Monthly Archives: March 2017

New Ocean Alliance will be the largest for Asian-European trade

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Categories: Newsflash, Solutions, Tips & Trends.

What is the new Ocean Alliance?

The new Ocean Alliance will consist of Evergreen Line, CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping, and OOCL. In addition to the Ocean Alliance, there are two other alliances: 2M and The Alliance. While the Ocean Alliance will represent 37 percent of all the Asia-Europe trades’ container capacity, 2M will represent 34 percent, and The Alliance 29 percent, making the Ocean Alliance the largest for Asian-European trade. The Ocean Alliance will deploy around 350 container vessels with an estimated total carrying capacity of 3.5 million TEUs, and represent 38 percent of the entire global trade.

There are going to be 6 services connected to Asia and Europe per week in total. The Ocean Alliance will call 18 ports directly in Asia and 13 ports directly in Europe. From this year on, the Ocean Alliance will also call ports directly in the Baltic Sea area. One of them is the Port of Gdansk in Poland, which will open up the possibility for the alliance to also extend the feeder network further in the Baltic Sea area.

How will customers benefit from the new Ocean Alliance?

With joint forces, the Ocean Alliance will be able to improve service quality and schedule reliability. Customers will benefit from a competitive selection of sailing schedules and direct port pairs, fast transit times, and a highly efficient fleet of vessels to cater to the needs of today’s demanding and increasingly green global supply chains.

The establishment of the new Ocean Alliance allows for lower operation costs and a possibility to offer customers more competitive freight rates. To meet the customers’ supply chain needs, the new Ocean Alliance will focus on providing superior services and the most extensive port coverage in the Asian and European markets including a vast network with the largest number of sailings and port rotations.

The Ocean Alliance and the future

Establishing a new ocean alliance is always hard work; there are a lot of rearrangements to be made and services to be redesigned. One future step for the Ocean Alliance is to extend the feeder network and further increase the port coverage into the Baltic Sea area. It will hopefully also be possible for the Ocean Alliance to call directly to the Port of Gothenburg in Sweden to extend reach into the Nordic market. As with previous years, the Ocean Alliance will continue to work closely with authorities to ensure full compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Looking back at the past few years, there has been an overcapacity in the container segment, the freight rates have been low, there has been one big collapse, one big merge,  and several take-overs. There is no doubt that the landscape is rapidly changing in the container shipping industry. But I think that, in the future, the ocean alliances will most likely become more stable, possibly stronger, and hopefully a positive force in society.

Do you have any questions about the new Ocean Alliance? Don’t hesitate to contact me directly or visit Greencarrier Liner Agency’s website. For more news, updates and in-depth articles visit our Container Shipping Knowledge Center!

The digitalisation is transforming the entire transport industry

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Categories: All, Tips & Trends.

A great need to digitalise the transport industry

The transport industry is in great need of a digitalisation. A more digitalised workflow within the industry will benefit the whole transport chain and all parties involved. So far, the digitalisation has not come a long way in the transport industry. However, due to the growing digital interest among the actors on the market and the great potential for development, the digitalisation takes an increasingly larger role in the industry and will continue to do so in the future.

Save time by minimising errors, plan ahead and make long-term decisions

An increased digitalisation will transform the transport industry in many positive ways. Mistakes can easily happen when physically writing and handing over documents. Digitally stored information has the potential to minimise errors and problems, which will save a lot of time and lead to a clear communication throughout the entire transport chain. In addition, processes such as booking a transport, tracking down goods and managing invoices will become both easier and more efficient. Storing large quantities of information online not only enables you to plan ahead in a completely different way, but also allows you to make better and more long-term decisions in your logistics flow when it comes to orders, purchase, volumes and quantities.

Improved environmental performance by taking smarter routes

Digital solutions will also be beneficial for the environment since it will lead to a reduction in the number of shipments and create a better flow of goods with higher delivery performance. MONALISA 2.0 is an example of a European project that gave rise to the concept of Sea Traffic Management using an information exchange network. By permitting a maritime Internet to share data onboard the vessels, all parties in the maritime chain can improve their operations. Ports will have up-to-date data on all vessels and can plan accordingly. Each captain will also receive information about port availability, and can thus optimise the route. This allows for cargo to move more speedily through the transport chain. Vessels will save fuel and costs by taking safer and smarter routes and adapt their speed to match the availability of ports services, resulting in greatly improved environmental performance.

Simple, user-friendly and standardised digital solutions

The bigger companies in the industry have come further in their digitalisation processes, compared to the smaller companies that are more cautious. However, there is a common need in the industry for simple, user-friendly and standardised digital solutions. Before these solutions can be created, the industry must start communicating their needs. In addition, the industry must take the plunge and dare to change. The will to adjust to market needs and be flexible in our industry is also the big challenge with the digitalisation. After all, the digitalisation is transforming our industry whether we like it or not. Therefore, transport companies have to be prepared to adjust and adapt if they want to stay in the business and continue to be competitive.

Technical knowledge and understanding will become more important

We predict a great change in the industry in the future where new actors will take more responsibility in the transport chain. A deeper technical knowledge and understanding will be more important in the recruitment of new employees. In the near future, the seller might be able to use a mobile app to book a transport right away as well as issue an invoice on the spot? Or, maybe you can sit on a remote beach and order a transport, without being present at the office? Even the Bill of Lading, one of the world’s oldest transport documents, will be digitalized.

We look forward to contributing to the digitalisation of our industry

For us, at Greencarrier Liner Agency, it is important to be responsive, listen to the market and adapt our digital development accordingly. We want to find new solutions together with our customers and suppliers. We welcome the digitalisation into the transport industry and have already started to digitalise certain parts in our transport chain, relating to booking and invoices. We have an active internal process where we analyse the market as well as discuss and follow up on ideas. In addition, we have started a project where we are creating a digitalisation strategy. We look forward to introducing digitalisation into our organisation even more and also contribute to the digitalisation of our entire industry.

Share your thoughts about the digitalisation in the transport industry! What are your needs, worries and thoughts about this subject? We encourage you to comment this article below or in our social media channels.