Practical steps during economic slowdown

How do companies in integrated logistics and supply chain industry stay afloat in weathering the economic slowdown?

For some answers, read

HERE

and

HERE

Decline in world trade affecting world logistics and shipping

World trade affecting logistics and shipping companies due to falling in demand for transportation of goods.

It is understood that more than 400 ships are laid up at anchorage in Port of Singapore. According to Baltic Dry Index has fallen by more than 95 percent.

Read HERE and HERE.

Panama Canal expansion in tandem with global logistics need

PANAMA CITY, Panama—While continuing to adjust its economic forecast, Panama Canal authorities insist the expansion project is on schedule for completion in 2014.

“The big question for all of us is ‘when will a demand for carrier capacity be restored?’” said Alberto Alemán Zubieta, administrator and CEO of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in an interview with LM.

“In any case, we want the project on track and have it provide the industry with a more efficient routing solution.”

The expansion project was initially announced in October 2006, when nearly 80 percent of voters in a national referendum held in Panama voted in favor of expanding the Panama Canal. When completed, the construction project will double the capacity of the increasingly congested waterway to 600 million tons a year and allow it to handle much larger vessels.

The project will include construction of two sets of locks and access channels; a new traffic lane; dredging; and raising the water level in Gatun Lake. Currently, the maximum allowable dimensions for most vessels transiting the canal are 106 feet in width, 965 feet in length, and 39.5 feet of draft (depth). After the expansion, the canal will accommodate vessels up to 160 feet wide and 1,200 feet long, with a 50-foot draft. The maximum size for container vessels will increase to 12,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

At a press conference staged this morning, Alemán Zubieta provided additional insight to Panamanian President Martín Torrijos’ recent expansion financing structure announcement. Yesterday, senior leaders of five multilateral and development agencies convened at Panama’s Ascanio Arosemena Theater with Canal officials to sign an agreement.

“The geographic diversity of the offers and the high profiles of the institutions, demonstrate the international market’s trust and confidence in the high-growth performance of the Panamanian economy and the successful management of the Panama Canal,” said Alemán Zubieta.

Multilateral and development agency officials in attendance included: Yoshihiko Morita, vice president, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC); Francisco de Paula Coelho, Latin America and Asia director, European Investment Bank (EIB); Luis Alberto Moreno, president, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); Enrique Garcia Rodríguez, executive president, Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF); and, Juan Jose Daboub, World Bank Group managing director, International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Also attending the event was José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The $2.3 billion financing package will cover a portion of the $5.25 billion total cost, said Alemán Zubieta, The negotiated financing structure includes favorable provisions for the ACP including a 20-year amortizing period with a 10-year grace period and establishes an unsecured, untied financing for the ACP, whereby there are no prerequisites to contract from any one source.

“Meanwhile, our economic advisors are studying trends pointing to a rebound in shipping,” he told LM. “Our findings suggest a recovery at the end of 2009 or early 2010.”

Merger Of Service Providers Can Boost Malaysia's Position As Logistics Hub, Says Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 (Bernama) -- The merger or formation of alliances among service providers will further strengthen Malaysia's position as a logistics hub, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.

He said the moves would allow the build-up of integrated services to take advantage of outsourcing activities by both multinationals and local companies.

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said Malaysia was ready and willing to listen and accommodate all parties having interests in playing a role towards further nurturing the country's aspirations of becoming a regional logistics hub.

"Towards this end, other measures will be taken (to enhance Malaysia's position) including capacity enhancement to handle more transhipment cargo, provide bulk-breaking and introducing other value-added services to the logistics chain," he said in his address at the Air Cargo Forum 2008 dinner here Thursday.

Najib said Malaysia has logistics service providers who were capable of engaging in supply chain management directly with their clients locally and globally.

"These providers can provide services such as capacity planning and forecasting, port hubs, air cargo, warehouses and distribution centres," he said.

He said the overarching consideration of any business was cost and Malaysia was able to provide these services at very competitive rates.

"This is important now more than ever, as it gives logistics players breathing room in maintaining and growing their business amid an uncertain economic environment," he said.

Najib said Malaysia has been putting in place the building blocks for an integrated logistics hub and could justifiably be pleased with its achievement.

"In 1990, 105 million tonnes of cargo were handled by major ports, airports and rail and only 15 years later, we were handling more than double the tonnage, amounting to 260 million tonnes.

"God willing, we will be able to continue this positive trajectory and show significant growth in the years to come," he said.

On the forum, he said it was a timely opportunity for the aviation and logistics fraternity to come together and examine problems currently faced by the industry, against the backdrop of a series of global problems, including off late the global financial crisis.

He said the latest figures released by the International Air Transport Association were not encouraging.

"Air freight has declined for the last three months, led by Asia-Pacific carriers that posted a 6.5 percent decline in July and a 6.8 percent decline in August," he said.

Source: BERNAMA

Switch career

We usually hear about ICT and logisticss professional change jobs, moving over to consulting.

However, for Bob Silverman, he moves in the other direction. He was offered a job to join the ICT field from consulting.

Most people would turn down such offers, citing various reasons for the turn-down.

However, Bob Silverman accepted the challenge.

Read all about it HERE.

MISC aims big with halal logistics hub

avodinBy SHARIDAN M. ALI

MISC Integrated Logistics Sdn Bhd (MILS) expects buoyant demand for MILS Logistics Hub (MLH), the country’s largest halal logistics facility in free commercial zone, which starts operations today.

MILS, a wholly-owned logistics arm of MISC Bhd, provides ocean freighting, distribution, freight forwarding and warehousing services with cold hub facility.

MLH has two joint-venture (JV) partners, ETB Seafrigo and SterilGamma via their respective JV companies €“ MILS Seafrigo Cold Chain Logistics Sdn Bhd and MILS-SterilGamma Sdn Bhd.

MILS managing director and chief executive officer Hilmi Mohd Nashir told StarBiz that MILS Seafrigo, which managed the country’s first halal-certified cold hub within a free commercial zone, received its first shipment today.

MILS signed a service agreement with its first customer, Prima Agri-Products Sdn Bhd, in May for the cold hub facility.

“We are ready to do business and expect 50% of the space for our cold hub to be taken up by end of next month,” he said.

MILS Seafrigo provides multiple temperature-controlled facility with storage temperature ranging from 18 degrees Celsius to -25 degrees Celsius.

It is equipped with mobile racking solution to accommodate 8,380 pallet positions of frozen products and 1,008 pallet positions of chilled products.

For the dry facility, Hilmi said, they were in final discussion with major fast-moving consumer goods companies to utilise the modern warehouse.

“We target 50% take up rate for the dry warehouse by year-end or early next year,” he said.

The first phase of MLH’s dry warehouse comprises 250,000 sq ft of built up space, 15,000 racking pallet positions and 130,000 sq ft of floor space.

MILS-SterilGamma will provide sterilisation and decontamination services for medical devices, wood-based products and plastic packaging.

The company has invested in two units of ethylene oxide (ETO) chambers to provide quality services of sterilisation and fumigation.

The ETO sterilisation facility is in compliance with market certification requirement from Australia, Japan, the US and Europe.

Its next step is to acquire electron beam sterilisation facility to support the halal hub initiative by decontaminating food and other perishable products to enhance the quality and prolonging the product shelf life.

“The process is expected to improve the level of acceptance of Malaysian food products by developed markets,” said Hilmi, adding that the logistics hub was also equipped with Customs facility.

On future expansion, he said, MLH had the land to double up the current capacity.

“In fact, we can expand more than that if we decide to do multi-storey warehouse. But, we are going to be prudent on expansion and follow the demand trend from our customers,” he said.

Source: The Star 22 Sep 2008

Supply-Chain World Europe 2008 Conference to Demonstrate Supply Chain Improvement Through Use of SCOR

The Supply Chain Council will present its Supply-Chain World Europe 2008 conference, "Unlocking Supply Chain Value Through SCOR," September 30-October 2 at the Budapest Marriott in Budapest, Hungary.

The three-day event, supported by local partners such as Hungarian Association of Logistics Purchasing and Inventory Management and GS1 Hungary, will feature keynote addresses discussing the challenges major organizations have met in fashioning high-performance, value-creating supply chains that are responsive to the demands of an increasingly complex, unpredictable, and networked world. The conference will also include more than a dozen interactive educational sessions which will explore how the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model can maximize supply chain efficiency and effectiveness for enterprises of all shapes, sizes, and missions.

The conference kicks off Wednesday, 1 October, with a presentation by Paul Molinaro, Senior Officer Logistics Management and Coordination Emergency for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN agency charged with helping children in need around the globe. Most recently, it was Mr. Molinaro's job to get desperately needed food and medical supplies to Sichuan province, in China, as soon as possible following the catastrophic May earthquake that left 4.8 million people homeless and untold children in dire need. Mr. Molinaro will discuss his experience in successfully meeting such an enormous supply chain challenge and share best practices that others can implement in their own companies and industries.

Wednesday will conclude with another keynote presented by Franz P. Grasser, Vice President, Head of Industry Automation Global Logistics, Siemens AG, on the implementation of a Performance Management System for a global supply chain, taking into account the challenges of heterogeneous systems in widely varied regions and cultures.

Thursday's agenda starts with a keynote presentation by Mike Bernon, Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management at Cranfield University discussing the design and management of environmentally responsible and sustainable value-creating supply chains. Mr. Bernon has been the principal investigator for a number of major research programmes for the EPSRC, World Bank and the Department for Transport (DfT). Currently, he is the principal investigator for a DfT funded program developing tools to support effective management of reverse logistics operations while also assessing the impact on the environment and the Chairperson for the Cranfield Sustainable Supply Chain Forum and the Chairperson for the CILT (UK) Reverse Logistics Forum. Mr. Bernon's presentation will be followed later in the morning by a keynote presentation from Mr. Christian Verstraete, Chief Technology Officer, Worldwide Manufacturing & Distribution Industries, Technology Solutions Group, Hewlett-Packard Company. Mr. Verstraete will demonstrate how Hewlett-Packard and other companies have effectively balanced cost reduction, customer service and risk mitigation by understanding where waste resides, the implications of reducing waste and doing so in a way that preserves customer service. Mr. Verstraete will also illustrate how the SCOR/DCOR and CCOR models are excellent tools to support the above analysis.

In conjunction with the conference, the Supply Chain Council will hold three roundtable sessions on various aspects of the SCOR model: "Environmental Sustainability and GreenSCOR," "Getting Supply Chain Improvement on the Executive Agenda," and "Across the Value Chain: SCOR, CCOR, & DCOR." The SCC will also pilot a post-conference workshop on "SCOR for Risk Management," as well as several executive training sessions.

Registration Information

The Supply-Chain World Europe 2008 Conference begins with a welcome reception on Tuesday, Sept. 30, at 6:00 p.m. The educational portion of the conference begins on Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 8:00 a.m. and concludes at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 2. The complete schedule of events, as well as details on registration and prices, can be found at www.scc-euro.org.

About the Supply Chain Council

The Supply Chain Council (SCC) is a global non-profit association whose methodology, diagnostic and benchmarking tools help nearly a thousand organizations make dramatic and rapid improvements in supply chain processes. SCC has established the supply chain world's most widely accepted framework for evaluating and comparing supply chain activities and their performance. The framework-the SCOR process reference model-lets companies quickly determine and compare the performance of supply chain and related operations within their company or against other companies. SCC continually advances its tools and educates sponsors about how companies are capitalizing on those tools. Information about the Supply-Chain Council is available at www.supply-chain.org.

Source: www.morerfid.com

Articles Send This Page To An AssociateE-mail RSS FeedRSS Logility To Speak On Green Supply Chain Management At The Forecaster's Business Forecasting

September 8, 2008

Logility, Inc., a leading supplier of collaborative solutions to optimize the supply chain, announced recently that Ron Burnette, product director, Logility, will present "Thinking About a Green Supply Chain" at the Forecaster's Business Forecasting and Planning Excellence event on Monday, September 8 in Las Vegas.

Sustainability and green efforts are becoming mandates that must be considered in product and packaging design as well as distribution planning and execution throughout the demand-driven supply chain. With new regulations and diminishing resources, green supply chain management is becoming a vital business practice. Logility Voyager Solutions enable companies to further green supply chain initiatives by helping reduce energy consumption, lowering carbon emissions, and reducing excess inventories to minimize the overall impact on the environment. Burnette will lead an interactive session where participants will:

* hear how sustainability in the supply chain can create value not only for the environment, but for companies and their customers;
* learn how you can implement sustainability initiatives into your supply chain management process while driving a return on investment; and
* discover how to optimize supply chain planning and transportation management to reduce fuel consumption, minimize your carbon footprint, optimize delivery schedules, and better manage inventory investments to reduce obsolescence.

Representatives from Logility will be available during the Forecaster's event at booth no. 3. For more information, email Logility at asklogility@logility.com or visit www.logility.com .

About Logility
With more than 1,250 customers worldwide, Logility is a leading provider of collaborative, best-of-breed supply chain solutions that help small, medium, large and Fortune 1000 companies realize substantial bottom-line results in record time. Logility Voyager Solutions is a complete supply chain management solution that features performance monitoring capabilities in a single Internet-based framework and provides supply chain visibility; demand, inventory and replenishment planning; Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP); supply and global sourcing optimization; manufacturing planning and scheduling; transportation planning and management; and warehouse management. Logility customers include McCain Foods, Pernod Ricard, Sigma Aldrich, and VF Corporation. Logility is a majority owned subsidiary of American Software. For more information about Logility, visit www.logility.com .

Source: www.supplychainmarket.com

Global businesses keen to build N-supply chain

Within days of India joining the nuclear commerce fraternity, business groups from both the US and UK told the government they looked forward to deepening trade relationships on the back of the deal. David Bohigian, assistant secretary for market access & compliance in the US department of commerce, told FE that civilian nuclear opportunities in India was a $100-billion market and “US firms certainly wanted to be part of that”.

Bohigian was speaking at a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), where he said the US intends to make India a full partner of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG), while in return being a part of India’s procurement and deployment of nuclear-related technologies. “US President George Bush and the administration would continue to work to make India a full partner in this group, which we think is crucial from a strategic, political, economic and energy standpoint,” Bohigian said.

Speaking at another venue, Sharon Bamford, chief of the UK India Business Council—a forum for the promotion of bilateral business—said, “We are absolutely delighted because the UK had supported (the NSG waiver) all the way through. There is a great opportunity to partner with India. The reality is that it will also bring India closer to the US, France and Russia.” The council opened its India office in New Delhi on Monday.

The UK government is also setting up an office of nuclear development programmes to ensure an effective nuclear supply chain. British industrial groups would like to collaborate with Indian industries for this, said Andrew Cahn, chief executive of UK Trade & Investment, a government arm that helps UK companies in international markets and assists overseas investments in the UK. Cahn also hoped that the process of economic reforms in India would be speeded up.

In Mumbai, Frank Wisner, former US ambassador to India, said American companies would benefit a lot if the US Congress passed the civilian nuclear deal (aka the 123 Agreement) during the remaining term of the current Bush administration. Passage of the agreement was crucial to allowing American companies to invest in India, as many of them are blocked from doing so because of the nuclear embargo.

Bohigian told the CII event, “The next step is for Congress to consider how to move forward on the Hyde Act and to bring India and US into close collaboration in nuclear energy, which is a key component of India’s future energy growth and clean energy. This is important for US companies to participate in this market”.

“As for timeline, I leave that to the Indian government to set their deployment schedule and hope that we can be part of that procurement and deployment of technologies,” he said. The official said that when one looks at the energy map of 2020 and beyond, “certainly nuclear has a key role to play in India’s growth, which we welcome”. He said the US has many leading companies in the nuclear field, like General Electric and Westinghouse, but many other companies and major suppliers can be part of the prosperity that this will help bring to India.

Source: www.financialexpress.com