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IN
a trade where dwell time can be fatal, last
month's Cool Logistics Global 2014 convention
in Rotterdam sought more co-operation than
competition to deal with the problems it
faces.
Opening
the conference, the Port of Rotterdam's
director of containers, breakbulk and logistics,
Emile Hoogsteden, said that while competition
between stakeholders including terminal
operators and shipping lines remained an
essential ingredient in international trade,
greater collaboration and inter-connectivity
would become increasingly necessary in years
to come.
In
his keynote address, Maersk reefer chief
Thomas Eskesen took up the same theme.
"It
is time for us to work another way and that
means thinking inside the box. We have to
identify the root causes of problems that
occur. That means analysing all of the data
and then basing settlements on the facts."
Said
Rotterdam's Mr Hoogsteden: "Containers
need to move quickly and efficiently between
terminals. There is huge competition between
the terminals, but we all understand that
we have to bring up the level first and
then compete."
The
need for co-operation would be more widely
understoond when the two new terminals open
in the Maasvlakte area, bringing the total
number of terminals there to five. At this
point, he said, connectivity would be the
priority.
"We
are working on a system where we connect
all the terminals in the Maasvlakte area
so it can be treated as one terminal,"
he said.
Maersk's
Mr Eskesen applauded such thinking. By changing
the mind-set and working more closely with
shippers and consignees, he said real improvements
can be accomplished in the supply chain.
Mr
Eskesen also sees this greater openness
between the parties as assisting innovation
and best practice.
"Such
improvements are needed as the incidents
of damage to perishable cargoes, post-harvest,
remain stubbornly high, averaging 30 per
cent globally," he said.
Mr
Eskesen also stressed the necessity to cope
with the unexpected, ever ready to snatch
victory from the jaws of defeat.
Maersk,
he said, was versatile and proactive. "While
we have a vast toolbox at our disposal to
improve our services and cut our costs,
sometimes it comes down to how quickly and
how effectively you respond to events that
you do not expect to happen," he said.
"Take
the Russian sanctions on Europe and their
ban on Norwegian salmon, we have positioned
more reefers into Chile so Russian buyers
can continue in business," Mr Eskesen
said.
There
was much talk at the conference about the
plight of reefer bulk ships in the face
of refrigrated boxes that have containerised
65 per cent of the ocean trade, and the
surprising comeback of those once doomed
ships as multi-purpose combi-container carriers.
There
was also much talk the reefer deal of the
century going south after
banana producer Chiquita's proposed merger
with Dublin-based Fyffes failed to materialise.
The ChiquitaFyffes deal would have had created
the seventh-biggest reefer fleet with 18
vessels and 297,000 cubic metres of capacity,
excluding containerships. This would have
accounted for five per cent of the overall
market.
There
was also much discussion was about what's
right and what's wrong about where Europe
sources its fruit and veg - South America
and Africa.
Michel
Looten, from the Dutch consultancy, Maritime
Seabury Group, expressed amazement at the
contradictory evidence from South America.
"What I find interesting is that South
American exports to North America have increased
10 per cent in the first half of 2014, while
South America-Europe trade is stagnating,"
he said.
Deon
Joubert, of the Citrus Growers Association
South Africa, was excited about the prospects
of his own country and the African continent
in general.
He
conceded that in recent weeks the Ebola
crisis and the Russian embargo on the US,
the EU and Australia, has had a great impact
on trade and for many of the world's emerging
economies.
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