December Connected
15th December, 2022
Thank you
To our wonderful customers, thank you for allowing us to manage your important shipments throughout 2022. You have worked with our team through the myriad of logistics challenges and made changes to your own practices where necessary. You have all embraced our advice on extending lead times, engaging with your suppliers earlier and sharing order details with the SCC team earlier. Even though we are seeing an improvement in the lead times, we do recommend maintaining these practices. Wishing you all a fantastic festive season and every success to your businesses in 2023.
Ocean Freight and Chinese New Year
Rates remain relatively stable, however there are a few increases as we head towards the end of the year. There has been an increase in blank sailings from the shipping lines and this has resulted in rates up on some trade lanes. With volume expected to keep trending down we do expect blank sailings to continue and will monitor what effect this will have on rates into the New Year. The real test on schedules and rates will be post Chinese New Year, for reference CNY dates are 21st – 27th January, 2023. However, many truck drivers and other key providers in the supply chain stop working days prior. With CNY coming on quickly after our Christmas and New Year break it is important that you plan now for any shipments you want on the water prior to CNY. We recommend that you start dialogue today with your suppliers and please ensure to engage our SCC team on any pending orders that need to be moved in advance of CNY.
Storage Demand/2023 Planning
Globally there has been a steep increase in the demand for storage space, during the shipping and production delays over the last few years, many businesses have been left with minimal or no stock. Companies that heavily relied on just in time (JIT) management practices have now reverted to a just in case (JIC) supply chain model. Although there is currently some improvement in lead times and rates the bruises from not having enough stock during peak COVID challenges are still very fresh. We do expect to see the JIC practices to continue through 2023. If you are uncertain on how to plan your stock levels for 2023 or manage the consistent movement of your goods from overseas, the SSC team has experienced staff that are available to meet and assist with your shipment planning for 2023, you can reach us on sales@sccargo.com.au.
Digitisation
There is a lot of noise in all industries around digitisation practices, over the last few years there has been an excessive amount of it in freight forwarding. Like all good business here at SCC we are always looking at ways to work more efficiently both internally and externally. We have an in-house digital team comprised of one of our Director’s and key staff members. They have had a particularly busy period at the back end of this year as we are making a few changes to our internal processes. The Digital changes that SCC is undertaking provides our staff with increased visibility of your orders, managing them in real time, accurately and faster. Our new practices are data driven and provide the tools for our staff to provide operational excellence to all our customers.
Externally all our customers have access to shipment and purchase order tracking. Visibility is managed by key milestones, with time being a precious commodity for all of us it is not about receiving lots of data or laboriously watching a vessel on a 56-day transit from South America, this is however available. Visibility at SCC is all about managing shipments at agreed key milestones. This is what our customers are seeking, key milestones if not met are alerted to the customer and our operator, allowing time for planning to be adjusted should the delay be of a length that warrants it. For your important shipments managing them by agreed key milestones provides you with certainty on the movement of your shipment and removes the distraction of watching a vessel as it makes its way across our vast oceans. There is a copious number of milestones that can be tracked, we work with our customers to identify what are the key ones in their supply chains and set the system to manage by them accordingly. Examples of key milestones include and are not limited to order placed, order ready date, order collected, vessel/flight booked, departed, arrived, availability, delivered. If you want to find out more about how we manage your orders by milestone and save you time, please contact us at sales@sccargo.com.au
New Website
Breaking news, our new website is currently under construction, we look forward to sharing it with you in 2023.
SCC 3PL
Our 3PL warehouse is primarily focused on online retailers with the core focus of our services being to give back time to retailers so that they can focus on their sales, marketing, and product development. We are pleased to welcome two new customers into our facility with the first being implemented next week and the second in mid-January. Well done to our 3PL team on managing both opportunities simultaneously.
One of the new customers is closing their current self-managed warehouse and the second has busted out of their garage and needs a solution to allow them to continue growing. Although both are coming to SCC from different arrangements the reasonings have been the same, time to work on my business and not in it, time for my family and time for myself. We are very excited to be playing a part in the continued growth of both these companies and to be a major reason for giving them the time that they are seeking.
Fund Raising Month
We are very pleased to report that during November we had a very successful month of fund raising. Funds are now being disbursed to both wonderful causes. Links to both charities are below, you are most welcome to support each directly.
Ozharvest https://www.ozharvest.org/
Dayamani Foundation https://lnkd.in/gbKnxGkB
Thank you again for supporting us and we look forward to working with you all again 2023.
