Latest News
DEMAND AT ASIAN FACTORIES RISES AT STRONGEST RATE IN OVER 2 YEARS, IMPROVING NEAR-TERM GROWTH OUTLOOK FOR MANUFACTURING WORLDWIDE: GEP GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN VOLATILITY INDEX
- North American suppliers struggling to meet orders due to a lack of staff
- Manufacturing recession in Europe eases in March, but steep downturn in Germany remains a major drag on the continent
- Despite Red Sea and Panama Canal disruptions, transportation costs and stockpiling fell in March because of decreases in container rates
CLARK, N.J., April 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index — a leading indicator tracking demand conditions, shortages, transportation costs, inventories and backlogs based on a monthly survey of 27,000 businesses — fell for the first time this year to -0.32 in March, from February’s 10-month high of -0.08. While this does signal a pickup in the level of spare capacity at global suppliers, underlying data show this was due to global manufacturers using up inventory surpluses, some of which were accumulated because of Red Sea and Panama Canal disruptions, and cutting back on stockpiling activity, with companies displaying a preference to clear stocks before placing bumper orders with their vendors.
Continuing the year-to-date trend, demand for raw materials, commodities and components continued to recover in March. Notably, Asia was the primary driver of this improvement, led by India and China, with factories across the region boosting their purchases of inputs by the strongest degree since December 2021. Given Asia’s importance to global production, this provides a strong indication of future growth for the wider manufacturing economy.
Notably, North American suppliers experienced difficulties in meeting orders, as backlogs of work due to a lack of staff increased. This suggests a strong pipeline of orders for the coming months.
In Europe, the slowest decline in input demand for a year provides evidence of the continent’s industrial recession easing. However, the continued struggles of manufacturers in Germany remained a considerable drag.
Global transportation costs fell to their lowest level since last December as the diminishing impact of the Suez Canal disruption led container rates to decline. Our data shows no discernable impact to the world’s supplies from either the Red Sea attacks or from reduced capacity on the Panama Canal, as businesses adjusted to longer delivery schedules.
“In March, orders placed with Asia’s suppliers ramped up, which is a strong signal of accelerating growth in manufacturing in the coming months,” explained Roopa Makhija, president and co-founder, GEP. “In North America, suppliers are reporting difficulties meeting orders due to staff shortages, signaling capacity constraints, even though input demand declined slightly. This does mean that manufacturers have strong pipelines which undermines the Fed’s expressed desire to cut interest rates, at least in the near-term.”
Interpreting the data:
- Index > 0, supply chain capacity is being stretched. The further above 0, the more stretched supply chains are.
- Index < 0, supply chain capacity is being underutilized. The further below 0, the more underutilized supply chains are.
MARCH 2024 KEY FINDINGS
- DEMAND: Global demand for raw materials, commodities and components edged closer to its long-term average in March, signaling recovery in the global manufacturing industry. Asia was the primary driver of this positive trend, with purchasing activity across the region rising at the strongest pace in over two years.
- INVENTORIES: There was a sharp reversal in global businesses’ inventories in March, partly reflecting the winding down of surpluses built up because of the Red Sea disruption. Reports of safety stockpiling were at their lowest since November 2019, before the pandemic.
- MATERIAL SHORTAGES: Reports of item shortages remained among the lowest seen in four years.
- LABOR SHORTAGES: There continued to be evidence of growing staffing capacity constraints in March, particularly in Europe and North America, as global reports of manufacturing backlogs rising because of labor shortages were their highest since last August.
- TRANSPORTATION: Global transport costs fell to their lowest in the year to date in March as the impact on supply chains from the Red Sea disruption receded.
REGIONAL SUPPLY CHAIN VOLATILITY
- NORTH AMERICA: Index fell to -0.31, from 0.17, signaling a renewed increase in spare capacity following the uptick in pressure in February. This reflected a reduction in inventories, alleviating some strain on the region’s vendors.
- EUROPE: Index fell to -0.62, from -0.41. Albeit down on the month, the index is much higher than it was at the end of 2023. Still, recession in Germany’s manufacturing economy is weighing on the continent.
- U.K.: Index rose further in March to -0.17, from -0.34, its highest level in a year and signaling a shrinking amount of spare capacity across the U.K.’s supply chains.
- ASIA: Index little-changed at -0.07, down only narrowly from -0.02. Overall, the index points to Asian suppliers operating at close to full capacity as regional input demand grew at the fastest pace for over two years.
For more information, visit www.gep.com/volatility.
Note: Full historical data dating back to January 2005 is available for subscription. Please contact [email protected].
The next release of the GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index will be 8 a.m. ET, May 13, 2024.
About the GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index
The GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index is produced by S&P Global and GEP. It is derived from S&P Global’s PMI® surveys, sent to companies in over 40 countries, totaling around 27,000 companies. The headline figure is a weighted sum of six sub-indices derived from PMI data, PMI Comments Trackers and PMI Commodity Price & Supply Indicators compiled by S&P Global.
- A value above 0 indicates that supply chain capacity is being stretched and supply chain volatility is increasing. The further above 0, the greater the extent to which capacity is being stretched.
- A value below 0 indicates that supply chain capacity is being underutilized, reducing supply chain volatility. The further below 0, the greater the extent to which capacity is being underutilized.
A Supply Chain Volatility Index is also published at a regional level for Europe, Asia, North America and the U.K. For more information about the methodology, click here.
About GEP
GEP® delivers AI-powered procurement and supply chain solutions that help global enterprises become more agile and resilient, operate more efficiently and effectively, gain competitive advantage, boost profitability and increase shareholder value. Fresh thinking, innovative products, unrivaled domain expertise, smart, passionate people — this is how GEP SOFTWARE™, GEP STRATEGY™ and GEP MANAGED SERVICES™ together deliver procurement and supply chain solutions of unprecedented scale, power and effectiveness. Our customers are the world’s best companies, including more than 550 Fortune 500 and Global 2000 industry leaders who rely on GEP to meet ambitious strategic, financial and operational goals. A leader in multiple Gartner Magic Quadrants, GEP’s cloud-native software and digital business platforms consistently win awards and recognition from industry analysts, research firms and media outlets, including Gartner, Forrester, IDC, ISG, and Spend Matters. GEP is also regularly ranked a top procurement and supply chain consulting and strategy firm, and a leading managed services provider by ALM, Everest Group, NelsonHall, IDC, ISG and HFS, among others. Headquartered in Clark, New Jersey, GEP has offices and operations centers across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. To learn more, visit www.gep.com.
About S&P Global
S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) S&P Global provides essential intelligence. We enable governments, businesses and individuals with the right data, expertise and connected technology so that they can make decisions with conviction. From helping our customers assess new investments to guiding them through ESG and energy transition across supply chains, we unlock new opportunities, solve challenges and accelerate progress for the world. We are widely sought after by many of the world’s leading organizations to provide credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help the world’s leading organizations plan for tomorrow, today.
Disclaimer
The intellectual property rights to the data provided herein are owned by or licensed to S&P Global and/or its affiliates. Any unauthorised use, including but not limited to copying, distributing, transmitting or otherwise of any data appearing is not permitted without S&P Global’s prior consent. S&P Global shall not have any liability, duty or obligation for or relating to the content or information (“Data”) contained herein, any errors, inaccuracies, omissions or delays in the Data, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. In no event shall S&P Global be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages, arising out of the use of the Data. Purchasing Managers’ Index™ and PMI® are either trade marks or registered trade marks of S&P Global Inc or licensed to S&P Global Inc and/or its affiliates.
This Content was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global. Reproduction of any information, data or material, including ratings (“Content”) in any form is prohibited except with the prior written permission of the relevant party. Such party, its affiliates and suppliers (“Content Providers”) do not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness, timeliness or availability of any Content and are not responsible for any errors or omissions (negligent or otherwise), regardless of the cause, or for the results obtained from the use of such Content. In no event shall Content Providers be liable for any damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including lost income or lost profit and opportunity costs) in connection with any use of the Content.
Media Contacts
Derek Creevey
Director, Public Relations
GEP
Phone: +1 732-382-6565
Email: [email protected]
Joe Hayes
Principal Economist
S&P Global Market Intelligence
T: +44-1344-328-099
[email protected]
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2384947/GEP_Global_Supply_Chain_Volatility_Index_Graph_1.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2384950/GEP_Global_Supply_Chain_Volatility_Index_Graph_2.jpg
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/518346/GEP_Logo.jpg
View original content:
Latest News
SANY Heavy Industry Reports 2023 Earnings: Overseas Revenue Soars to 60% of Core Business Amid Market Pressures, Signaling Strong Global Expansion
SHANGHAI, May 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — SANY Heavy Industry (“SANY” or “the Company”; SSE: 600031), a leading heavy machinery manufacturer, has reported a strong growth in international revenues in its recently announced annual results for 2023.
The Company reported RMB 74.02 billion (US$10.43 billion) in total revenues for the year 2023, down 8.44% year-on-year. Despite a challenging market, the decrease in revenue showed a narrowing decline of 15.92 percentage points compared to the previous year’s changes.
SANY’s net profit totaled RMB 4.6 billion (US$648.74 million) in 2023, posting a 4.16% year-on-year expansion. Its net cash flows from operating activities surged by 39.20% to reach RMB 5.7 billion (US$803.87 million).
The year 2023 was pivotal for SANY as its international business flourished. In 2023, the Company recorded RMB 43.3 billion (US$6.1 billion) in international business revenues, marking an 18% year-on-year increase and accounting for nearly 60% of its main business revenues.
Such significant growth highlights SANY’s successful transition to a multinational engineering machinery conglomerate, with its sales spanning over 180 countries and regions. The sales revenues in Asia and Australia amounted to RMB 16.5 billion (US$2.32 billion), up 11.1% year-on-year, while the European region generated RMB 16.25 billion (US$2.3 billion), a substantial growth of 37.97%. The American market brought in RMB 7.58 billion (US$1 billion), rising 6.82%, and the African region contributed RMB 2.92 billion (US$411.8 million), up by 2.56%.
“SANY boasts a vibrant overseas market, top-tier partners, and an energetic local team,” said Xiang Wenbo, chairman of SANY Heavy Industry. “Looking ahead this year, we remain committed to our ‘Globalization, Digitalization and Decarbonization’ strategy, as we continue to work with global partners to explore green development.”
SANY’s financial performance in 2023 demonstrated substantial improvements, with a notable increase in gross profit margin to 27.71%, up by 3.67 percentage points from the previous year, exceeding the industry median. Additionally, net profit attributable to shareholders rose to RMB 4.52 billion (US$637.4 million), a 5.53% year-on-year increase, and adjusted net profit after non-recurring items surged by 40.35% to RMB 4.38 billion (US$617.7 million). While the main gross profit margin and net profit margin grew, the Company also drove its operation growth. In terms of product lines, excavating machinery, lifting machinery and road machinery performed strongly during the reporting period. In addition, electric products realized revenues of RMB 3.146 billion (US$449.4 million) and hydrogen energy products realized revenues of RMB 130 million (US$18.6 million).
For more information about SANY Group, please visit http://www.sanyglobal.com or follow us on Facebook or YouTube.
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2414948/Key_Figures_for_SANY_Heavy_Industry_Reports_2023_Earnings.jpg
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1518641/4710755/logo_Logo.jpg
View original content:
Powered by Finastra Phoenix and Digital Banking, plus an expanded suite of solutions, the bank will enhance its user experience for both businesses and consumers
LAKE MARY, Fla., May 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Finastra today announced that Cache Valley Bank, a community bank with $2.9 billion in assets serving Utah and Southern Idaho, has expanded its collaboration with the financial software provider, gaining increased flexibility and agility through its cloud-based solutions. The bank will leverage Finastra Phoenix for its core, Finastra Digital Banking for consumer and business mobile banking, and a suite of ancillary solutions to enhance its operations and future-proof its technology stack.
Cache Valley Bank expanded its relationship with Finastra to modernize its core banking infrastructure and to reinvent its business with cutting-edge abilities and increased efficiencies across its operations. The bank is enhancing its Finastra core solution while replacing its digital banking infrastructure with Finastra’s robust end-user engagement platform, making it well-positioned to quickly and efficiently adapt to emerging opportunities and to better deliver an enhanced user experience for businesses and consumers across the markets it serves.
When the bank recognized that its legacy digital banking solution could not offer the enhanced customer experience it wanted to deliver, it chose Finastra for its underlying technology, flexibility, and ecosystem. “For more than two decades, we have worked with Finastra to power our bank through their innovative, thoughtful, and efficient solutions,” said Mike Lemon, chief financial officer at Cache Valley Bank. “When it came time to seek a new partner for our digital banking needs, we knew it made sense to expand our relationship with Finastra, as they offer the experience, stability, and access to innovation we need to deliver an enhanced customer experience.”
The bank has a strategic vision to migrate all on-premises software to the cloud over time. Finastra Phoenix and Digital Banking support this goal and are designed to seamlessly migrate to the cloud, enabling the optimization of back-office resources and architecture. This shift will allow the bank to focus on its other priorities, such as the customer experience, more closely.
“To enable future growth, Cache Valley Bank needed an intuitive and user-friendly tech stack powered by the latest innovations in financial services,” said Swathy Parthasarathy, chief operating officer, Universal Banking at Finastra. “Our core solution, digital banking, and our overall suite of services give the bank the agility and innovative capabilities needed to continue to be a leader in the market, grow its footprint, and increase efficiencies. We’re honored to be a part of their growth journey.”
Recognizing the importance of applying data to inform decision-making, the bank has added Finastra’s Fusion Analytics business analytics tool as well. The solution helps community banks gather and aggregate their customers’ current relationships, behaviors, and lifestyle attributes to identify opportunities for growth and profitability.
As part of the bank’s migration to its new suite of services, it also benefits from access to Finastra’s fintech ecosystem, leveraging partners such as Glia, a digital automation platform offering enhanced customer service. The bank additionally will implement Enterprise Content Management, Item Processing, and Rapid Wires from Finastra’s suite of ancillary solutions.
About Finastra
Finastra is a global provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, and launched the leading open platform for innovation, FusionFabric.cloud, in 2017. It serves institutions of all sizes, providing award-winning software solutions and services across Lending, Payments, Treasury & Capital Markets and Universal Banking (Retail, Digital and Commercial Banking) for banks to support direct banking relationships and grow through indirect channels, such as embedded finance and Banking as a Service. Its pioneering approach and commitment to open finance and collaboration is why it is trusted by over 8,000 institutions, including 45 of the world’s top 50 banks.
For more information, visit finastra.com
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1916021/4699654/FINASTRA_Logo.jpg
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/cache-valley-bank-accelerates-its-digital-growth-strategy-with-finastra-302142619.html
Latest News
Republic Life Insurance Goes Live as Caribbean’s First Digital, Direct-to-Consumer Insurer Powered by Sapiens’ Insurance Platform
Sapiens’ Insurance platform on Microsoft Azure cloud will enable quick launch of products and accelerate market expansion
ROCHELLE PARK, N.J., May 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Sapiens International Corporation, (NASDAQ: SPNS) (TASE: SPNS), a leading global provider of software solutions for the insurance industry, today announced that Republic Life, a Caribbean-based company, has gone live with Sapiens CoreSuite for Life & Annuities, and Sapiens Digital Suite hosted on Microsoft Azure cloud.
Sapiens’ solutions enabled Republic Life Insurance to become the first Caribbean insurer to provide a fully digital, direct-to-customer offering. The digital-by-design process allows consumers to acquire life insurance policies, with point-of-sale decisioning, and service their policies through the innovative customer portal. The solution will also allow Republic Life Insurance to launch new products quickly and meet the ongoing administrative needs of customers, ensuring exceptional service, which will accelerate their growth and expansion in the marketplace.
“Our main objective was to disrupt the life insurance market whilst offering an enhanced customer experience and create an entirely digital insurance company. Sapiens’ state-of-the-art, digital insurance platform empowered us to be the first Caribbean insurer to achieve that, and we were able to implement within 11 months,” said Robert Soverall, Managing Director, Republic Life Insurance. “What really stood out is Sapiens’ innovative customer portal and their dedicated implementation and technical support teams who fully share our vision for success.”
“We are delighted to enable Republic Life Insurance to make a historic impact in the Caribbean life insurance market with the region’s first fully online, digital customer experience,” said Roni Al-Dor, Sapiens President & CEO. “This ground-breaking insurance launch exemplifies Sapiens’ commitment to deliver best-in-class solutions and a mutually rewarding team experience. We are confident that Republic Life Insurance has the tools in place to reduce the insurance/protection gap through innovative customer experiences.”
Sapiens DigitalSuite is a comprehensive, cloud-native, future-proof digital engagement suite specifically designed to enable, sustain and grow insurance businesses through its configurable and dynamic, persona-based portals that revolutionize the customer experience. Sapiens CoreSuite for Life & Annuities is a state-of-the-art, digital software solution for end-to-end core operations and processes. An award-winning policy administration system, it supports individual and group products across life, health, wealth & retirement.
About Republic Life Insurance
Republic Life Insurance Company Limited, a subsidiary of Republic Financial Holdings Limited, is responsible for the management and underwriting of the Group’s Life Insurance for personal loans, residential mortgages, and personal credit cards. For more information visit https://republiclifett.com/
About Sapiens
Sapiens International Corporation (NASDAQ and TASE: SPNS) empowers the financial sector, with a focus on insurance, to transform and become digital, innovative, and agile. With more than 40 years of industry expertise, Sapiens’ cloud-based SaaS insurance platform offers pre-integrated, low-code capabilities across core, data, and digital domains to accelerate our customers’ digital transformation. Serving over 600 customers in more than 30 countries, Sapiens offers insurers across property and casualty, workers’ compensation, and life insurance markets the most comprehensive set of solutions, from core to complementary, including Reinsurance, Financial & Compliance, Data & Analytics, Digital, and Decision Management. For more information visit https://sapiens.com or follow us on LinkedIn
Investor and Media Contact
Yaffa Cohen-Ifrah
Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Investor Relations
Sapiens International
Email: [email protected]
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain Certain matters discussed in this press release that are incorporated herein and therein by reference are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act, Section 21E of the Exchange Act and the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that are based on our beliefs, assumptions and expectations, as well as information currently available to us. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “plan” and similar expressions. Such statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: the degree of our success in our plans to leverage our global footprint to grow our sales; the degree of our success in integrating the companies that we have acquired through the implementation of our M&A growth strategy; the lengthy development cycles for our solutions, which may frustrate our ability to realize revenues and/or profits from our potential new solutions; our lengthy and complex sales cycles, which do not always result in the realization of revenues; the degree of our success in retaining our existing customers or competing effectively for greater market share; the global macroeconomic environment, including headwinds caused by inflation, relatively high interest rates, potentially unfavorable currency exchange rate movements, and uncertain economic conditions, and their impact on our revenues, profitability and cash flows; difficulties in successfully planning and managing changes in the size of our operations; the frequency of the long-term, large, complex projects that we perform that involve complex estimates of project costs and profit margins, which sometimes change mid-stream; the challenges and potential liability that heightened privacy laws and regulations pose to our business; occasional disputes with clients, which may adversely impact our results of operations and our reputation; various intellectual property issues related to our business; potential unanticipated product vulnerabilities or cybersecurity breaches of our or our customers’ systems; risks related to the insurance industry in which our clients operate; risks associated with our global sales and operations, such as changes in regulatory requirements, wide-spread viruses and epidemics like the coronavirus epidemic, and fluctuations in currency exchange rates; and risks related to our principal location in Israel and our status as a Cayman Islands company.
While we believe such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, should one or more of the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, or these risks or uncertainties materialize, our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Please read the risks discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2023, to be filed in the near future, in order to review conditions that we believe could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason, to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.
Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/585787/Sapiens_Logo.jpg
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/republic-life-insurance-goes-live-as-caribbeans-first-digital-direct-to-consumer-insurer-powered-by-sapiens-insurance-platform-302147721.html
-
Latest News6 days ago
“Grand Huangshan” Debuts at the 2024 World Brand Moganshan Conference
-
Latest News6 days ago
AI-powered Panax raises $15m to reshape cash flow management
-
Latest News6 days ago
Yili’s 2023 Revenue Reaches 126.2 Billion Yuan, Leading Global Dairy Industry towards Healthy and Sustainable Development
-
Latest News6 days ago
Egypt’s Swypex launches an all-in-one fintech platform after $4m seed round
-
Latest News6 days ago
Sweden’s Mitigram names Pedram Tadayon as new CEO
-
Latest News5 days ago
Sobha Developers bring to Singapore an Exclusive Dubai Property Showcase
-
Latest News6 days ago
South African fintech Lesaka snaps up Adumo in $86m deal
-
Latest News4 days ago
Al Hassan Ghazi Ibrahim Shaker Co. announces a strong start to FY24, reporting a 12.09% YoY increase in net profit to reach SAR 32.25 million in Q1-FY24