By Paul Page
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Amazon.com Inc. is reaching deeper into the supplier world in
its bid to carve more business away from retailers. The e-commerce
giant has a new deal with Nike Inc. to sell some of the sporting
apparel maker's products, the WSJ's Sara Germano and Laura Stevens
report, a concession from Nike that it can no longer afford to
ignore the online retailing juggernaut. While Nike sells its shoes
and sportswear through department stores and specialty retailers,
it has refused to sell directly to Amazon, fearing it would
undermine its own brand. But with traffic to traditional stores
falling, Nike has been ramping up efforts to sell directly to
consumers, especially its own e-commerce efforts. The supplier
needs the outlets: the Sports Authority chain collapsed last year
under the online competition, and moves by suppliers including
Adidas AG and Under Armour Inc. to Amazon have added to the
pressure on sporting goods retailers, stress that will only grow as
Nike follows the same path.
Germany is finding the answer to protectionist trade talk in the
U.S. is more business with Asia. The country's exports to the Far
East are surging, the WSJ's Nina Adam reports, including a 12.3%
jump in shipments to China and better-than 20% growth in goods to
Indonesia and Vietnam. The export gains come as Germany has come
under sharp criticism from President Donald Trump over its large
trade surplus with the U.S. The barbs from Washington, along with
tensions over issues such as climate, has led European leaders to
scale up efforts to cultivate Beijing -- and pushed Germany to
build on its already-strong trade with China. The country became
Germany's largest trading partner last year, with overall trade of
almost $223 billion. Germany's exports to the U.S. rose 3.9% this
year through April, but the numbers suggest the country's trade
interest is heading in another direction.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is taking its competition with Amazon to
the cloud. The retailer is telling some technology companies they
can't run applications for the company on Amazon's cloud-computing
service if they want to do business with Wal-Mart, the WSJ's Jay
Greene and Laura Stevens report. It's a rare showdown between
companies over third-party suppliers, driven by Amazon's rise as
the dominant provider of on-demand computing power and storage.
Wal-Mart says it simply doesn't want "our most sensitive data" on a
competitor's platform. Some technology vendors say other large
retailers also have requested that service providers move away from
Amazon Web Services. That push highlights the potential conflicts
that are rising as Amazon spreads beyond the nuts-and-bolts of
retailing, a growing question in the logistics field as the
e-commerce giants builds shipping infrastructure that provides both
business and competition to truckers and other operators. For
Wal-Mart, there's no doubt AWS provides troubling competition,
bringing Amazon big profits that help offset tight retail
margins.
COMMODITIES
Everyone may be bullish about e-commerce, but the cattle aren't
buying it. An online auction meant to help set prices in the
volatile cattle market is in trouble, the WSJ's Benjamin Parkin
reports, with technical breakdowns and dwindling participation
undermining a business that aimed to bring an ages-old business
into the modern trading world. The Fed Cattle Exchange has crashed
multiple times in the last month alone, and traders say the auction
isn't providing the promised reality check for pricing in the $19
billion cattle-futures market. Instead, it's provided a lesson in
the difficulty in creating an independent commodity exchange in an
industry that's already created its own processes for managing
goods. Public cattle prices became scarce as the share of cattle
sold on the open market has fallen, reflecting consolidation among
ranchers and meat companies into a few large players that favor
contracts over auctions. Still, the market remains so volatile that
some traders insist they'll keep trying to work with the new
exchange.
QUOTABLE
IN OTHER NEWS
Oil prices turned lower again even as U.S. data showed
stockpiles are shrinking. (WSJ)
Sales of previously owned U.S. homes increased 1.1% from April
to May. (WSJ)
Ports and maritime businesses along the U.S. Gulf Coast were
bracing for the impact of tropical storm Cindy as it headed toward
landfall. (WSJ)
Foxconn Technology Group is looking at several U.S. states as
potential sites for new contract manufacturing sites and may make
its first choice early next month. (WSJ)
Sears Canada Inc., which operates more than 200 stores, is
preparing to file for bankruptcy protection in Canada. (WSJ)
The Japanese government seized the lead role in buying Toshiba
Corp.'s chip unit after raising concerns about technology leaking
to China. (WSJ)
Rio Tinto PLC rebuffed a $2.5 billion offer by Glencore PLC for
its Australian coal assets and recommended shareholders approve a
smaller bid by a Chinese company. (WSJ)
Trump administration officials say foreign investment will be
central to their efforts to increase U.S. infrastructure spending.
(The Hill)
Honda Motor Co. temporarily halted production at a plant in
Japan after it suffered a ransomware cyberattack. (Agence
France-Presse)
China Hongqiao Group Ltd., the nation's biggest aluminum
smelter, is curtailing outdated capacity amid a government
crackdown on production. (Bloomberg)
Taiwan's Evergreen Line joined other major ship operators in
launching sea freight booking services on the Alibaba Group Holding
Ltd platform. (Lloyd's List)
Mediterranean Shipping Co. took control of Brazil's port at
Portonave, a key gateway for perishables exports. (Shipping
Watch)
Ceva Logistics owner Apollo Capital Management is interested in
selling the Netherlands-based operator. (The Loadstar)
The American Trucking Associations' Truck Tonnage index rose for
the first time in four months, climbing 6.5% in May. (Commercial
Carrier Journal)
Boeing Co. will convert three 767-300 passenger jets to
freighters for United Parcel Service Inc. (Air Cargo World)
UPS acquired a 595,000-square-foot distribution center outside
Carlisle, Pa. (PennLive)
Developers want to build a one million-square-foot distribution
center south of Milwaukee for an unnamed customer. (Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel)
Business intelligence software provider FusionOps gained $50
million in new venture capital funding and renamed itself Aera
Technology. (DC Velocity)
Logistics accounts for up to 30% of the cost of home-delivery
meal kits such as Blue Apron, an analysis shows. (Washington
Post)
ABOUT US
Paul Page is deputy editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Follow him
at @PaulPage, and follow the entire WSJ Logistics Report team:
@brianjbaskin , @jensmithWSJ and @EEPhillips_WSJ. Follow the WSJ
Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.
Write to Paul Page at paul.page@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 22, 2017 06:47 ET (10:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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