CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 21 March 2025

Suez Canal

"So, also, important to note that despite the peace agreement that there is now in Gaza, the volumes crossing the Suez Canal hasn't picked up substantially. They are still at very low levels" Carlos Balestra di Mottola, CEO, d'Amico International Shipping S.A. [major international shipping company]

Manufacturing

"If you want to be a major player in a big market, you have to be a local player. That is in China....Of course, in Europe, that's the case anyway, but also in the United States." Oliver Zipse, CEO, BMW Group

"The soft demand we saw, most notably in automotive and industrial has continued into this year. In Aerospace & Defence, the underlying demand remains very positive. But there are some temporary headwinds from supply chain challenges." James Fairburn, CEO, Bodycote Plc [world’s largest supplier of heat treatment/thermal processing services]

Interest Rates

"If this tariff madness does happen, we could be at the end of the reduction cycle." Andrew Irvine, CEO, National Australia Bank Ltd

Supply Chain

"So, in the medium term, if a 20% tariff goes in overnight, there's nothing we can do the next day to shift our supply chain." Robert Scaringe, CEO, Rivian Inc

“So overall, we continue to see really nice improvement, steady improvement across the supply chain.” Brian West, CFO, The Boeing Company

Farming & Livestock

The [Australian] market has been declining…essentially due to the unfavourable weather patterns…So a difficult year for the farmers and as a consequence, also for our industry.” Habib Ramdani, CEO, Virbac Group [major multinational animal health company]

Dairy & Infant Formula

“On the demand side, we continue to see robust demand coming from most regions, and it is pleasing to see China continuing to recover” Miles Hurrell, CEO, Fonterra Co-Op Group Ltd

“We've seen a recovery in both the infant formula sales in our business and our other business as well. So overall, our market has improved” Peter Davey, CEO, Clover Corp Ltd.

Lithium Batteries

"In fact, we're seeing elements of the demand profile exceed forecast estimations.” Tony Ottaviano, CEO, Liontown Resources Ltd

Online Shopping

“We had three years where it [total online shopping spending] was relatively flat, and [now] it’s jumped up to $69 billion” Gary Starr, GM e-Commerce, Parcel and Post, Australia Post

“Shoppers will wait for the sale. It stretches the dollar further, and also they’re switching brands more often.” Gary Starr, GM e-Commerce, Parcel and Post, Australia Post‍

Department Stores

"Trading conditions remained challenging due to the tough macroeconomic environment for all consumers." Market Statement, Myer Group Ltd

Housing & Building Materials

“If we always put barriers in front of people downsizing, we’re not going to release the existing stock.” Melanie Evans, CEO, ING Australia

“Looking beyond the short-term market weakness, the broader macro-economic environment is showing signs of demand returning to the building materials sector, supported by the recent cut in the cash rate. Residential starts are at an inflection point, with demand expected to increase in the medium term, given the chronic housing undersupply." Mark Ellenor, CEO, Brickworks Ltd

AI

“In order to bring AI to the world's enterprise, we have to first recognize that AI has reinvented the entire computing stack and if so, all of the data centres and all the computers in the world's enterprises are obviously out of date.” Jensen Huang, CEO, NVIDIA Corp.

Robots

“The world is tens of millions of workers short. We need lots and lots of robots. However, don't forget the business opportunity is well upstream of the robot. Before you have a robot, you have to create the AI for the robot…and so in order for us to enable the world's robotics industry, upstream is a bunch of AI infrastructure we have to go create to teach the robot how to be a robot.” Jensen Huang, CEO, NVIDIA Corp.

US Consumer

“Consumers are still seeking value as much or more than they had when our fiscal year began. And if you look at the most recent confidence indices, it would indicate that consumer confidence is actually below where it was 3 months ago and about where it was in 2008. And so, the situation we find ourselves in is different than we thought the one coming into the year.” Jeff Harmening, CEO, General Mills Inc. [one of the world’s largest food companies]

Rail & Locomotives

“There's a lot of productivity that comes with replacing a 20-year-old, 25-year-old locomotive with a new one and that provides our railroad customers a strong return on their investment for the cost of that locomotive…The average age of a locomotive has grown considerably over the last 10 or so years in terms of the number of years.” John Olin, CFO, Westinghouse Air Brake Technology Co. [world’s largest freight locomotive manufacturer]

Corporate Profits

“Aldi, Coles and Woolworths appear to be among the most profitable supermarket businesses globally” Market Statement, Australian Competition & Consumer Commission‍