Category Archives: Supply Chains

Dealing with the shameful crew-change crisis

Posted on September 14, 2020 by | Leave a comment

Here’s a suggestion for a relatively simple way to stop the cheating on crew changes during Covid-19.

Crews are often not allowed to leave ships during the Covid-19 crisis, and are either coerced into signing renewal contracts or simply denied the ability to travel home. How to stop it?

The proposal: get P&I insurers to deny coverage until crew members have been changed. It’s clearly a safety issue to have continuously-serving crew who do not get a mandated break.

It’s simple, and doesn’t require a lot of collaboration between countries, shipowners, and international agencies. And enforcement is quick and easy and dire for the shipowners and cargo owners. No one will ship with a carrier who does not have P&I insurance.

I thin it has real promise, and only needs a few P&I executives to make it happen.

Andrew Craig-Bennett September 14, 2020

Link: https://splash247.com/a-practical-way-to-deal-with-the-shameful-maltreatment-of-600000-people/

Previous story: https://mymaritimeblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/10/flag-states-attacked-for-weakness-on-crew-change/

Leave a comment

Posted in Logistics, Shipping, Supply Chains

Tagged , , , , ,

Heartland shippers feel 20-foot box squeeze

Posted on September 14, 2020 by | Leave a comment

Twenty-foot containers are better than 40-foot containers for many ag products, and for machinery. Neither of these completely fills a container, and the smaller size means less blocking. But the containers are in short supply in the Midwest.

Twenty-foot containers are also ideal for products like soybeans, which have considerable Midwest-to-Asia container trade. They are a better size for shipments, because they are a bit smaller. We can’t always get a full forty-foot container because of the order size, which for premium products tends to be smaller. High-quality non-GMO beans often are not grown in the large bulk quantities.

Fewer products are shipped to the Midwest in 20-foot containers. And apparently, many of the 20-footers from the Far East are simply reused in California and Washington, rather than moving east. Goods could even be transshipped there to 53-footers for the ride into the Midwest. There’s no shortage on the West Coast.

This kind of problem is what plagues logistics operators of all kinds, as well as shippers. A simple little issue, very hard to do anything about. How do we cope with it?

By Chris Gillis Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Link: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/heartland-shippers-feel-20-foot-box-squeeze

Leave a comment

Posted in Logistics, Shipping, Supply Chains

Tagged , , , , ,

Commentary: What makes Alaska’s oil industry unique?

Posted on September 1, 2020 by | 1 comment

This article showcases the difficulties of arctic oil production andlogistics. It is a very nice summary of the most important long term issues.

Of course there are many others, on the sustainability side, like devastation of the tundra habitat, and melting of the permafrost, which might have an effect on global climate. But the more direct impacts noted here show that it’s a tenuous business that only persists because people still need so much oil.

Article Link: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/commentary-what-makes-alaskas-oil-industry-unique

 Darren Prokop Monday, August 31, 2020

1 Comment

Posted in Logistics, Managerial Econ, Production Operations, Supply Chains, Sustainability

Tagged , , , ,