FALL 2022

10 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S

10 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK Chris Donnell Chris Donnell is the National Sales Director for Scanwell Logistics International (CHI) Inc., specializing in Supply Chain Management, Inventory Control, Logistics Sales and Management. Chris excels at selling the “Solution” to advanced program analysis and implementation. A highly ambitious and effective team leader who thrives on the challenges of this industry, Chris currently oversees a National Sales and Partnership Program consisting of more than 100 Sales executives who focus primarily on SCM and Logistics development in most vertical markets. Contact Chris at 847-228-6789 or email: chrisdonnell@scanwell.com. THINGS ARE CHANGING IN THE LOGISTICS WORLD! Imagine if you will: you’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a treacherous land whose boundaries are that of sleepless nights and everincreasing headaches. That’s the signpost ahead – your next stop, the Logistics Zone. For the past three years, the global supply chain landscape has traverse through troubled waters, however, over the past 4 months that landscape has become less rocky and I think we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Don’t get me wrong, we are miles away from getting back to where we were pre-pandemic and, truthfully speaking, I’m not sure we will ever return to how things were before. When I sit down to write these articles, I have several goals in mind. The first and most important it to make sure I’m providing the readers with the correct depiction of the Logistics Industry. I want to quell rumors and provide a solution, or two, to the many topics I discuss. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, and believe me, over the past 3 years, that has proven very hard to do with so many things going wrong with the Global Supply Chain. So, I’m going to start by discussing some of the changes that have taken place since my last article and follow that up with putting several rumors to rest. Ocean And Air Capacity And Rates The biggest changes center around ocean capacity and container costs. Separating this into the two most CONTRIBUTOR ARTICLE common services, the Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic, let’s start by discussing some of the major differences between the two. Trans-Pacific (Asia to North America via the Pacific) - Carrier capacity for the most part is in abundance (at least for the short term) as manufacturers, shippers and importers who previously had to book months in advance are seeing cargo sailing within a week or two from the ‘cargo ready date’. Likewise, rates from the Pacific Rim to North America have steadily dropped over the past two months. They are still roughly 50% higher than they were prepandemic, but the decrease for specific trade lanes are quite substantial. For containers destined for the West Coast we’ve seen rates plummet up to 50%. While rates for containers going to the East Coast haven’t followed the same level of decline, we have seen rate declines of up to 35% over the same time frame. I say this cautiously because we are venturing into the final 4 months of the year and anything can change. In any event, compared to 2021, we are in a much better place now. The reason the rates to the East Coast are holding stronger than the West is quite simple. First, the ports on the East Coast are seeing record numbers of containers since many importers diverted their shipments from the West Coast amid fears of a potential Port Strike. Second, the overall capacity from a carrier standpoint is far smaller than those going to the West Coast. I will speak more about the current conditions of the ports later in this article. CONTINUED ON PAGE 120