[#309] Supply Chain in Numbers - Oct 27, 2025

Welcome to “Supply Chain in Numbers.” This newsletter tracks significant numbers from the supply chain world. Five prominent numbers are published every Monday. If you have any feedback, please send it to me.

60,300 fast-charging ports

The long-beleaguered business of charging battery-powered cars is maturing after a two-year construction spree. The number of fast-charging ports — those that can repower a battery in 20 minutes to an hour — rose more than 80% in the two years that ended in August to more than 60,300. A dearth of public charging stations was long considered a stumbling block for persuading more drivers to embrace EVs. The U.S. had fewer than 20,000 fast-charging ports four years ago, most of which were compatible only with Teslas. The number of EV owners who visited a charger and couldn’t get it to work dropped to 14% in the second quarter. That share had been hovering around 20% for most of the past three years. Better equipment and larger sites with more charging ports have helped. [WSJ]

40% of the Aluminum used in the US autos

A late-night fire last month leveled a key part of a New York aluminum plant in hours, and its absence will disrupt business at Ford Motor and other automakers for months to come.. The plant’s operator, Atlanta-based Novelis, supplies about 40% of the aluminum sheet used by the U.S. auto industry, according to industry analysts. Novelis said a significant portion of its Oswego, N.Y., plant has been knocked offline by the Sept. 16 fire until early next year. Novelis produces more than 350,000 metric tons of sheet aluminum a year for the automotive industry. Ford is the plant’s largest user. Still, a dozen automakers get aluminum from Novelis, including Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen, and Jeep maker Stellantis, according to a regulatory filing. [WSJ]

90 million Bluetooth sensors

Walmart plans to deploy 90 million Bluetooth sensors across its inventory by the end of next year, in a massive rollout of supply chain management technology, made possible via a partnership with tech firm Wiliot. The sensors, known as Pixels, work like having a GPS tracker on every item and are “designed to dramatically enhance supply chain efficiency, inventory accuracy and cold chain compliance”. It allows the retailer to know where every piece of inventory is at any moment, providing data that feeds into Walmart’s AI network. The technology ...