Crypto News: Supply Lines: ‘Significant’ trade shifts

Global trade in goods and services is recovering from last year's slump amid economic strength in the US and solid exports from Asia's developing nations.

That's among the topline takeaways in a report this month from the UNCTAD, the UN's trade and development agency. It sees a first-half increase of 2% — which would add $250 billion in goods trade and $100 billion in services versus the same period in 2023.

UNCTAD also says it's seeing "significant trade reallocations and increased supply concentration."

The report contains a special section on industrial policy, noting that despite last year's general slowdown in international commerce, programs like the US Inflation Reduction Act, the Made in China 2025 initiative, and the European Union's Net Zero Industry Act helped boost demand for targeted goods.

Surge in EVs

"For instance, detailed product level data from the three major economies suggests that the trade in electric vehicles experienced a remarkable 50% rise," the report said.

And although competition looked to have stayed robust for solar panels and electric vehicles, "this is not the case for battery value chains," the report stated.

"In this sector, the increase in supply concentration has been accompanied by low trade reallocation, suggesting that global supply is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few major exporters."

Looking ahead, UNCTAD cited three possible implications:

More concentration in global trade
Splintering into major blocs
Rising protectionism and costs

More on Global Trade Turmoil:

—Brendan Murray in London

Click here for more of Bloomberg.com's most-read stories about trade, supply chains and shipping.

Source: Bloomberg

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Though container shipping rates will keep climbing as long as Red Sea attacks on vessels persist, Bloomberg Intelligence's Lee Klaskow expects them to give back gains once tensions abate.
Run SPLC after an equity ticker on Bloomberg to show critical data about a company's suppliers, customers and peers.
Use the AHOY function to track global commodities trade flows.
See DSET CHOKE for a dataset to monitor shipping chokepoints.
For freight dashboards, see {BI RAIL}, {BI TRCK} and {BI SHIP} and {BI 3PLS}
Click HERE for automated stories about supply chains.
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See BNEF for BloombergNEF's analysis of clean energy, advanced transport, digital industry, innovative materials, and commodities.

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