Category Archives: Supply Chain

A.P. Moller – Maersk is further assisting its customers with decarbonising their supply chains with the launch of an Emissions Dashboard. The Emissions Dashboard is an analytical data tool where customers are provided with carbon footprint measurements from their entire supply chain, giving a detailed emissions overview whether their products are transported via truck, train, plane, or vessel. With an emissions overview companies will be able to disclose emissions information to the public, covering all their container flows. “As our customers trust Maersk with a wider part of their supply chains, they also expect from us that we assist their climate actions through sustainable end-to-end offerings. An increasing share of our customers are setting ambitious sustainability goals, making emissions visibility critical in order to document performance towards these targets. The Emissions Dashboard will ensure full visibility for our customers to leverage on their journeys towards decarbonised supply chains,” explains Vincent Clerc, CEO of Ocean & Logistics, A.P. Moller – Maersk.

project44, the leading supply chain visibility solutions provider, has closed a Series E investment of $202 million led by funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs) and Emergence Capital, valuing the company at $1.2 billion. To date, project44 has raised $442.5 million to improve supply chain trust and predictability. Goldman Sachs has a deep history of supporting the global expansion of growth-stage technology companies and guiding them through multiple stages of growth. This financing will accelerate the company’s expanded multimodal carrier network, make significant inroads into Asian markets, expand artificial intelligence (AI) and data science capabilities, accelerate new product innovation, and bolster sales and marketing reach globally. “We’re grateful for the confidence Goldman Sachs and our existing investors have placed in our team as we continue to solve some of the most critical supply chain execution challenges across the globe,” said Jett McCandless, CEO and founder of project44.

More than 6,000 oxygen concentrators, 500 oxygen cylinders, 60 cryogenic oxygen tanks, and several medical supplies and ventilators were transported into the country by A.P. Moller – Maersk through its ocean and air freight solutions for various institutions and corporates contributing to medical relief activities. Maersk has offered its ocean transportation service to institutions and organisations participating in medical relief at a nominal rate of 1 USD per container. All air freight shipments to India facilitated by Maersk are being done on a zero-profit basis. “The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us several lessons – empathy being one of the most important ones of them all. The crisis has urged us all to go beyond our business and support the society when it needs it the most. 15 of our top executives from different functions voluntarily got together in the early days of the second wave and put together ‘Project Oxygen War Room’, or POWR as they called it, to help society fight the virus”, said Vikash Agarwal, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia

Contienental Carriers created history by bring two frieghter charters with covid essential materials to Delhi and Kolkata with a span of two hours. Contienental carriers have been actively helping in transportation of other essential items such as oxygen concentrators from Agra to Moolchand hospital in Delhi. The company successfully chartered the two frieghters to transport 190 Euro pallets, weighing 109 tonnes of ‘Zeolite’, an essential component in Oxygen generation from the suppliers’ factory in South of Italy to Delhi. Upon arrival, Contienental Carriere seamlessly cleared the shipment within 20 minutes from the customs. In a similar way, Ilyusin IL-76 charter freighter uplifted 3 – ISO Oxygen tanks from Titanjin (China) to Kolkata, India. on the same day

Chennai/Bhubaneshwar, May 24 Ports on India’s eastern coast on Sunday restricted shipping activities and asked vessels to vacate anchorages ahead of a cyclonic storm expected to make landfall on Wednesday, port authorities and trade sources said. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that a”very severe cyclonic storm” would impact States including Odisha and West Bengal, where key ports are located. Some regions are likely to receive heavy rainfall and wind speeds could reach 110 miles per hour, the weather office said. Kolkata Port Trust Chairman Vinit Kumar said the port has taken preparatory measures to avoid the loss of human lives,vessels and property. “Before the onset of the cyclone, all port vessels will be taken inside dock for shelter. No ships will be kept in river anchorages or jetties,” Kumar said. Authorities at Haldia port in the state of West Bengal have asked for inward movement of vessels to be stopped from Monday evening, two trade sources said.

Cyclone Tauktae has forced the Indian port of Pipavav to shut, putting increased strain on the country’s shipping networks. Pipavav, operated by APM Terminals, said it had declared force majeure and would suspend operations until 1 June, following the cyclone making landfall last week along the coast of Gujarat in the north-west. With winds up to 185 kph, Tauktae is categorised as “extremely severe” and is one of the worst Arabian Sea-cyclones to hit India in a decade. Pipavav said there had been no major damage to port infrastructure, but its power supply and communication links had been “disrupted”. Its closure prompted forwarders to signal further cargo disruption, with containerships being diverted from the 1.35m teu capacity facility. Sanjay Bhatia, co-founder and CEO of Freightwalla, said: “Vessels will now have to re-route or, most likely, discharge containers at other ports like Nhava Sheva [Mumbai]. This is expected to have a cascading effect on the shipping lines, importers and exporters.

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB/ BLR Airport) has processed 650,225 kgs (542,620 kgs of imports and 107,605 kgs of domestic inbound) of COVID-19-related relief material from April 1, 2021 to May 19, 2021. Of the total, a significant 567,791 kgs were processed from May 1 to 19, 2021, with imports at 507,820 kgs and domestic inbound cargo at 59,971 kgs. While 200 shipments came in April, the first 20 days of May accounted for nearly 800 shipments, accounting for an overall 25,891 pieces of COVID-19-related cargo. During this period, BLR Airport recorded a total of 136 Air Traffic Movements (ATMs), including 101 international ATMs and 35 domestic ATMs, carrying COVID-19-related cargo. This included 21different carriers (7 Indian and 14 international carriers). Wuhan and Singapore are the top importing origins. Oxygen concentrators, ventilators and Zeolite were the major import commodities, while COVID-19 vaccines and PPEs were the top domestic inbound cargo.

Talking about the important role played by the supply chain industry during the pandemic, Huseni Vohra, Director, Buisness Development, APAC, project 44, said, “During the lockdown scenario, like many other essential services, the supply chain never stopped. From delivering the medical supplies to food essentials and others, the supply chin industry faced many challenges not only due to the pandemic but also from within such as the capacity issues, the demand-supply equations which were dynamic to name a few. My wish would be to equip supply chain with much more intelligence and create a support system that helps in faster decision making.”

Emphasising on technology as the need of the hour to be in competition, Samit Datta, Head, Global Supply Chain, IT, Digital Transformation & Operational Excellence, piramal Glass Ltd. said, “Today technology has taken a front seat unlike earlier where it was considered a cost. Tracking the data is the most important thing today in the supply chain management. With the pandemic, technology has been at the bottom of the change and played a significant role. Going forward, it is upto us how we use the data to be more reliable and faster than others. In short, the real differentiator will be data and technology.”

Talking about the new order world has been thrown into due to the pandemic, V.Raju, Senior Vice President, CL – Chemical, Pharma & Food Sector, Awashya a CCI 3PL Logistic Company said,”Due to various uncertainities created due to the pandemic, thinking has changed from ‘Globalisation’ to ‘Regionalisation’. We need to work in an enviornment which is close-by, thereby cutting transportation and travelling time. The supply chain managements needs to be more positive and more alert in the changing realms of the world today. They also need to make quick decisions and at times heavy investments to keep the production going on.” He further added, “The importance of regional supply chain is here to stay for a few years now till the system reassembles meaning, factories start working, global supplies are back to normal. Till such time, we need to depend on the regional supplies of the regional supply chain management.”