Why are container spot rates surging?

Posted on June 7, 2024 by | Leave a comment

The evidence seems to show that it’s because shippers are booking more. It’s possibly because they are afraid of more disruptions, such as the Red Sea attacks and closures such as Baltimore and the Panama Canal delays.

Drewry’s says there is no shortage of ships, even for the longer routes bypassing the Red Sea. And there is a glut of new ships slated to come into service soon. But demand is driving the price rises. The graph shows loaded volumes on key container routes and changes since a year ago. It’s from the Drewry’s interview in the link below.

Graph showing loaded volumes on key container routes and changes since a year ago from Drewry Maritime Research.

Source: Drewry Maritime Research derived from Container Trades Statistics, enquiries@drewry.co.uk

It is well worth listening to. The Drewry’s expert has a firm, data-driven grip on what’s happening in container shipping.

29 May 2024

https://www.drewry.co.uk/maritime-research-opinion-browser/freight-loop—why-are-spot-rates-surging

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A Story of Supply Chain Excellence

Posted on June 5, 2024 by | Leave a comment

Lora Cecere, the Supply Chain Shaman, is one of my favorite writers about supply chain issues. She’s always right on target with ideas and metrics that aid companies in the pursuit of supply chain improvements. And she’s the essence of simplicity; it’s never that complicated to do, though the ideas may embody complex interactions and reactions.

This article is an example. Lora and her assistant, Alex, put together some orbit charts to show how firms performed against the industry standard.

It’s a great piece of work. In the figure above, you can see that Lenovo is doing well on Inventory Turns, though not so hot on Operating Margin. And the recent trend is toward boosting margins but reducing inventory turns. The great thing about Lora’s charts is how they constructed the comparable business dataset to show us this comparison. Read the article for some details.

For those of you who don’t know about Orbit Charts, they are essentially connected scatterplots, with the connections covering a time dimension, so we see how the pattern changes over time. They are easy to make with most graphics software.

The Supply Chain Shaman’s analysis of the Gartner top 25 Award Winners is worth pursuing. It shows that there is more than one way to achieve supply chain and operational excellence.

Patterns Tell the Story of Supply Chain Excellence

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US Customs checks every e-commerce parcel

Posted on June 2, 2024 by | Leave a comment

Air freight from the Far East to the US is slowing up because US Customs is detaining cargo to check every e-commerce parcel. That’s because a lot of drugs and fentanyl-manufacturing equipment has been discovered in shipments of smaller e-commerce packages, mostly from China.

The de minimis rule, which says that packages of value less than $800 and smaller size are subject to different import rules, is a loophole drug paraphernalia shippers are exploiting, and Customs is trying to close it.

The enhanced inspections are slowing down package deliveries. Carriers are complaining and shippers too.

I think they should shut up and follow the rules for qualifying shipments, and help with the detection and prevention of illegal transports. Fentanyl alone, according to the article, is responsible for over 100,000 deaths in the US per year.

Everyone in the e-commerce supply chain has a responsibility to stand up and follow the rules. They need to know their customers and suppliers, and their customers and suppliers. Make sure they aren’t doing anything illegal. That’s a basic tenet of sustainability guidelines.

This Freightwaves-Thompson-Reuters webinar explains a lot about how to interact with US Customs. Do your due diligence, and keep the records handy. Start taking responsibility for who you are dealing with.

By Alex Lennane  31/05/2024

https://theloadstar.com/transpac-ecommerce-freighters-on-pause-as-us-customs-checks-every-parcel/

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Posted in Air, Leadership, Logistics, Supply Chains

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