Container Shipping Costs

[Island Time 1,313]

I thought this was interesting - paperwork costs more than the actual freight!!

 

Australia’s containerized sea cargo supply chains suffer from over $1 billion of embedded unnecessary costs. Every container shipment in global maritime trade today requires on average approval from 30 disparate organizations and more than 200 document verifications. In fact, the cost of processing documents and information for every container shipment is estimated at more than twice the cost of the transport. Through blockchain, IBM estimates that up to 20% of unnecessary supply chain logistics costs could be cut, resulting in billions of dollars saved.

 

Still WAY too much. No wonder production costs are high!

[Frank 185]

I thought this was interesting - paperwork costs more than the actual freight!!

 

Australia’s containerized sea cargo supply chains suffer from over $1 billion of embedded unnecessary costs. Every container shipment in global maritime trade today requires on average approval from 30 disparate organizations and more than 200 document verifications. In fact, the cost of processing documents and information for every container shipment is estimated at more than twice the cost of the transport. Through blockchain, IBM estimates that up to 20% of unnecessary supply chain logistics costs could be cut, resulting in billions of dollars saved.

 

Still WAY too much. No wonder production costs are high!

Is that the Aussies suffering from their Sclerotic Bureaucracy or the Aussies suffering from a Global Bureaucracy ? 

[Fogg 427]

It’s a global thing. The single greatest innovation that happened to the global supply chain & shipping industry was the introduction of the 40ft standard container. It made the whole process about 90% more efficient but that was decades ago. If a container falls off a ship on a storm today it can take up to 2 years to settle the loss / claim - due to paper chain of different agents and parties in the mix making it hard to confirm exactly who owned what at the time of the loss and who was responsible (exporter, importer, shopper, agent, trade finance / bank, insurer, buyer, seller of goods, finished item or part finished, value at time of loss, local import regulations, taxes, tarrifs, trade embargoes etc etc etc). The new blockchain technologies being deployed in this space are designed to standardise all of this and make it more transparent to all parties and therefore instantly clear what’s happening and who is responsible / liable.

[marinheiro 365]

Australia is a "walk in the park", you want to try importing something into Brazil.

The list of tariff classifications is over 1000 pages and then there are the arguments about which tariff is applicable.

Then there are all the other taxes to be considered, all with an associated processing cost....

[tuffyluffy 76]

In fact, the cost of processing documents and information for every container shipment is estimated at more than twice the cost of the transport. 

 

I'm not surprised and I bet a majority of it is due to inefficient, unproductive, bureaucratic red-tape.

[Sailing NZ 25]

Don't you think some exporters/ importers may get much better container / fright rates than you? ( like Alibaba) and thus this is why people get a better price for the same spec'd product from overseas.

[RushMan 31]

On 27/03/2020 at 10:10 AM, Knot Me... maybe said:

 

It is very common to get a invoice with 20 lines of fees, levies, taxes and so on plus one line that is the actual freight cost.

 

And each line had different tax applicable, a trap for the inexperienced when entering into the accounts system.

For added fun.. the freight forwarder’s GST total used a rounding system that must have been based an rolling a dice.  

 

[wheels 544]

When I used to import Sound equipment, I was often shocked at how little freight cost. I was not a large importer. I did not have regular shipments. The Shipments were often only Pallet sizes. I had a freight forwarder that did all the paper work for me, because that is huge an complicated. I just paid the bill, of which was often so low, I could not believe how little it cost. The actual freight charge was high, but all the handling and Customs and blah blah was so cheap, I could not understand how the forwarder made money. All I had to do was place the order and notify the forwarder and then wait.

[Sailing NZ 25]

10 hours ago, Knot Me... maybe said:

Better? Yes.

Much better? No.

Better enough of a difference to make a significant one on the shelf? A solid No.

The freight component is variable due to when, ship speed, size of box, time of year, shipping companies just wanting more money. But of the whole fright invoice it is one of the few that is and it is very rarely the majority of the invoice total, most are fixed costs whether you bring in a 40ft container or a feather. Customs and the other monopolies with their fingers in there have no need to do deals for anyone and they don't.

And I reject your blanket claim you can buy the same spec oversea cheaper. In some case oh hell yes but in all, absolutely not.

 

Interesting that. In your industry that. May be right but in many industries where higher quality control applies there is no difference at all because quality is heavily regulated and any crap has been eliminated by historical performance and purchaser expectations.

Maybe your industry if full of cowboys? Or poor governance?.... Or does not need high quality options?...  In the customers blurred eyes?

[Sailing NZ 25]

On 5/03/2020 at 3:50 PM, tuffyluffy said:

 

I'm not surprised and I bet a majority of it is due to inefficient, unproductive, bureaucratic red-tape.

Agree 100%...  A bit like govt, council's,...

Paperwork/ overzealous regulation has made this country very expensive and inefficient.

Yet we still do not physically check every container for contriband.. but the paperwork is anally probed by microscope to the nano particle level.

[darkside 69]

I'm just pleased we are now permitted to open and devan containers. We have a couple arriving tomorrow which aren't "essential"

For a while it looked like they would sit in our yard until the end of the lock down.

 

[Island Time 1,313]

Hm, KM, surely that is non essential travel, and therefore prohibited?

[darkside 69]

IT, Grant Robertson gave the go ahead to devan even for non essential on Firday.

They are concerned about both lack of port space and having enough empty containers to export produce from NZ.

We will send one guy in to do the MPI stuff, and another to go in later to drive the machines out, so no bubbles burst.

[mcp 36]

1 hour ago, Knot Me... maybe said:

shipping empty containers to help correct it.

I heard they were filling them with sailboat fuel?

[marinheiro 365]

we are still receiving the last back orders for our business - air freighted out of Brazil. DHL and customs are still working pretty much as normal, just that most of DHL's office staff are working from home

[Rangi1 51]

A bit of a u-turn on the container devanning...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/120676056/trucking-body-surprised-and-concerned-after-ministry-changes-its-advice-on-freight-twice

[darkside 69]

Got ours unloaded before lunchtime yesterday. My guess is that the rule will probably change again. Our next shipment is pretty big and on the water ex China today.