“Predictability and consistency is more
important than speed,” he said, adding
that slow-steaming is acceptable “as long
as we can count on [adherence to] the
published schedule.”
Carriers, for their part, believe slow-
steaming can improve reliability because
operators normally add vessels to an
existing string and boost frequencies to
offset the longer voyage times. “With
slow-steaming should come better sched-
uling reliability,” William E. Woodhour,
senior vice president and North American
sales manager for Maersk, said at the
Atlanta conference in February.
Chandler of NCR disputes that claim,
saying there have been times when his
company was given a specific sailing
schedule prior to the vessel’s departure,
only to be notified of a change in voyage
times once the freight was on the water.
“From my view, it’s a moving target,” he
said, referring to schedule commitments.
“We are getting surprised. It’s not an
every-week surprise, but it is happening.”
Ironically, carriers are discovering that
slow-steaming increases their operating
costs because the fuel savings are more
than offset by the higher costs of operating a longer “string” of vessels. The
roundtrip cost of operating a string of
seven 8,500 twenty-foot equivalent unit
(TEU) containerships steaming at 13
knots in the U.S. West Coast-Far East
trade is higher than operating a string of
five ships in the same trade steaming at 19
knots, according to data from Paris-based
advisory firm Alphaliner.
With slow-steaming now a fact of life,
companies are likely to at least consider
changes in their inventory positioning.
Tim Feemster, senior vice president and
director of global logistics and supply
chain consultancy at Dallas-based real
estate giant Grubb & Ellis Co., said companies need to look harder than ever at
multi-sourcing some of their products
and bringing production closer to the
goods’ end markets.
Prince predicted that companies will
adopt an inventory bifurcation strategy,
with higher-value Asian-made goods entering on the West Coast and lower-value
commodities heading to the East, where the
longer transit times don’t have as much of
Carriers may even look at launching premium services at faster
speeds, which, of course, would
come with higher rates. “You have to
segment your market and focus
faster speeds on customers who want
it,” said Woodhour of Maersk.
Feemster said it’s possible that the
marketplace would welcome an
expedited form of liner service, noting that railroads and motor carriers
have successfully launched similar
services in recent years. “The trouble
is, we haven’t seen the demand for it
up to now,” he said. ;
Supercharge Your WMS With Premium Data
Your Warehouse Management System needs accurate data to give you the horsepower and performance you require. Precise cube information can help you optimize slotting and warehouse space, fine-tune carton selection, speed up order fulfillment and boost efficiency.
Win the Race—
Use CubiScan® Hi-Octane Data.
1-800-488-CUBE · www.CubiScan.com · Quantronix, Inc. · 380 South 200 West · P.O. Box 929
Farmington, Utah 84025 USA · (801) 451-7000 · Fax: (801) 451-0502
