Asia - ECNA via Suez A New Solution for the Transpacific Supply Chain - bharatbook com
Released on: March 7, 2008, 8:16 pm
Press Release Author: Bharat Book Bureau
Industry: Transportation & Logistics
Press Release Summary: This special research paper provides a detailed analysis of the serious capacity and service issues confronting the Transpacific container trade, and evaluates each of the key factors which will shape the development of the Suez route as a new and important piece of the Transpacific service jigsaw puzzle.
Press Release Body: Bharatbook.com announces a new market research report "Asia - ECNA via Suez: A New Solution for the Transpacific Supply Chain" (http://www.bharatbook.com/detail.asp?id=15085)
This special research paper provides a detailed analysis of the serious capacity and service issues confronting the Transpacific container trade, and evaluates each of the key factors which will shape the development of the Suez route as a new and important piece of the Transpacific service jigsaw puzzle.
The Suez route will become an important factor in the Transpacific container trade and market participants - carriers, ports, rail-roads and cargo interests - can fast-track themselves into a position of greater understanding and readiness by acquiring this original and unique piece of research.
Product Description
Time for new strategies to beat the Transpacific supply chain crisis
Container trade has always looked to move via the cheapest and/or fastest routes, and carriers, exporters, importers and (unknowingly) consumers have all assumed that these established cargo pipelines would continue to accommodate whatever traffic volume was thrown at them. But in 2004, infrastructure constraints seriously impacted on world container trade, when the major ports ports of Southern California experienced severe peak-season congestion in the face of a second successive year of record global container traffic growth. Possibly for the first time in the modern era, and certainly for the first time in the developed OECD nations, the physical infrastructure needed to discharge containerships and distribute the cargo inland was found wanting.
Given the great shift of productive capacity away from the Western nations and into Asia, and the consequent sustained rise in cargo volumes, especially on the Transpacific route, the global economy had become totally dependent upon a seamless and efficient supply chain that had the ready availability of container transport capacity at its heart. Congested terminals, vessels queueing for days to get on the berths and a breakdown in the certainty of intermodal performance suddenly highlighted the fragility of the low inventory, just in time, outsourced production model.
Suddenly, it was no longer the fastest or cheapest supply chain which seemed the ideal. In an imperfectly functioning distribution world, reliability and predictability became equally important requirements - at least for part of an importer's cargo flow - so as to ensure continuity of product supply.
In the Transpacific trade, the response of carriers and importers was twofold - first to shift capacity and cargo to the PNW and Oakland gateways to avoid terminal congestion in Los Angeles/Long Beach; then to shift capacity and cargo to the US East Coast ports through greater use of Panama all-water services to avoid the congestion in the trans-continental railroad network; and then to improve productivity of the existing infrastructure to increase capacity.
But while such solutions have brought a period of respite and allowed the cargo to flow once more (2005 was congestion free and 2006 should follow), it couldn't hide the fact that the congestion beating strategies were themselves likely to encounter capacity constraints sooner rather than later - whether at the Panama Canal, or at US west coast ports, or in the intermodal network. In reality it became ever clearer that the Transpacific trade was trying to force an ever growing volume of cargo through a relatively static supply of infrastructure.
Suez - a 21st century Transpacific routeing
The fact that the world is round has given carriers the idea that the Suez routeing might be another safety valve for the Transpacific trade. Despite brief excitement at the possibility of Suez routes from SE Asia to ECNA in the early 1990s, the concept has failed to convince carriers that it was a cost effective possibility - and as the cargo source in Asia has concentrated evermore in China, and down-rated the significance of the SE Asian market, the idea has almost disappeared from the schedules.
But with the powerful strategic need for carriers and North American importers to develop long term alternatives to a seemingly inevitable recurrence of the congestion disruption of 2004, there is a clear need to make the Suez route work. And indeed now the factors which have previously prevented the concept from playing anything more than a bit part in the Transpacific container trade are all coming together.
The Report looks at all these issues and shows how the commercial and operational drawbacks that once characterised the Suez route have either already become a source of advantage for the route, or will reach that status within the next couple of years. Already in 2006, Maersk Line has inaugurated a new Suez string from SE Asia, and more carriers are known to be looking closely at the idea. But the true breakthrough for the Suez route on the Transpacific trade will be when the economics of extending these services to the enormous southern China market become convincing. analysis suggests that the moment has already arrived, and that carriers and importers should be positioning themselves now to participate in the nerw opportunities which are presenting themselves.
This new Special Report provides a detailed analysis of the serious capacity and service issues confronting the Transpacific container trade, and evaluates each of the key factors which will shape the development of the Suez route as a new and important piece of the Transpacific service jigsaw puzzle.
The Suez route will become an important factor in the Transpacific container trade and market participants - carriers, ports, rail-roads and cargo interests - can fast-track themselves into a position of greater understanding and readiness by acquiring this original and unique piece of research.
For more information kindly visit : http://www.bharatbook.com/detail.asp?id=15085
Bharatbook, the leading information aggregator. We facilitate and support the business information needs. With over 90,000 reports, you can get instant access and insights on the studies in you for market research, corporate / strategic planning by providing the latest information in the form of reports, journals, magazines and databases on varied industries like automotive, oil and gas, shipping, textiles, pharmaceuticals, energy, banking, finance, insurance, risk management, country intelligence, consumer & durable goods, chemical and more your areas of interest. Contact us at +91 22 27578668 / 27579438 or email info@bharatbook.com or our website www.bharatbook.com
Web Site: http://www.bharatbook.com
Contact Details: Bharat Book Bureau 207, Hermes Atrium, Sector 11, Plot No.57, PO Box.54, CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai - 400 614, India. Phone:+91-(022)-2757 8668 / 2757 9438 Fax:+91-(022)-2757 9131 E-mail: info@bharatbook.com