There are increased opportunities for trade growth in Asia on the back of new carrier alliances, new rail concessions and the “investment and diligence” shown by Asian governments in upgrading their logistical infrastructure, according to Nicholas von Flemming, key accounts, sales and servicing consultant for CFR Freight. Airfreight general manager Stephen Bishop said that CFR had seen good growth in many Asian areas. “China and Hong Kong continue to be our main areas of growth for our airfreight products in the region and we have regular mid-week and weekend consols that run throughout the year to support this,” he said, The company’s seafreight growth is largely due to new direct services into South African port pairs, CFR’s seafreight GM, Lee Viljoen, told FTW. “Due to an increase in freight rates, break-evens have changed making less than container loads (LCL) the favourable option.” Von Flemming added that clients had seen the “double-edged sword” of the benefits of lowest freight rate and its erratic offerings versus a consistently priced guaranteed weekly sailing. He explained that the essence of LCL was to replicate the full container load (FCL) opportunities offered directly by the forwarder for smaller-sized cargo. “The nature of the supply chain is that there will be a need for smaller consignments to move at some stage and, if the LCL operator is not fully geared to this, the risk to forwarder/ shipper relations can be very high.” He said that Asia was a “huge area full of challenges for importers” but that experienced LCL operators were used to offering services into these diverse markets. “As a globally neutral network, the Worldwide Alliance is best geared to handle all forms of challenges that may be new to the South African exporter. LCL is an excellent way of a forwarder devolving this risk with an opportunity to retain service integrity at some margin,” said Von Flemming. Bishop added: “Airfreight pricing can be dynamic in the region and by leveraging our blocked space contracts with our carriers, our pricing is a lot more stable on our consolidation products which helps our clients provide their own stability to their client base.”
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Due to an increase in freight rates, breakevens have changed making less than container loads the favourable option. – Lee Viljoen
