunus's announcement follows a major political crisis triggered by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ouster. Since August, the country has operated under an interim government tasked with implementing reforms and preparing for elections. The Awami League, led by Hasina, remains banned from contesting future polls. Meanwhile, the opposition BNP—which boycotted the January 2024 election—is now widely expected to return to power. Its leader, Khaleda Zia, recently acquitted in a long-standing corruption case, appears poised for a political comeback. Some manufacturers told Sourcing Journal that the delayed election timeline could create a prolonged period of uncertainty. Investors and buyers are increasingly concerned about the risk of sudden policy reversals, they noted. They also pointed to the steep 37-percent tariff recently imposed on Bangladeshi exports by U.S. President Donald Trump in April—a rate second only to one other South Asian nation and the 15th highest globally—as a worrying sign. In comparison, India faces a 26 percent tariff, and Pakistan, 29 percent. Industry leaders stressed that Bangladesh needs a strong, stable political mandate to manage such external pressures. They also emphasized that recent tensions with India could be viewed as more 'personal' than 'political,' and an elected government could help reset relations with a broader geopolitical vision. Still, many manufacturers expressed cautious optimism following the recent conclusion of elections at the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the powerful industry body that represents and negotiates on behalf of the country's key export sector. The new leadership, set to assume office on June 16, will be led by president-elect Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu. Speaking to Sourcing Journal after his victory, Babu said his team would act swiftly to address what he called the 'long-standing challenges faced by the industry.''Among the main proposals are the formation of a dedicated ministry for the garment sector, ensuring fair pricing from international buyers, and establishing specialized cells to explore new markets and manage regional crises,' he said. These objectives were central to his Forum Panel's election manifesto. Other industry leaders noted that, despite the political uncertainty, Bangladesh's apparel sector has continued to grow. According to data released last week by the Export Promotion Bureau, apparel exports in May 2025 totaled $3.91 billion—up 11.85 percent from $3.50 billion in May 2024—out of a total of $4.25 billion in exports for the month. Vidiya Khan, deputy managing director of Desh Garments Ltd. and one of the recently elected BGMEA board members, described the BGMEA election as a positive signal: 'This was perhaps the most free and fair election seen by BGMEA in recent times. It gives us confidence that the national elections will also follow in a similar spirit.' She acknowledged that the political upheaval of last year had initially left a vacuum—resulting in factory closures and buyer confusion—but praised the industry's resilience. 'Our turnaround time in the face of tragedy or political upheaval has been very short. This has been a transitional period for the country. Even without an elected government, the industry is showing growth,' she said.'We need more diversification, but for now, apparel exports are our biggest industry. The entire forward and backward linkage ecosystem depends on this—it brings in over 80 percent of our foreign exchange. So, regardless of who is in government, this sector must be prioritized and protected.' 'We have our own set of challenges, but at the end of the day, we have a large, flexible workforce that must be sustained,' she added. 'Things do need to be cleaned up—but they could have been a lot worse during this transition.' 'It's an opportunity to hit the reset button.' However, even amid hopes for renewal, the industry was struck by tragedy this week. On Monday, manufacturers in Dhaka were reeling from the unexpected death of Abdullah Hil Rakib, managing director of Teams Group and former senior vice president of BGMEA, who died in a boating accident in Canada. 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Hapag-Lloyd Bookings Double on China-US Route in Weeks After Tariff Truce
Hapag-Lloyd Bookings Double on China-US Route in Weeks After Tariff Truce

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Hapag-Lloyd Bookings Double on China-US Route in Weeks After Tariff Truce

After the temporary tariff relief on Chinese imports into the U.S. resulted in a 50-percent one-week surge in bookings for Hapag-Lloyd on the trade route between countries, container flow accelerated even further in the weeks after. Bookings out of China more than doubled in the three weeks after the 90-day trade truce was put into effect, according to CEO Rolf Habben Jansen. More from Sourcing Journal Guess Limits Tariff Impact to Less Than $10M, Adjusts Sourcing and Buying Strategies Panama Canal Sees Post-Drought Spike in Container Shipping Transits US Trade Deficit Contracted in April Amid Tariff-Driven Import Paralysis 'We now need to see over the upcoming couple of weeks what is going to happen, and how much of that cargo rush is going to remain,' said Habben Jansen in a recent online panel discussion hosted by the ocean carrier. Despite various projections calling for a contraction in global container volumes for the year, Hapag-Lloyd revised its outlook upward from its previous flat growth forecast on the back of the recent uptick, projecting global container demand to increase 4 percent. 'I would still expect us to see decent growth in the second quarter,' said Habben Jansen. While China-to-U.S. volumes account for roughly 5 percent of Hapag-Lloyd's total business, the U.S. overall represents 27 percent of its volumes, Habben Jansen said. Approximately 22 percent of global container flows at the company go through American ports. With the U.S. remaining a sizable chunk of the liner's business, the concerns of volatility stemming from the stop-and-start nature of President Donald Trump's tariff decisions makes it challenging to plan for. Case in point, in the company's earnings call in mid-May, the CEO said Hapag-Lloyd saw bookings decrease 20 percent on average in the period after the Liberation Day tariffs were applied and ahead of the tariff rollback. But the China-to-U.S. demand picked up so quickly that Hapag-Lloyd and Gemini Cooperation partner Maersk introduced a new direct trans-Pacific service with a rotation of Xiamen, China; Busan, South Korea; and Long Beach, Calif.. The first sailing will take place out of Xiamen on June 24. The 'WC6' service will connect Busan and Long Beach with a transit time of 14 days, and a competitive direct Xiamen service into Long Beach in 18 days. Hapag-Lloyd's move reflects the industry at large, which has sought to add more capacity on the trans-Pacific trade lane to capitalize on shippers' rush to get cargo space ahead of tariff deadlines in July and August. As the Gemini alliance partners prep to start their new service offering, the carriers still lead the pack when it comes to schedule reliability, keeping their 90 percent schedule reliability goal intact across March and April. The alliance expects to be fully 'phased in' by July, meaning that all shared vessels will sail on Gemini schedules. 'Only then will it be possible to truly evaluate their performance,' said Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, in the monthly update. Gemini Cooperation officially came in with 90.7 percent reliability, with MSC following suit far behind at 69.8 percent. The Premier Alliance of Ocean Network Express (ONE), HMM and Yang Ming recorded 53 percent reliability in the two-month stretch. Habben Jansen said he was encouraged by the alliance's ability to ensure Hapag-Lloyd's first-quarter volumes surpassed the wider market with 9 percent growth, ahead of the 4.2 percent global growth experienced by the wider container shipping sector. 'That was the intention when we started [the partnership]. We knew that we needed to attract more volumes to fill those ships, also because we lose fewer sailings as we don't do blank sailings, as we used to do,' Habben Jansen said. 'And we sail on time, which basically means that we can use the ships more often. It's very nice to see that also reflected in the numbers, and hopefully we'll see more of that as we move into Q2.' Although competitor CMA CGM has introduced another service line back on the Suez Canal route, Hapag-Lloyd does not have intentions of following suit—the attitude still taken by most major container shipping firms. According to Habben Jansen, the story remains the same. There must be a clear indication that vessels and crew will be safe from potential Houthi attacks. 'If we go back then we will have to do that step by step, as we would like to avoid chaos in the Mediterranean and in Europe in particular, and to a lesser extent, on the East Coast of the U.S.,' said Habben Jansen. 'Right now, we do not see any signs that it is going to be and remain safe in the near future.' Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data

Tariff Fallout Hits LA Port: Cargo Decline Leaves Half of Dockworkers Idle
Tariff Fallout Hits LA Port: Cargo Decline Leaves Half of Dockworkers Idle

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Tariff Fallout Hits LA Port: Cargo Decline Leaves Half of Dockworkers Idle

Dockworkers at the Port of Los Angeles are seeing a shortage of work opportunities due to the decline in cargo entering the California gateway as Chinese exports to the U.S. continue to plummet. Nearly half of the longshoremen who support operations at the port went without work over the past two weeks, Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, told The Los Angeles Times in a Saturday report. More from Sourcing Journal Hapag-Lloyd Bookings Double on China-US Route in Weeks After Tariff Truce Guess Limits Tariff Impact to Less Than $10M, Adjusts Sourcing and Buying Strategies US Trade Deficit Contracted in April Amid Tariff-Driven Import Paralysis Over the last 25 work shifts, which span roughly two weeks, only 733 jobs per day were available for 1,575 longshoremen looking for work. The cargo decline has stemmed from President Donald Trump's tariffs on U.S. trading partners initially imposed in April, led by duties on Chinese goods that at one point reached 145 percent. In the wake of those tariffs, American companies had been cancelling import bookings, while ocean carriers on the trans-Pacific trade lane from Asia to the U.S. West Coast began blanking sailings. In May, 17 cargo ships canceled their planned trips to Los Angeles amid the plummeting demand. Although China is just one of the dozens of countries slapped with tariffs on its exports, the magnitude of products flowing from the country to the U.S. gives it a more outsized role on the trade lane and at the Port of Los Angeles itself. About 40 percent of imports that pass through the terminals at the port originate from China, Seroka said in April. In May, China's exports to the U.S. had their sharpest drop in five years—since the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic—to $28.8 billion, according to customs data. The 34.5 percent decline was the second-biggest pullback on record after the 54 percent collapse in February 2020 as the pandemic upended global trade. The May export drop has been reflected in the decline in cargo at the Port of Los Angeles. While the California gateway has not yet released official statistics for May, the port processed 25 percent less cargo than forecast for the month, according to Seroka. With less cargo comes fewer work opportunities. The 733 'job orders' are a significant decline from the usual range between 1,700 and 2,000 job orders posted during a typical day shift. For night shifts, 1,100 to 1,400 opportunities are typically posted. At the Port of L.A., terminal operators post available work opportunities, known as job orders, on a digital board three times a day. Dockworkers can review the job orders at each shift and bid on the jobs they want to take. If there are more longshoremen than job orders, a portion of them will go without pay. 'They haven't been laid off, but they're not working nearly as much as they did previously,' Seroka told The Times. 'Since the tariffs went into place, and in May specifically, we've really seen the work go off on the downside.' Concerns over the lighter cargo loads have been apparent in industries across the supply chain impacted by port throughput, including trucking and rail, which are tasked with transporting the cargo to warehouses. Retail businesses that would otherwise be taking in these deliveries also remain concerned about the impacts, particularly SMBs that may not have had the luxury of front-loading goods into the U.S. However, the 90-day rollback of the China tariffs in early May has since resulted in a rapid rush to bring goods into the U.S. ahead of a new Aug. 14 negotiation deadline, which could ultimately result in a flood of containers into the Port of Los Angeles and its sister port, the Port of Long Beach. Hapag-Lloyd said it saw bookings out of China more than doubled in the three weeks after the trade truce went into effect, illustrating just how dramatic the swing has been. Such excess ordering, alongside an increase in trans-Pacific ocean freight capacity in line with demand, sets U.S. ports up for another likely escalation in freight handling. This would benefit the dockworkers and result in an increase in job orders across ports once the first wave of post-tariff truce container vessels start to reach the U.S. later this month. Although analysts have predicted that the San Pedro Bay ports could see record traffic across June and July due to the increased capacity from Asia to North America, Seroka has continually held a more reserved viewpoint about possible impacts on Los Angeles. 'The June numbers that we're projecting right now are nowhere near where they traditionally should be,' Seroka said.

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