Just recently we received the following request from one of our clients: „Can you check and advise if any of our tracked boxes are on this vessel?“ What happened? On February 14, the 8’160 TEU Svendborg Maersk was battered by winds reaching 60 knots and waves reaching 10 meters resulting the collapse of container stacks on the vessel. 520 containers went overboard and several others got damaged. (see also www.seatrade-global.com ) By the way: One of the containers washed off the vessel is a huge shipping container with as many as 11 million cigarettes inside (- but police are warning any wreckers 'looking for free fags' to stay well away). The 520 lost containers could result for many companies in the abrupt break in their supply chain. The companies of the other thousands of containers are most likely affected by delays or product quality claims, as the vessel has to stop for re-stowage of collapsed container stacks and take ou...
In a world faced with the prospect of tightening supplies, higher energy costs heightened geopolitical risk, and strained transportation networks, advanced supply chain technologies will become mission-critical for many more companies. The supply chain task is not an enterprise problem; it is an end-to-end network problem involving multiple enterprises. Therefore, the solution does not lie in fixing one link in the chain but in devising a community.