Page 18 - Logistics News - September - October 2021
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S UP P LY C H A IN M A NA G E ME N T


















               Managing the supply chain



               during disruptive global events




               Clarity between logistic service providers and their customer has never been more important as

               COVID-19, natural disasters and shipping chaos land heavy blows, says Bidvest International Logistics.

                          nsuring continuity of supply in light of recent global   by looters in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, obliterating
                          and national events has been an unprecedented   what little gains had been made in the country’s economic
                    E challenge for logistic service providers. The upheavals   recovery effort.
                     caused by the coronavirus pandemic have forced entire
                     countries to reimagine how they deliver resources and   There have also been shutdowns to vital shipping lanes
                     services while simultaneously overhauling business practice   and ports, notably the blocking of the Suez Canal by the
                     for economic sustainability.                  container ship Ever Given in March and the closure of the
                                                                   Chinese ports of Yantian in May and Ningbo-Zhoushan,
                        Coronavirus outbreaks among airport ground and cargo-  the world’s third busiest, in August due to coronavirus
                     loading crews have necessitated that affected members are   outbreaks.
                     placed in quarantine for up to two weeks at a time, leaving
                     fewer staff to handle cargo. Cargo is also backed up as flights   A cyberattack on South African parastatal Transnet
                     are unable to depart with full loads. As a consequence, the   in July paralysed several of the country’s ports for several
                     uncertainty around schedule availability, workforce on the   weeks as well, forcing the state-owned company to declare
                     ground and increased demand can lead to an increase in   force majeure. Taken together, these events have stretched
                     rates in the market.                          logistic service providers (LSPs) to the limit.

                        The world is also having to contend with the growing   Congestion, shortage of empty containers, delays,
                     threat of climate change, increasingly manifesting as   rollovers of shipments and ships bypassing ports are an
                     catastrophic disasters including hurricanes such as the ones   unintended consequence of these disruptive events, which
                     in New Orleans and Texas, wildfires and flooding events that   have created a supply-demand imbalance with demand
                     have destroyed billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure.   outstripping supply.
                     Typhoons and extreme weather in China have become the
                     latest challenge to global supply chains, as goods stuck at   In some instances, an ocean line service operator
                     some of the world’s busiest container ports are further   deciding to cancel a call or skip a particular port, a process
              L O GI S T I CS NEWS  destructive natural phenomena and political instability are   any given week, there are a number of carriers with blank
                     delayed.
                                                                   known as blank sailing, can have dire consequences. On
                                                                   sailings, reducing tonnage and increasing demand. To put it
                        Furthermore, the tensions brought on by COVID-19,
                                                                   into context, 4,000 container slots can get lost in one sailing.
                     spilling over into violent acts of civil unrest. In South Africa,
                     an estimated R50-billion worth of damage was caused


           16       SEP T E MB E R/O CT O B E R 2021                  But this is only one part of the problem. Trucks still need
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