Logistics at a Crossroads
Where freight meets real life. Hosted by Gia — logistics veteran, cancer survivor, and truth-teller — “Logistics at a Crossroads” explores the industry, identity, and the grit it takes to keep showing up. Freight. Feelings. No filter.
S2🎙️ Episode 18 — No Parking, No Freight: The Capacity We Leave on the Shoulder
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**$200 Million. 14 truck parking locations. 12 states. So what about that driver that needs to park safely tonight? **
On this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a turning point, we explore the lack of truck parking. Why is there no plan in place for drivers to park safely?
With the new truck parking plan put in place by the U.S. DOT on October 14th, we want to ask…
**Are you planning your whole load? Or only your pickup & delivery? **
From not being able to get a...
S2 🎙️Episode 17 — The Customs Clock: When Country of Origin Changes the Whole Move
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Same part. Same equipment. Same packaging.
So why can changing where that part comes from change the entire movement?
In this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a Crossroads, Gia looks at the Customs clock—and why it starts long before freight ever reaches a border. A supplier change can affect product information, classification, landed cost, documentation, carrier planning, and the people who suddenly find themselves trying to solve the problem at 4:45 on a Friday.
We’re talking about what planners, procurement teams, brokers, finance, suppliers, and...
S2 🎙️Episode 16 — The Robots Are Here. Now What Happens to the People?
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The robots are here.
Not science-fiction robots. Real ones.
Automated guided vehicles. Autonomous mobile robots. Robotic arms. Smart conveyors. Vision systems. Automated storage. Equipment already moving, sorting, scanning, stacking, and routing freight across logistics operations.
In this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a Crossroads, Gia looks at what automation really means for the people working inside the operation.
Because a robot is not a staffing plan.
Automation can change tasks, reduce repetitive work, improve throughput, and take on certain high-risk jobs...
S2 🎙️Episode 15 — AI Can Optimize the Route. Can It Run the Operation?
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AI can predict delays, flag exceptions, model scenarios, and recommend the next move.
But what happens when the operation gets messy?
In this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a Crossroads, Gia looks beyond the shiny AI dashboards and asks the question logistics leaders actually need to answer:
Can AI run the operation — or does it still need experienced people to make the call?
Gia breaks down where AI is already helping supply chains, from ETA forecasting and exception management to carrier se...
S2 🎙️Episode 14 The Freight Didn’t Disappear. It Changed Trains.
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Freight volumes may look different, but that doesn’t mean the freight is gone.
In this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a Crossroads, Gia breaks down why more shippers are taking a closer look at intermodal transportation — and why choosing rail over truck is a lot more complicated than comparing two rates on a screen.
We talk about the real questions behind the decision: transit time, drayage, chassis availability, rail ramps, receiving appointments, inventory needs, fuel costs, terminal dwell, and what happens when one connection in the chai...
S2 🎙️Episode 13 — Your Freight Is Late Before It Even Leaves Asia
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A vessel being six days late sounds manageable.
Until you realize six days can destroy multiple connections downstream.
In this episode, Gia breaks down why vessel delays rarely stay isolated to the ocean portion of a shipment.
A late vessel can affect terminal operations, rail connections, truck appointments, warehouse labor, inventory availability, production schedules, and customer commitments.
We’re talking port congestion, schedule reliability, ETAs, visibility, communication, and one of the biggest lessons in logistics:
Supply chains do not just count days.
...
S2 🎙️Episode 12 — Everybody Bought Early. So Why Are We Still in Peak Season?
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Peak season used to be something you could plan around.
Now? Not so much.
In this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a Crossroads, Gia looks at how frontloading, tariff concerns, inventory timing, vessel delays, and changing demand patterns are reshaping the traditional shipping calendar.
When companies all try to avoid disruption by moving freight early, they can end up creating a new kind of peak.
We’re talking forecasting, the bullwhip effect, vessel bunching, warehouse capacity, transportation planning, and why historical data only te...
S2 🎙️Episode 11- NJ’s New Rules Hit Port Drivers—What It Means Now
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Do you become an independent contractor if you own a truck? Is APM Terminals reclassifying drivers?
Its not that simple.
With the new laws taking place in NJ on October 1st 2026. There are many questions in the trucking industry and drayage industry.
On this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a Crossroads. We go over the new ABC test that NJ has put in place. What it can do for your business as an independent contractor or owner operator. Why its important to know the difference be...
S2 🎙️ Episode 10 — The Container Is Sitting There. So Why Am I Paying You?
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Demurrage.
Detention.
Two words capable of starting an argument almost anywhere in ocean freight.
These charges are supposed to encourage cargo and equipment to keep moving.
But what happens when the shipper or trucker wants to move the equipment—and physically cannot?
In this episode, Gia gets into one of the most frustrating questions in logistics:
Who actually controlled the delay?
We’re talking container availability, appointments, terminal closures, equipment returns, holds, driver detention, documentation, accountability, and why...
S2 🎙️Episode 9 — When Plan B Needs a Plan B: What Happens When There Is No Good Detour?
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Logistics loves a contingency plan.
Port congested? Reroute it.
Carrier unavailable? Find another.
Shipping lane disrupted? Take another route.
Simple, right?
Not exactly.
In this episode, Gia looks at what happens when the backup option becomes expensive, congested, delayed, or risky too.
Changing one transportation route can change transit time, fuel, insurance, capacity, equipment positioning, warehouse schedules, customer promises, and every connection downstream.
A backup route is not the same thing as a contingency plan.
...
S2 🎙️Episode 8 — Diesel Doesn't Care About Your Freight Budget
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Diesel does not care about your annual budget.
It does not care what transportation quoted three months ago.
And it definitely does not care what somebody already promised the customer.
When fuel prices climb, somebody eventually pays.
In this episode, Gia breaks down how fuel costs move through transportation—from carriers and owner-operators to shippers, customers, and eventually consumers.
But this conversation is bigger than the price at the pump.
We’re talking fuel surcharges, carrier relationships, hidden transportation costs, wasted driv...
S2 🎙️ Episode 7 — Where Did All the Drivers Go?
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We’ve been hearing about the truck driver shortage for years.
But maybe we’ve been asking the wrong question.
Instead of asking where all the drivers went, what if we asked what kind of transportation system we’re expecting them to work inside?
In this episode, Gia looks beyond the driver shortage headline and into training, qualification, safety, detention, parking, hours of service, appointment systems, working conditions, and one of the most overlooked forms of capacity loss:
Wasted time.
A truck sitting four h...
S2 🎙️Episode 6 — Park It: When a Trucker Sit-Out Rumor Becomes a Grassroots Warning
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October 1. Park your trucks. Sit out. Don't move any freight until someone helps us.
Why do/did people think this was going to happen?
On this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a Crossroads we dive into why this rumor started and what's going on with the trucking industry that could lead to this type of sit out.
We discuss owner operators and small fleet carriers that are being hit with high fuel prices. Insurance, equipment cost, maintenance and not always having the freight rate to move t...
S2 🎙️Episode 5 — Training by Tribal Knowledge: Why “Ask Somebody” Is Not a Training Program
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“If you get stuck, just ask Dave.”
Congratulations.
You do not have a training program.
You have tribal knowledge.
In this episode, Gia digs into one of logistics’ quietest operational risks: critical knowledge that exists only inside the heads of experienced employees.
A PDF buried on a shared drive is not enough. Neither is shadowing somebody for two days and hoping for the best. When ten people perform the same task ten different ways, that isn’t flexibility—it’s unmanaged risk.
We’re talk...
S2-🎙️ Episode 4- The Planner Was the Last to Know (And Not a Magician)
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customer promise.
Then logistics got an email asking if we could make it work by Monday.
Sound familiar?
In this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a Crossroads, Gia talks about the planner’s role as the human shock absorber of the supply chain. Planning, forecasting, scheduling, and reacting are not the same thing—and too often, logistics is expected to absorb the consequences of decisions made without logistics in the room.
We’re talking last-minute changes, unrealistic expectations, hidden tradeoffs, commercial decisions, and the fi...
S2 🎙️Episode 3 — Peak Season Has Left the Calendar: When Every Month Feels Like an Emergency
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Remember back when peak season was… well, a season?
You planned for it. You staffed for it. You survived it. Then came the offseason and everybody could finally catch their breath.
Things don’t work that way anymore.
Gia discusses what happens when freight surges aren’t temporary. What happens when peaks season becomes your everyday operating model.
Cargo gets pulled forward. Bookings shift. Vessel schedules move. Ports become congested. Warehouses become full. Equipment becomes scarce. Truckers experience longer wait times. Staffing is stretched thin. And throughout all of...
S2 🎙️Episode 2 — Freight Cuts Have Faces: Running on Fumes
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A freight recession may look like a line dipping on a chart—but on the road, it has faces.
In this episode, Gia looks beyond the numbers to examine what carrier closures, layoffs, rising costs, and shrinking capacity actually mean for the people inside the system. Small carriers are not just vendor names. They are drivers, dispatchers, owners, technicians, families, and trusted partners trying to survive years of low rates, higher insurance, deferred maintenance, and relentless financial pressure.
When a carrier shuts down, the impact does not stop at th...
S2-🎙️ Episode 1 What Season 2 Is Really About
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In this opening episode, Gia looks beyond containers, dashboards, rates, and routing guides to talk about the human beings behind every shipment. Planners organizing chaos. Drivers searching for safe parking. Supervisors trying to meet impossible targets. Employees carrying the pressure when systems fail, schedules change, and logistics is still expected to somehow make it all work.
The language of business often makes disruption sound clean and clinical. “Tight capacity.” “Network optimization.” “Operational efficiency.” But behind those phrases are real people dealing with burnout, layoffs, rising costs, poor training, impossible expectations, and the quiet em...
S2 Bonus- My Fav Podcasts for 2026
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Looking to add something new to your podcast playlist?
Grab your headphones and cozy up for a peek inside Gia’s meticulously curated list of podcast recommendations.
Sharing a few of her favorite podcasts of 2026 from true crime, logistics, business, pop culture, comedy, self-improvement, science, history, food, music and other delightfully miscellaneous corners of the podcast universe. From Crime Junkie, Morbid, and Carolina Crimes to Everything Is Logistics, WHAT THE TRUCK?! and Ologies with Maria Godfrey. These podcasts are part recommendation list, part love letter to fantastic storytelling.
🎙️ Episode 50 — 60% Changed, 28% Trained — The Logistics Skills Gap Nobody's Fixing
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This is the Season 1 finale.
And we’re ending where freight meets reality.
In this episode, Gia takes us back to a warehouse floor — to a quiet moment that says more about our industry than any headline ever could. The scanners are smarter. The systems are faster. The dashboards look like video games.
But the people?
They’re being asked to run a marathon in shoes that don’t fit.
Industry analysts estimate that 60% of logistics jobs are being reshaped by automation and AI —...
Episode 49 — Left at Anchor: The Other Side of Shipping
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When most people think about shipping, they think about planners, dispatchers, drivers, warehouse teams, the land-sider workforce that keeps freight moving. But there’s another side to shipping most of us never see. In this episode, we step away from terminals and spreadsheets and out to sea, where seafarers live where they work—and where company failures don’t result in layoffs, but abandonment. When shipping companies collapse or ownership disappears behind flags and shell structures, crews are often left unpaid, without food, medical care, or a clear way home.
Episo...
🎙️Episode 47: The Acronyms That Decide Who Gets the Blame
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Every industry has acronyms.
Logistics has weapons.
BOL. ETA. SOP. KPI.
Shortcuts on paper—
but often shields when things go wrong.
In this episode, we unpack how acronyms quietly decide:
Who gets questionedWho gets protectedAnd who ends up holding the falloutWhen language becomes a gatekeeper, accountability stops being shared—and starts being selective.
This isn’t about banning acronyms.
It’s about...
🎧Episode 48 What Podfest 2026 Really Gave Me
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Completing the Past: What Podfest 2026 Really Gave Me
(Bonus Episode)
This bonus episode isn’t a recap — it’s a reflection.
In this deeply personal conversation, Gia shares what Podfest 2026 actually gave her: clarity, alignment, and a renewed sense of purpose. From the chaos and warmth of check-in, to honest breakdown sessions that stripped away hype, to eye-opening conversations about AI, creativity, and community — this episode explores what happens when creators stop performing and start telling the truth.
You’ll hear why Holding the Line exist...
🎙️Episode 16: Not a Mom, But Always There
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This episode is personal.
As Mother’s Day approaches, host Gia shines a light on a group of women who are often overlooked — women without children of their own who still carry the weight of care, responsibility, and leadership every day.
Gia shares her own story as a survivor of ovarian cancer, childless not by choice, and deeply present in the lives and work of others. In the logistics industry, where long hours and constant demands are the norm, childless women are often assumed to have “less to juggle.” This epi...
🎙️ Episode 46 Plain Language Is a Leadership Skill
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Clarity isn’t soft.
It’s not optional.
And it’s definitely not “nice to have.”
In logistics, unclear language costs time, trust, and people.
This episode breaks down why plain language is one of the most overlooked leadership skills in the industry—and why jargon, polished ambiguity, and vague directives often protect systems at the expense of the people running them.
We talk about:
How confusion gets normalizedWhy “everyone should already know” is a leadership failureAnd how clarity changes accountability, outcomes, and moraleBecause leadersh...
🎙️Episode 45: Where Logistics Pressure Actually Begins
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Everyone talks about peak season.
Rates. Volumes. Headlines.
But logistics pressure doesn’t start there.
It starts earlier—
in assumptions,
in quiet handoffs,
in decisions made far away from the floor where the work actually happens.
In this episode, we pull pressure upstream.
Before the missed cutoff.
Before the late truck.
Before the email that says “How did this happen?”
Because logistics rarely fails all at once.
It strains quietly—until people absorb what systems refuse to carry.
This...
🎙️Episode 44: Cooling Tariffs or Delayed Heat? Starting 2026 at the Crossroads
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2026 opens with something logistics doesn’t get often: a pause.
In this episode of Holding the Line: Logistics at a Crossroads, Gia breaks down the administration’s decision to delay planned tariff hikes on imported furniture, kitchen cabinets, and vanities—pushing potential increases from 25% up to 50% out to January 1, 2027.
Drawing on reporting from Bloomberg and CNN, this conversation looks beyond the headlines to ask what a tariff delay really means on the ground. Is this breathing room—or just pressure postponed?
More importantly, what does this pau...
🎙️ Episode 43 Holding the Line — Before the Next Crossing
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Before the next headline and the next wave of pressure, it’s worth pausing.
In this episode, Gia reflects on the road behind — navigating logistics, life, school, grief, and recovery — and the systems that adapted while people absorbed.
A season close.
A human check-in.
And a quiet look toward what comes next in 2026.
The idea behind Logistics at a Crossroads is simple: transportation looks different depending on where you stand.
I’m Gia, and that’s what this show is here for. Bringing those pers...
🎙️ Episode 42 — The System Reacts
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Tech, Tariffs, and the Race to Redesign Logistics
When pressure builds, logistics doesn’t panic. It pivots.
Episode 42 picks up where pressure leaves off—and asks what the system’s responses reveal.
Automation accelerates. Visibility tools become mandatory. Tariff decisions land late but hit hard. Rail networks consolidate. New partnerships form. On paper, it looks like progress.
But the real question isn’t whether logistics is changing.
It’s who those changes are designed for.
In this episode, we unpack how technology re...
🎙️ EPISODE 41 Supply Chain Borders & Peak Pressure
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Airspace, Ports, Seasons — and the Cost of Standing Still
Supply chains don’t break loudly.
They strain quietly—until people do.
In Episode 41 of Holding the Line, we examine how global logistics is being reshaped by forces that don’t always make headlines: rerouted airspace, tightening port dynamics, and peak seasons that no longer arrive neatly on a calendar.
Air cargo capacity hasn’t collapsed—but it is strained. Ports aren’t in chaos—but they are recalibrating under tariff pressure and trade uncertainty. And peak season...
🎙️ Episode 40 - When Tariffs Break the Little Guy
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U.S. tariffs didn’t just shake the retail giants this year — they cracked the small businesses holding up Main Street. In this episode, Gia breaks down how sudden policy flip-flops are forcing small retailers into production halts, supplier switches, inventory shortages, higher costs, and heartbreaking layoffs… all during the most critical season of the year.
Featuring reporting and insights from Reuters, Business Insider, Fortune, Retail Dive, PYMNTS, and The Guardian, this episode pulls back the curtain on the human side of trade policy — the late-night emails, the sourcing crises, the shipping...
Podfest 2026
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Sometimes the biggest moments don’t hit all at once — they ask you to sit with them.
In this short update from the crossroads, I’m sharing some news that still feels unreal: Holding the Line: A Logistics at a Crossroads is heading to Podfest 2026 in Orlando after winning the Buzzsprout Creator Pass.
This episode reflects on where this podcast began — quiet conversations at a kitchen table, long days processing AR reports, stories shared by dispatchers and yard crews — and how those moments slowly turned into somet...
EPISODE 39 — When the Lights Go Out: The New Cost of Survival
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In this episode of Holding the Line: A Logistics at a Crossroads Podcast, Gia widens the lens — because the story didn’t stop with BNPL or post-pandemic credit traps.
Now the bills are breaking people long before the debt collectors do.
Across the country, utilities are cutting power as prices surge. Electricity rates have jumped 11% since January, triple the rate of inflation. Families paid an average of $204 in July — the highest on record since 2008. And millions of low-income households are still waiting on federal energy...
🎙️ EPISODE 38: The Cost of Convenience — BNPL, Regulation, and the Future of Survival
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The Cost of Convenience — BNPL, Regulation, and the Future of Survival
BNPL felt harmless at first — a soft promise at checkout, a blinking button offering relief where budgets were already stretched thin. But convenience always comes with a cost. And in Part Two of our BNPL deep-dive, we’re asking the question everyone avoids:
Who’s paying that cost — and how long can people survive it?
Gia breaks down the truth behind the “Pay in 4” generation:
🔹 The Regulatory Void
BNPL grew fa...
🎙️ EPISODE 37: Debt Déjà Vu — From Layaway Lines to BNPL Groceries
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On this episode of Holding the Line: A Logistics at a Crossroads Podcast, Gia peels back the glossy sticker on “Pay in 4” culture and asks the question nobody wants to answer:
What happens when financing groceries becomes the norm… not the exception?
We trace the story from old-school blue lights and layaway lines to the new digital shadow of Buy Now, Pay Later — a system that’s smooth, pretty, and quietly rewriting the rules of debt.
Gia takes you through:
🔹 Debt the shap...
🎙️ Episode 36 — Women Supporting Women: Breaking the Cycle in the Trades
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In this episode of Holding the Line: A Logistics at a Crossroads Podcast, Gia dives into an often-overlooked aspect of the workplace—how women in traditionally male-dominated industries like logistics, construction, and trades can build stronger, more supportive networks. From navigating judgment to breaking down stereotypes, Gia shares her own experiences and practical tips on how women can support each other and rise together.
It’s time to stop competing and start collaborating. Tune in as we explore the power of authenticity, respect, and team...
🎙️ Episode 35 Tariffs at the Gate: When Policy Hits the Port
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Trade tensions are rising fast—faster than the supply chain can breathe.
EU officials are preparing countermeasures, the U.S. is weighing 15–20% blanket tariffs on European goods, and importers are already shifting freight flows to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. Even as some tariffs are being lifted on goods like bananas and coffee, the broader system is tightening, not loosening.
Ports are telling the truth before the headlines do:
– Long Beach imports down 17.6%
– Some gateways seeing 35–44% declines
– Analysts warning of a brewing “good...
🎙️ Episode 34 — Load Shift: When the Dream Finally Moves Forward
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This one’s personal, y’all. After months of detours, delays, curveballs, and straight-up plot twists, I’m finally stepping back to the mic — not with perfection, but with purpose.
In this episode, I’m unpacking the real story behind the silence:
✨ grief that hit harder than expected
✨ a surgery that forced me to slow down
✨ school, work, and life all colliding at once
✨ job interviews that didn’t pan out
✨ a CEO resignation that shook the whole building
✨ and the unexpected reroute that led me to a new university, new cl...
🎙️ Episode 33: Back to School, But Who’s Helping?
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Going back to college as a working adult isn’t just about hitting the books—it’s about navigating broken systems, managing 70-hour workweeks, and finding the time to study after everyone else’s needs have been met.
In this episode, Gia gets real about what it means to return to school while working full-time in logistics, caring for family, and still pushing toward something greater. From formatting papers in APA while coordinating freight, to the mental weight of financial aid mix-ups—this episode speaks to every adult who’s gone back to scho...
🎙️ Episode 32 – Copper’s Comeback: Why the Metal Everyone Forgot Is Now Driving Global Markets
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In this episode of Holding the Line, Gia unpacks how copper has transformed from a basic industrial metal into a critical driver of global logistics, electrification, and supply chain strategy.
Discover why surging demand—from EVs to AI-powered data centers—is colliding with shrinking inventories and looming tariffs. We’ll break down the “Six Ds” fueling what many call a new commodity super cycle and explore two possible scenarios for copper prices in 2025.
Most importantly, we connect the dots to logistics...
