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Amid an unstable global economy, companies are integrating supply chain finance more deeply into their corporate finance strategy.

Supply chain finance (SCF) is moving beyond simple early-payment mechanisms, emerging as a high-stakes strategic tool crucial for business survival and resilience.

Driving this transformation is a confluence of macroeconomic factors, primarily high trade volatility and unpredictable interest rate shifts across global markets, bringing intense pressures to bear on working capital and liquidity. As a result, the market for SCF solutions is expected to experience robust growth, reaching approximately $62 billion in value this year, according to estimates by Business Research Insights.

This expansion also reflects a deeper integration of SCF into corporate financial strategy. Companies are increasingly leveraging advanced SCF platforms not just to optimize payables—offering suppliers the option of earlier payment in exchange for a discount—but as a sophisticated instrument for risk mitigation, working capital optimization, and sustainability and ethical sourcing.

• Risk mitigation: SCF provides a critical buffer against trade disruptions, geopolitical instability, and counterparty default risk, extending predictable and accessible liquidity across the supply chain ecosystem.

• Working capital optimization: SCF allows buyers to extend their own payment terms while ensuring their suppliers—especially small and midsized enterprises (SMEs)—can access immediate cash flow, helping to maintain the health and stability of the entire supply chain.

• Sustainability and ethical sourcing: Modern SCF solutions are starting to incorporate ESG metrics, offering preferential financing terms to suppliers that meet specific sustainability goals and incentivize responsible business practices throughout the value chain.

The strong growth expectations for SCF underscore a shift from transactional financing to an embedded, relationship-based financial architecture. Success for all parties in this new framework requires sophisticated technology; deep collaboration between buyers, suppliers, and financial institutions; and a recognition of a strong, financially stable supply chain as a foundational competitive advantage.

Globally, the focus is on deep-tier visibility and AI-driven automation to combat liquidity bottlenecks. AI is no longer just for forecasting; agentic AI systems are now being embedded directly into SCF platforms to automatically detect invoice anomalies, evaluate supplier risk in real time, and trigger payments with minimal human intervention.

Companies are moving beyond Tier 1 suppliers. New platforms allow buyers to extend financing to Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers—the smaller manufacturers further down the chain—to shore up weak links that can disrupt entire production lines.

With supply chains shifting from just-in-time to just-in-case, inventory finance has become a standalone trend. Banks and private credit providers are offering new structures that enable companies to finance goods while they are still in transit or sitting in “dark stores” near consumer hubs.

Fragmentation And Nearshoring

Global trade, meanwhile, is re-globalizing into multipolar blocks, fundamentally changing where SCF capital is deployed.

The scheduled 2026 review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is driving a sharp increase in SCF demand, particularly in Mexico. Companies are leveraging SCF to rapidly establish manufacturing clusters in northern Mexico in order to comply with more stringent rules of origin and circumvent potential trans-shipment tariffs. Meanwhile, persistent tariff volatility is compelling North American retailers to utilize short-term liquidity solutions to frontload inventory. Intended to stockpile goods in advance of policy changes, frontloading has resulted in a surge in receivables-based financing activity.

Asia-Pacific now accounts for over 47% of global SCF activity. The region is leading the shift to embedded finance, by which SCF is integrated directly into B2B e-commerce marketplaces like Alibaba and Flipkart, making it easier for SMEs to access cash without a traditional bank relationship.

Europe is the green leader in the field. Almost all major European SCF programs now include sustainability-linked finance, whereby the interest rate a supplier incurs for early payment is tied to its ESG score or carbon footprint verification. New EU transparency rules for SCF programs, meanwhile, require buyers to disclose more details about their SCF arrangements to ensure they are not using them to hide corporate debt.

Driven by global volatility and enabled by AI and deep-tier visibility, Global Finance’s World’s Best Supply Chain Finance Providers of 2026 are leveraging advanced platforms to build financially resilient, ethically compliant, and highly collaborative supply chain ecosystems.

Feb. 18 (UPI) — An analysis by Climate Central found that the world’s five largest coffee-producing countries, which account for 75% of global supply, are experiencing an average of 57 additional days of extreme heat per year due to climate change.

Its researchers found that heat threatens coffee harvests and coincides with recent record highs in prices.

Climate Central, based in Princeton, N.J., is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about climate change and how it affects people’s lives.

The analysis, released Wednesday, examined daily temperatures between 2021 and 2025 in 25 countries that represent 97% of global production. The report concluded that all of them recorded more days of harmful heat as a result of environmental warming attributed to greenhouse gas emissions.

The two main varieties that supply the global market are arabica and robusta.

Arabica accounts for between 60% and 70% of global supply and is grown mainly in mountainous regions of Latin America and Africa, where moderate temperatures have historically prevailed.

Robusta, which is more heat-tolerant but has a stronger flavor, is produced largely in Southeast Asian countriesm such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

Coffee is cultivated in a tropical belt stretching across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, where it requires specific temperature ranges and consistent rainfall.

Temperatures above 86 degrees F are considered extremely harmful for arabica and suboptimal for robusta, as they reduce yields and can affect bean quality.

The analysis was published after a period in which the planet recorded the warmest years since modern measurements began, with episodes of extreme heat in Latin America.

According to Climate Central, this warming increased the frequency of days exceeding the critical 86-degree threshold in coffee-growing regions.

Brazil, the world’s largest producer and responsible for nearly 37% of global supply, experienced an average of 70 additional days per year with temperatures above 86 degrees. In Minas Gerais, its main coffee-producing state, 67 of these extra days were recorded.

Colombia, the world’s third-largest producer and one of the leading exporters of arabica coffee, recorded 48 additional days per year above the critical threshold. The increase threatens productivity and bean quality, the foundation of its international competitiveness.

Some of the sharpest increases were observed in Central America. El Salvador recorded 99 additional days of extreme heat per year and Nicaragua 77, according to the report.

“Nearly all major producing countries are now experiencing more days of extreme heat that can damage plants, reduce yields and affect quality,” said Kristina Dahl, vice president for science at Climate Central.

“Over time, these impacts can extend from farms to consumers, directly affecting the quality and cost of their daily coffee.”

According to the World Bank, its beverage price index rose 58% in 2024 and in December remained approximately 91% higher than a year earlier, driven by increases in coffee and cocoa amid supply concerns.

In December, the price of arabica coffee rose 13% compared with the previous month and more than 60% year over year, while robusta more than doubled compared with the same period the previous year.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Bainbridge is deployed in support of the U.S. Southern Command mission, The USS Truxtun, a warship of the same class, collided with a Navy supply ship in South America on Wednesday, injuring two people. File Photo by PO2 Triniti Lersch/U.S. Navy/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 12 (UPI) — Two U.S. Navy ships collided during a refueling operation in South America, injuring two people, U.S. Southern Command said.

The incident occurred on Wednesday when a Navy warship collided with a Navy supply vessel. Two people suffered minor injuries and are in stable condition.

The warship is the Arleigh Burke-class USS Truxtun guided missile destroyer. The other vessel is a Supply-class fast combat support ship, USNS Supply. Both ships remain operational and have continued to sail following the collision.

U.S. Southern Command did not specify the exact location where the crash took place. The cause of the crash was not specified either.

The supply ship has been recently posted in the Caribbean which falls under the purview of U.S. Southern Command. Southern Command presides over military operations throughout South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

The United States has increased its presence in Southern Command’s region in recent months as operations against alleged drug smuggling vessels have intensified.

Last month, President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet presided over the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife.

It is rare for U.S. Navy vessels to crash into each other. In 2017, 17 sailors were killed in two separate crashes between Navy ships in the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Navy determined both crashes were avoidable.

SEOUL, Feb. 5 (UPI) — South Korea will seek closer cooperation with China to stabilize supplies of rare earth minerals critical to its high-tech industries, the government said Thursday, as Seoul unveiled a strategy to strengthen supply chain security.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources announced a comprehensive plan calling for expanded cooperation channels with Beijing, including the establishment of a government-to-government hotline and joint consultative body to help prevent supply disruptions.

The initiative comes as South Korea, one of the world’s top high-tech exporters, remains heavily reliant on imported raw materials essential to manufacturing.

“South Korea has developed advanced industries such as semiconductors, electric vehicles and batteries, but as a resource-importing country, we face many challenges in managing supply chains,” Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said during a visit to a rare earth magnet manufacturer in Daegu.

“Our national competitiveness depends on industrial resource security, and the government will focus its policy capabilities on building a resilient industrial structure that is not shaken by external changes,” he said.

Rare earth elements — a group of 17 metals used in components such as permanent magnets, electric motors and advanced electronics — are widely considered vital to next-generation manufacturing. China’s dominance of rare earth processing and refining has left global manufacturers vulnerable to export controls and geopolitical tensions.

Under the plan, South Korea will designate all 17 rare earth elements as core strategic minerals and create new customs classification codes to improve monitoring and demand forecasting.

Seoul also aims to expand domestic production and recycling capacity through regulatory reforms and subsidies for new facilities, while creating a dedicated rare earth research and development fund under an existing industrial innovation investment program.

To support overseas supply diversification, the government will increase policy loans for overseas resource development to $46.2 million this year, up from $26.6 million in 2025, while expanding the state financing coverage ratio to 70% from 50%, the ministry said.

Beyond China, South Korea said it will pursue supply partnerships with countries including Vietnam and Laos as part of efforts to diversify procurement channels and reduce reliance on any single supplier.

The announcement comes a day after South Korea was tapped to chair Washington’s Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement, or FORGE, a U.S.-led framework aimed at strengthening supply chain resilience among allied economies for critical minerals and emerging technologies.