Today's Logistics Report: Buying Into Uber Freight; Maritime's Fresh Cyberattacks; Moving Boeing Planes
October 02 2020 - 8:35AM
Dow Jones News
By Paul Page
Sign up: With one click, get this newsletter delivered to your
inbox.
Uber Freight is getting new funding and fresh direction as its
parent company copes with broader upheaval in its core business.
Greenbriar Equity Group is leading a $500 million investment round
in the truck brokerage arm of Uber Technologies Inc., the WSJ
Logistics Report's Jennifer Smith writes, in an agreement that
values the digital freight business at $3.3 billion. The
transaction comes as Uber pushes to cut costs in a ride-hailing
business that has staggered under the pandemic and to complete a
$2.65 billion all-stock deal to acquire Postmates Inc. Uber has
said it is looking at all of its businesses, and its adding two
partners from transport and logistics-focused Greenbriar to Uber
Freight's board under the new investment. Uber Freight has grabbed
market share with its load-matching app, but it lost $49 million in
the second quarter on $211 million in revenue and the unit's growth
rate has slowed.
TRANSPORTATION
The maritime world's cybersecurity problem is getting deeper.
The International Maritime Organization was hit by what the global
regulator called a "sophisticated cyberattack," the WSJ Logistics
Report's Costas Paris writes, days after a hack at CMA CGM SA
operations crippled electronic systems at the container line. The
incident at the French ocean carrier was apparently a ransomware
attack and CMA CGM suspects that data was stolen. It's unclear how
far hackers got with the IMO, a high-profile agency attached to the
United Nations, but the regulator's website was down. Experts say
most ransomware and other intrusions are financially motivated, and
regulators such as the IMO can be a target if hackers suspect they
hold valuable data. Some carrier executives have blanched at the
potential cost of cybersecurity fixes, but they may find the cost
of growing incursions and communications shutdowns too much to
bear.
SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES
America's troubled aerospace supply chains are tilting a bit
more to the Southeast. Boeing Co. is ending production of its 787
Dreamliner in the Seattle area after more than a decade, the WSJ's
Andrew Tangel reports, and consolidating assembly of the popular
wide-body jet in South Carolina next year. The aircraft maker is
taking a reduced manufacturing operation from Everett, Wash., after
slashing production because of the pandemic-driven drop in travel.
The action will bring more manufacturing to the North Charleston,
S.C., site along with deliveries of high-value aircraft parts. It
isn't clear how the shift will affect Boeing's heavily unionized
workforce in the Puget Sound region. Efforts to organize Boeing's
workforce in the right-to-work state of South Carolina haven't
succeeded. Boeing still produces wide-body 767s, 777s and 747s in
Everett, but those assembly lines are slowing and the 747 program
is set to end in 2022.
QUOTABLE
IN OTHER NEWS
Amazon.com Inc. says more than 19,000 of its workers have
contracted coronavirus this year. (WSJ)
U.S. consumer spending rose 1% in August while personal income
fell 2.7%. (WSJ)
A measure of U.S. manufacturing activity expanded in August for
the fourth straight month. (WSJ)
New filings for jobless benefits in the U.S. held nearly steady
at 837,000 for the fifth straight week. (WSJ)
Sales figures suggest the U.S. auto industry bounced back
relatively strongly in the second quarter. (WSJ)
U.S. highway fatalities fell this spring amid coronavirus
lockdowns but the rate of crash deaths rose sharply. (WSJ)
Logistics automation provider AutoStore claims in a lawsuit that
U.K. online grocer Ocado Group PLC infringed on its technology
patents. (Dow Jones Newswires)
Gilead Sciences Inc. is taking control of supplies of its
Covid-19 treatment drug remdesivir from the U.S. government.
(WSJ)
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.'s quarterly comparable sales rose for
the first time since 2016 as digital sales soared 89%. (WSJ)
PepsiCo Inc.'s quarterly revenue rose 5.3% as beverage sales
rebounded. (WSJ)
The government spending bill passed by Congress and signed into
law extends highway programs for a year. (Heavy Duty Trucking)
Engine-maker Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC plans to raise $2.6
billion in a rights issue to bolster its tattered balance sheet.
(Financial Times)
Walmart Inc. plans to hire more than 20,000 seasonal workers for
e-commerce fulfillment centers this year. (Supply Chain Dive)
Hennes & Mauritz AB plans to close about 250 of its apparel
stores next year, or 5% of its global sites. (Bloomberg)
The New York Shipping Exchange raised $13.5 million in new
capital to back its business setting freight contracts between
shippers and ocean carriers. (The Loadstar)
Mediterranean Shipping Co. is considering a new round of
purchases of ultra-large container ships. (TradeWinds)
Vessel handling-equipment makers Cargotec and Konecranes plan to
merge. (Splash 247)
Amazon dropped its search for a distribution center site in
Gaithersburg, Md., in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. (Bethesda
Magazine)
E-commerce logistics operator Radial will build a $40 million
fulfillment center outside Atlanta. (Henry Herald)
XPO Logistics Inc. is closing a Jenkins Township, Pa.,
distribution center and laying off 111 employees. (Times
Leader)
SAS Cargo resumed freighter flights to China. (Air Cargo
News)
Bicycles are in tight supply amid enormous pandemic-driven
demand. (Colorado Sun)
ABOUT US
Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Follow the WSJ
Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @jensmithWSJ and @CostasParis.
Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.
Write to Paul Page at paul.page@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 02, 2020 08:20 ET (12:20 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Walmart (NYSE:WMT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Walmart (NYSE:WMT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024