Almost Home….

I sincerely apologize for the long absence in posting – almost a month now. I actually believed I would have time to occasionally post while on my long business trip, but I failed to estimate accurately exactly how far away the companies I was visiting were from the major metro areas as well as from each other, not to mention how much work needed to be done outside of meetings.

Anyway, I’ll be home this weekend and plan to get back up to the speed of things shortly.

Shipping to Hawaii?

Get ready to pay more for it….

Via Pacific Business News:

Horizon’s increase will cost shippers $100 more per container sent to Hawaii. If containers are transported via rail on the Mainland to a port and then sent to Hawaii, the company will charge $175 more than it does now.

Just as Matson did, Horizon will also charge $150 more for terminal handling fees on any container entering Hawaii. It currently charges $325.

It will also add $75 to the $165 it now charges for containers headed to the Mainland.

Matson Navigation announced similar increases last week as well.

Shifting Airfreight to Seafreight

I recently posted about an Inbound Logistics article regarding the top 5 challenges facing air cargo carriers. One of the top 5 was the issue of shifting modes; i.e. shipping product via seafreight that was once traditionally shipped via airfreight.

This article from Cargonewsasia.com provides additional insight/support to this theory.

Members of the Supply Chain Consortium, an industry grouping representing some 110 companies with a combined revenue in excess of US$1 trillion, are trimming their air freight traffic. This year 27 percent of SCC members have signalled a decline in air freight, and 26 percent are seeing a reduction in parcel traffic.

“The role of air freight is small and decreasing,” commented James Tompkins, president and chief executive officer of supply chain consulting firm Tompkins Associates, which manages the SCC programme. The SCC was established as a platform for supply chain benchmarks and best practices, allowing members to share data and benchmark their own supply chains. Members include Coca Cola, Target, JC Penney and Rite Aid.

Bob Imbriani, vice-president of international operations of forwarder Team Worldwide, confirmed that air freight users are increasingly testing the viability of marine transportation instead. “A shift of commodities to ocean is a true factor,” he commented.

I think that the biggest reason for this transformation is the sophistication of todays supply chains with greater emphasis being placed on demand planning. Companies are better able to forecast the amount of product required at anytime given time allowing them to ship a majority of their product via ocean.

Cross Border Trade is Booming

According to a report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, freight moving from the U.S. to Canada and Mexico reached record levels in 2005.

Goods valued at more than $790 billion crossed the U.S. border in trade with Canada and Mexico in 2005, reaching a new high, 11 percent higher than the previous record set in 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

It’s no surprise that trucks carried the majority of the freight (62 percent); followed by rail transportation at 15 percent. I also found it interesting to note that air freight from the U.S. to Canada and Mexico declined 26.5 percent from 2000 to 2005.
Source – bts.gov

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