Shippers moving cargo from air to ocean transport
It has recently been reported that shippers are moving their airfreight in favour of
less costly transport options; such as ocean shipping.
The Supply Chain Consortium, an industry group which has over 100 companies have reported that this year 27 percent of their members have declined the use of air freight and 26 percent, are seeking further reductions for their parcel traffic.
The SCC president James Tomkins, has reportedly stated that 'the role of air freight is small and decreasing'
One company of Salmon exports in Chile have, as a result of high air, costs began to ship their fish frozen by sea vessels.
The most surprising element to this change is in the shipping of mobile phones and plasma TV's from air to ocean vessels.
This has impacted on the air shippers in the Far East regions, where 99 percent were originally moved by air that figure is now closer to 70 percent.
Whilst transit time are a recognised down side to be factored in to the shipping equation,
Ocean Shippers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the use of cross docking and flow through operations to improve their efficiency.
