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Jabil's Global Category Intelligence Archive
Global Category Intelligence
Q1 2025
Jabil's Global Category Intelligence Archive
Global Category Intelligence
Q1 2025
Executive Summary
Q1 2025
Welcome to the latest edition of our Global Category Intelligence Report. This publication provides insights into the indirect procurement ecosystem, which is enriched by the analysis of Jabil’s experts on the diverse segments that our category managers engage with every day.
Although geopolitical shifts have driven uncertainty in the global economic outlook, our teams remain cautiously optimistic regarding growth prospects. The lingering effects of stricter monetary policies continue, particularly in the housing and credit sectors; however, global activity is proving resilient. Inflation is falling faster than projected, and private sector confidence is improving. Supply and demand imbalances in labor markets are normalizing, though challenges persist in certain regions.
In our Q1 2025 edition, we offer our perspective on industry-recognized spend categories, deeper sub-commodities, and areas of regulation that we believe our partnership network will find valuable and insightful. We delve into the energy sector, where the transition to renewables brings opportunities and risk; the volatility in energy prices necessitates strategic investments in efficiency and grid stability. We also assess how new and increased tariffs are set to reshape the transportation market across the Americas, Asia, and Europe, potentially causing a surge in freight rates and prompting shippers to rethink logistics strategies.
We outline the shifting dynamics in the automation industry, where long-term growth is promising, but near-term demand, especially in China, remains subdued. Similarly, we analyze how decreased capital expenditure signals broader economic caution in the SMT sector, affecting prime suppliers and smaller entities across the supply chain.
Additionally, we examine the uncertainties in the solder market driven by volatile raw material prices and geopolitical tensions, highlighting the importance of strategic sourcing adjustments. Furthermore, we share our insights on AI's potential to influence IT hardware demand while emphasizing the strategic implications of relying on foreign vendors for network infrastructure.
We also look into variability in the contingent labor market across continents, from automation adoption in China to labor shortages in Europe, each presenting unique challenges for workforce management.
We hope you find this report insightful and informative. If you have any questions or want to discuss the publication further, please do not hesitate to contact me or Josh Wilson, our Market Intelligence Research Manager, directly.
Yours sincerely,
Heidi Banks
Global Indirect Procurement
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