SeaPRwire
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Supply chains, interrupted: How Singapore and the world are coping with disruptions

elean
3 minutes

Retailers in S'pore race to replenish festive stocks With just three weeks to go until Christmas, retailers are racing to replenish their stocks of festive items and fighting the supply chain crunch to do so. While many are still sweating over whether their merchandise will arrive in time to catch holiday shoppers, some have learnt from last year's Covid-19 pandemic disruptions and started stocking their inventories early. For the past 11/2 months, Mr Daniel Chua of Ji Mei Flower has been anxiously tracking his shipments of live Christmas trees from the United States. READ MORE HERE Why a bicycle takes 40 days to reach Singapore The Straits Times reporters tracked a bicycle order from China to Singapore - before and after - global supply chains broke down. READ MORE HERE China's manufacturing hub hit by shipping delays Logistics agent Lily Chen now spends most of her work day wrangling for spots on cargo ships leaving China. What used to take less than five minutes now occupies most of her working hours, after Covid-19 threw the shipping industry into chaos. When the world shut down during the pandemic last year, shipping firms cut down on cargo routes. READ MORE HERE Truckers in d...

SeaPRwire

S’pore set to weather disruptions but global supply chain reset a concern

elean
1 minute

SINGAPORE - Exports seem to have defied supply disruptions stemming from the pandemic but persistent stress on global supply chains may have ramifications down the line for a trade-dependent economy like Singapore. Inflation is the immediate threat, of course, but another longer-term risk looms for Singapore, given that it is mainly a producer of intermediate goods and components. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Get unlimited access to all stories at $0.99/month Latest headlines and exclusive stories In-depth analyses and award-winning multimedia content Get access to all with our no-contract promotional package at only $0.99/month for the first 3 months* Subscribe now *Terms and conditions apply.

SeaPRwire

Broken supply chains threaten ruin at growing number of small US firms

elean
4 minutes

NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - A growing cohort of smaller companies that survived the cold depths of the Covid-19 pandemic say now they're in danger because the economy is too hot. Mattress sellers, flooring manufacturers and makers of clean energy equipment are warning that stretched supply chains and runaway freight bills have pushed them to the brink of ruin. Unlike global giants, they don't have the cash and scale to hire their own cargo ships or pass on the soaring expenses, forcing them to seek private bailouts. The roster includes Casper Sleep, which accepted a buyout at a fire-sale price along with a costly bridge loan. Armstrong Flooring, reeling from a 21 per cent cost increase, expects to violate its loan agreement, a fate that has already overtaken TPI Composites, which got cash from distressed-debt specialists to keep the maker of wind turbine blades afloat. "Covid was tough enough to figure out in terms of consumer behavior, increased leverage," said Lisa Donahue, global co-head of restructuring at AlixPartners. "And then you add stress on the supply chain, coupled with inflation - that makes it really complicated," she said. "If you have high leverage and other fixed costs ...

SeaPRwire

Technology is key to resilient supply chains, experts say

aseanpr
5 minutes

SINGAPORE - As supply chain snags continue into 2022, it is important to strike a balance between efficiency and resilience, and make use of technology to build trust among countries. In that respect, governments have an important role to play in facilitating trade by setting good rules for the digital economy and allowing free flow of data across borders, said Mastercard vice-chairman and former United States trade representative Mike Froman on the third day of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Friday (Nov 19). "We are seeing many countries move towards more protectionist measures when it comes to data, often driven by legitimate concerns," he said. "But we can work through those concerns, for example, by protecting individual privacy but at the same time, permitting data to flow in a way that allows supply chains to be more transparent and efficient." Also speaking at the panel discussion titled "Untangling Supply Chains" was Micron Technology president and chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra, who said that strong partnerships between suppliers and customers across the ecosystem are critical. Supply chain transparency requires collaboration on technology and building intelligent sys...

ACN Newswire
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Cross-Chain Scaling Solution BTTC Officially Goes Live, TRON Aims at “Connecting All Chains”

indie
2 minutes

SINGAPORE, Nov 1, 2021 - (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - TRON, a leading public chain, is pleased to announce a major initiative with BitTorrent Chain (BTTC) test network, a layer 2 cross-chain scaling solution compatible with TRON, Ethereum and BSC (HECO and OEC to be integrated in the near future). BTTC officially went live on October 30.BTTC is the first heterogeneous cross-chain interoperability protocol in the industry, with core advantages such as fast transmission speed and low transaction costs while ensuring asset security. BTTC was born to address the need for cross-chain scaling solutions.Public chain projects are growing rapidly in number. However, many of these projects are not interconnected owing to incompatible technologies, ecosystems, and competition, leading to isolated users, assets, applications, data, altogether curbing the growth of the industry as a whole. Connecting to mainstream public chains such as TRON, Ethereum and BSC reduces information and asset barriers, and enables a smooth exchange of data and value. BTTC will help to overcome data isolation among public chains. TRON founder Justin Sun, in an open letter to the community, said that BTTC will p...

ACN Newswire
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Bluehelix Bridge Solution (BBS) Rolls Out Decentralized Cross-chain Bridge Services

indie
4 minutes

Cayman Islands, Sep 1, 2021 - (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - Bluehelix formally released Bluehelix Bridge Solution (BBS), a decentralized MPC-based cross-chain bridge solution that supports the decentralized cross-chain access of any public chain, any heterogeneous chain, any homogeneous chain, or any ecological native asset, days ago.As of August 31, independent cross-chain addresses exceeded 1,800, cross-chain deposits and withdrawals exceed 5,000, and cross-chain access has exceeded USD10 million. Bluehelix Bridge currently supports BTC, ETH, HECO, BSC, DOGE, Polygon and TRON, and will soon support Solana, Near, Cosmos and others.Bluehelix Bridge is a cross-chain bridge solution that allows encrypted assets to be transferred between blockchains. It has been released for multiple public chains and projects, and seeks to establish a zero-threshold circulation connection for public chain ecological assets as well as encourage the mutual chain of all things in the public chain ecosystem.Differing from the implementation of cross-chain by smart contracts on the market, Bluehelix Bridge addresses the problems of transparency and decentralization by adopting internationally recogni...

ACN Newswire
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Elastomers develop stronger bonds of attachment

indie
3 minutes

Tsukuba, Japan, Feb 12, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Elastomers are the soft, elastic materials, like gels and rubbers, that are found in automobile and airplane parts, in sports equipment, and are used to protect precision machinery and buildings against vibrations. Scientists now want to make them thinner and tougher, without losing elasticity. Nagoya University materials engineer Yukikazu Takeoka and colleagues reviewed the most recent efforts towards improving elastomers for the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials.Different kinds of bonds can link elastomer chains together, changing how the material behaves. (Credit: Yukikazu Takeoka)"Our review gives hints about the kind of molecular thinking that needs to go into making elastomers tougher," says Takeoka.Elastomers are made of many, long molecular chains of repeating subunits. They can undergo large deformations when stretched, returning to their original shape when the tension is released. They can do this because their molecular chains have enough mobility to stretch and crunch up.Elasticity and overall toughness depends on the interactions between the molecular chains inside the material. Scientists have been wo...

SeaPRwire
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Singapore, Malaysia to work closely to keep supply chains going amid state of emergency: Chan Chun Sing

aseanpr
2 minutes

SINGAPORE - Singapore and Malaysia will continue to work closely to keep supply chains going amid the movement control restrictions and state of emergency declared in Malaysia, said Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing on Wednesday (Jan 13). Mr Chan was speaking to reporters during a visit to speciality chemicals company DuPont Singapore. When asked about the latest developments in Malaysia and whether it would affect Singapore's supply chain, he said: "We are in close contact with our Malaysian counterparts regarding the latest movement control, and also the state of emergency. "I've exchanged texts with my counterparts and I think we have shared our commitment to make sure that we continue to keep our trade flows going, keep our supply chains going, to the benefit of both countries." Mr Chan added that over the last few days, Singapore's supplies and trade flows with Malaysia have continued "as per normal". He added that since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Singapore has been preparing itself for potential disruptions to its supplies and supply chains by diversifying the latter, and also by stockpiling and stepping up local production where possible. These disrupti...

JCN Newswire
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Vietnam Pilot Project Utilizing TradeWaltz Platform Adopted Under Government’s Supply-Chain Diversification Scheme

ruth
3 minutes

TOKYO, Dec 24, 2020 - (JCN Newswire) - Five Japanese companies are pleased to announce that they will be collaborating on a digitalization pilot project for Vietnam-bound trade. Slated to begin in March 2021 with operations conducted by Mitsubishi Corporation Plastics Ltd. (MCP) and Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), the project will revolve around the TradeWaltz information-sharing platform, which is managed by its namesake company TradeWaltz, Inc. (TradeWaltz). Participating in the project alongside TradeWaltz will be the platform's four initial users1, namely MCP, MC, MUFG Bank, Ltd. (MUFG), and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. (Tokio Marine Nichido).This project has also been adopted as part of a larger scheme to help diversify overseas supply chains that was introduced in the fiscal year 2021 supplementary budget of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is serving as secretariat for the diversification scheme.Trading operations still require physical documents to be processed at both corporate and government offices, and even during the pandemic, some employees have had to report to their offices once...