Musk Be Kidding, Tariffs Take a Toll, & Magnet Meltdown
Good morning! ☀️
☕ Your supply chain jolt before the chaos kicks in.
Today’s vibe?
🔋 Tesla just ghosted $150 billion like it was spare change—no crashes, just clapbacks.
📦 Temu and Shein are quietly slipping out the U.S. side door (and taking a lot of small parcels with them).
🧲 And China? They’ve got 90% of the rare earth game on lock—and they’re not sharing.
If your freight plans felt solid yesterday… well, buckle up. Let’s dash.
“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”
Tesla Stock Tanks & the Musk-Trump Feud Gets Nuclear 🚨
Tesla just lost $150B in market value in a single day—and no, it wasn’t because of a recall or robotaxi crash. Elon Musk went full throttle against President Trump over his new tax bill, which slashes EV incentives. Trump clapped back by threatening to pull Tesla’s subsidies and federal contracts. Now Wall Street's nervous, regulators are circling, and Tesla’s ambitious self-driving and robotaxi plans might be headed for a speed bump the size of Capitol Hill.
With EV tax credits potentially vanishing by 2025, analysts say Tesla could take a $3B+ hit. And if D.C. decides to get petty? Expect new roadblocks for autonomous vehicle approval—starting with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving tech.
Why This Matters:
Tesla isn’t just changing cars—it’s reshaping how freight moves. Political whiplash = delayed tech, higher costs, and fewer EVs in your fleet.
🔥 Hot Take:
Musk wanted to drive policy. Now he might just drive Tesla off a cliff.
U.S. Tariffs Just Gave Temu & Shein a Shipping-Sized Wakeup Call
Temu and Shein are tapping the brakes in the U.S.—and it’s not just about app downloads. With Trump-era tariffs climbing and the de minimis loophole slammed shut, Temu’s U.S. daily users dropped 52% in May. Shein? Down 25%. Ad spend tanked, fulfillment models got a hard reset, and both are quietly backing out of stateside dominance.
The kicker? These once-unstoppable e-commerce giants are ditching their China-direct drop shipping model and shifting logistics toward U.S. warehouses. But even that might not be enough—most of Temu’s traffic is now coming from Latin America and Europe. Tariffs didn’t just hit their wallets… they’re reshaping the global freight game.
Why This Matters:
Less demand = fewer inbound shipments = emptier trucks. If you’re in parcel logistics, warehouse ops, or last-mile delivery, the ripple effects are already on your route maps.
🔥 Hot Take:
Temu and Shein didn’t just fall off the rankings—they’re ghosting U.S. freight. Tariffs rewrote the rules, and your shipping lanes might be next.
Rare Earth Meltdown? Auto Supply Chains Are on Thin Ice 🚗🔋
China just flexed hard on the rare earth front—and the global auto industry is already feeling the burn. With over 90% control of the rare earth supply chain, Beijing’s new export restrictions on minerals and magnets (hello, EV motors, catalytic converters, robotics, defense tech) are slowing down approvals—only 1 in 4 license requests are getting through.
The fallout? European auto suppliers are already hitting pause. U.S. automakers say they’re weeks away from doing the same. That’s not just an EV issue—this hits freight, last-mile delivery, industrial machinery, and warehousing ops, too.
Why This Matters:
Rare earths are the unsung heroes of modern mobility. If China clamps down, we’re looking at a domino effect—production halts, shipping delays, and a freight map that just got messier.
🔥 Hot Take:
Magnets keep your EVs humming. Right now, China’s pulling the plug—and the logistics world better brace for impact.
The Workday Dash is an aggregation of articles regarding the transportation logistics, trucking, and supply chain industries for June 26, 2025, from iLevel Logistics Inc.