Category Archives: Supply Chain

India stood at the overall trade deficit of USD 64.4 billion for the October-December quarter – a substantially higher mark as compared to USD 44.1 billion in July-September quarter. But all is not gloomy as EXIM activity hit an all time high in December with an impressive elevation from November. Merchandise exports increased by 38.1% (Y-O-Y) and 12% (over November) and the merchandise exports increased by 37% (Y-O-Y) and 24.1% (over November). These statistics – though keeping the trade deficit at elevated – decreased the gap between exports and imports to USD 21.91 billion in December. “We believe this sets the stage for the current account deficit to widen to 3.4% of GDP in October-December quarter.” said Nomura For a full financial year, Nomura estimates the trade deficits to hover around 1.6% of GDP, which is a good news since a current account deficit within 2% of GDP is generally seen as sustainable. If experts are to be believed, the aforesaid numbers of EXIM activity have been a result of high commodity prices and a strong demand, which in turn, kept the trade activity up-heaved. But they also warn against the high deficit percentage and the risks of sticky deficits, which should not be taken lightly.

The latest report by the Indian Foundation of Transport Research & Training (IFTRT) says, there has been a 15%-20% extra arrival of fresh fruits and vegetables into APMCs. “Factory output and exports have also remained brisk helping truckers to post robust revenue for last two quarters,” said SP Singh, senior fellow & coordinator, IFTRT. The migration to CNG is also being seen as a factor in helping transporters improve their margins. “There have been large scale migration of 10-15.5 tonne medium and light commercial vehicles from diesel fuel to CNG which has further helped the fleet owners of this category make more money per tonne/km,” said Singh. The report said that the flat diesel price throughout December and the buoyancy in the overall economy in agri-food business, trade commerce, and industry including exports have allowed the increase in truck rentals.

$100-billion Tata group’s Chairman N Chandrasekaran puts supply chain resilience as the company’s top strategy theme along with Digital, new energy, and health. While giving his New Year address to the group’s 800,000 employees, Chandrasekaran said businesses and society must adapt to the virus by preparing as “best we can for new outbreaks and variants. We are seeing this now with the spread of Omicron”. The bygone year has been simpler and financially stronger for the company. Chandrasekaran puts the spotlight on the group’s sustainability progress while speaking of the last years and says, “We have made good progress addressing our carbon footprint and positioning our companies to benefit from revolutionary new technologies. Our most important milestone this year culminated in our bid to win Air India. It is indeed a historic moment,”. Speaking of the way forward, he said, “Our strategy, looking ahead, has four themes: digital, new energy, supply chain resilience, and health. Our companies are already adapting to these changes, and we are witnessing a stronger performance.”

National Highways and Logistics Management Ltd (NHLML), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) fully owns, plans to award 15 more contracts on multimodal logistics parks over the next three years in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The parks will have a 50:50 funding model. “There are 35 multimodal logistics parks planned across the country with a capital allocation of Rs 50,000 crore. Tenders are being issued for Chennai, Bengaluru, Indore, and Nagpur this fiscal year. The Jogigopha logistics park in Assam has started construction (this is over and above the 15 to be awarded),” Prakash Gaur, chief executive officer (CEO), NHLML, said. The SPV, formed under the guidance of the road ministry, aims to address typical cost overruns with infrastructure projects. Cost overruns happen because of the time lag between awards of projects and their commencement. This logistics project is part of the Rs 7-trillion mega infrastructure project launched this month.

rThe fiscal year 2021-22 is expected to end with merchandise exports of US$ 400 Bn. As this would be on a high base for FY’ 2022-23 unlike last year, said FIEO President, Dr A Sakthivel. Thus, export growth of 30-35% on such numbers would be difficult particularly as additional exports may require augmenting the capacity as well. Moreover, the spectacular increase in global trade by about 22%, buoyed by high prices of commodities, as witnessed in 2021 will not be there to provide the tail wind to our exports. However, at the same time, since our share in global trade is still less than 2%, we still have a long way to go. Much will depend on whether we would be able to contain Covid-19 through massive vaccination across the globe and be able to create required capacity, which will decide whether we should look for 15-20% growth or even more for the next financial year, added Dr Sakthivel. FIEO President further added that we expect the global consumption to go up substantially in 2022, albeit the pandemic is controlled. The good thing with our exports has been a very balanced growth across sectors both in traditional exports as well as sunrise sectors of exports during the current fiscal. Therefore, in the next year as well, we feel that exports growth will be widespread and exports to NAFTA, Europe, Middle-East, Oceania will continue to boom particularly as we should look at concluding Free Trade Agreements with UK & UAE soon and CEPA & CECA with Canada & Australia respectively in 2022, said Dr Sakthivel.

Redefining logistics to explore new business opportunities, India Warehousing Show (IWS), concluded on a suuccessful note with an overwhelming response from the visitors from the industry. Happening after a forceful break of two years due to pandemic, it is more than India’s leading exhibition on logistics and supply chain. India Warehousing Show in this edition offered all its participants an enriching business platform with a wider networking opportunity. The show offered a unique platform to find insights, seek relevant information, explore advanced technologies, network and generate valuable contacts, all under one roof. The event showcased highlights of the business calendar for the entire Supply Chain industry in India in the Logistics & Transportation industry.

Shypmax, India’s first and only AI-powered Logistics Platform as a Service (LPaaS) for cross border shipping, has secured an exclusive partnership with the Netherlands based B2C Europe, a Maersk company specializing in B2C parcel delivery services in Europe. The collaboration will enable Indian businesses to deliver their products to Europe, including the UK, based customers cost-effectively using a single-window platform. From Shypmax, Indian companies, especially SMEs, Direct-to-customer, B2C, and E-commerce firms, from over 27,000 pin codes, can deliver any product across European markets and beyond. Shypmax automates processes related to compliance with current regulations in the European Union. As India’s first Import One-Stop-Shop (IOSS) ready facility enabling centralised declaration and payment of VAT by European customers at the point of sale, Shypmax is saving Indian companies and the European customers from the hassles of navigating through different tax systems in Europe. The services also include customised labels, pickup, packaging, and door-to-door delivery via more than 100 connected carriers across Europe and beyond by B2C Europe.

Responding to November 2021, FIEO President, Dr A Sakthivel said that the monthly exports performance of USD 30.04 billion with a high double-digit growth of more than 27.16 percent, showcases the continuous resilience of India’s exports sector. The enthusiasm with which the Exim community has impressively performed during the year has further given a boost to the sector, thereby helping the economy move towards recovery following the second wave of Covid-19 earlier this year. The recent GDP numbers also showcases the positive impact of exports, which has contributed in a big way to growth of the economy as a whole, added FIEO Chief. The FIEO President said that the top sectors, which performed impressively during the month were Petroleum Products, Engineering Goods, Organic & Inorganic Chemicals, Cotton Yarn/Fabrics/Made-ups, Handloom Products etc., Electronic Goods, Marine Products, Plastic & Linoleum, Man-made Yarn/Fabs./made-ups etc., Leather & leather products and RMG of All Textiles. Out of these, many of them were labour-intensive sectors contributing majorly to the exports basket during the month, which itself is a good sign, further helping job creation in the country. However, imports yet again clocking over USD 52.94 billion during the month with a very high growth of 56.58 percent, is a point of concern and should be analysed, said Dr A Sakthivel.

ProcMart has launched its first-ever VMI app. The app will streamline inventory-management processes and operations, while also making ProcMart’s systems more mobile-friendly. Users will be able to access precise data on product usage on a real-time basis, consequently forecasting future demands and planning ahead in a seamless manner, via the platform. Additionally, they will have access to a plethora of features, including an easy-to-use barcode scanner, which will allow ProcMart to affix barcode tags to any products left at the client’s location. Owing to this feature, every time someone at the client’s premises needs to use that product, all they need to do is scan the barcode to register their usage. Using this app, ProcMart will be fully aware of the warehouse inventory at all times, which will also aid in better supply and procurement-management, by allowing the right products to be sourced at the right time. Commenting on the app launch, Anish Popli, CEO & Founder, ProcMart said, ‘With the launch of our VMI app, we aim to simplify the supply-chain as well as operations by recording all transactions, on-the-go. Procurement executives currently make up for about 73% of the workforce, which not only demonstrates the need to adopt mobile commerce, but also deliver a B2B-ready, mobile-friendly solution to clients. This app will significantly reduce the time and effort spent in operations, and consequently enhance capital efficiencies for our clients. Moreover, the app will also enable better supply of products for clients, owing to the availability of real-time data analytics, at the tap of a button.’

With an objective to promote young Entrepreneurs/Forwarders/Logistics Professionals, the Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in India (FFFAI) is inviting applications from the Members of FFFAI Association Members (within the age group between 18 and 32 years as on January 1, 2021) to participate in the ‘FIATA Young International Freight Forwarder of The Year Award’ The award demonstrates recognition by FFFAI, FIATA and its participating sponsors of the need to develop quality in the forwarding industry and to reward young talent with valuable training opportunities. To participate in the nomination process pertaining to the awards, the candidates should have two years full time experience in Freight Forwarding, should submit the dissertation on the topic stipulated by FIATA, and should fulfil the condition stipulated in the registration form. The dissertation is an opportunity for the candidate to demonstrate a range of skills and qualities that are needed to pursue a successful career in international forwarding and supply chain logistics. It would demonstrate the knowledge base of the contestants concerning the following aspects: Identifying a problem or business opportunity; gathering relevant information on a specific situation; identifying possible changes or enhancements for the benefit of the forwarder or the client; evaluating the information and drawing one’s own conclusions; deciding what action should be taken; making reasoned and costed recommendations; quality of innovation and initiative; description and valuation of the situation, discussion of problems, opportunities, faults, relevant issues, benefits, costs, etc. There will be limitation of 4000 and 6000 maximum words for the Dissertation and may be supplemented by graphs, photographs, examples etc. and should be in a single unlocked Word Document file. The FFFAI Selection Panel will judge the contestants focussing on an …