With global shipping schedule reliability at a six-year low and just 33% of ships arriving on time, during a chaotic year for container shipping, Metro Shipping is enhancing its MVT supply chain platform, with even greater scrutiny of real-time vessel tracking. The ability of vessels to hit their port berthing window impacts shippers and other carriers …
Leading shipping line, Maersk, has decided to focus on its largest volume customers, in a move that jeopardises the future of SME forwarders and leaves many shippers potentially exposed. It is widely reported in the trade press, that small and medium-sized freight forwarders fear for their survival, following Maersk’s decision to offer them only its web-based …
The lockdowns and restrictions that China’s zero-Covid strategy risk, may create greater disruption than earlier waves of the pandemic, threatening already stretched global supply chains. Beijing’s strict zero-Covid policy has curbed local outbreaks with mass testing, snap lockdowns, vigilant surveillance and extensive quarantines, but new variants such as Omicron have seen outbreaks intensify since the …
Many companies believe that the logical response to Covid disruption is to shorten supply chains, but a new academic study suggests longer supply chains may actually provide more innovation and economic benefit. A team of academics from the University of Oxford and Harvard University found supply chains – in which producers bought input goods, converted …
Supply chain pressures remain well above their pre-pandemic levels, but studies of worldwide supply chain constraints produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggest that pressures peaked in October 2021, raising faint hopes that global trade could start to normalise this year. The gauge of worldwide supply chain constraints produced by the Federal …
The 1st January 2022 changes to UK border policies, with the imposition of customs declaration for imports from the EU, got off to the rockiest of starts when the new supporting IT system, the Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS), crashed on day one, with trucks stuck at Calais for four days. While HMRC were quick …
Ground handling of air freight cargo is a critical element in the time-sensitive mode, which has a profound impact on the speed and cost of a shipment. At the end of last year, one of the world’s biggest ground handling organisations and one of the biggest at London Heathrow issued new terminal handling and storage …
According to research carried out by consultancy Deloitte, the UK’s top firms will massively increase capital spending in the next 12 months, with over 30% of chief financial officers (CFO) at Britain’s premium listed firms scaling investment to capitalise on red hot domestic and foreign demand. Deloitte surveyed 85 finance chiefs at firms which have …
The suspension of trucking services in several parts of China’s Zhejiang province, followed a COVID outbreak just over a week ago and has slowed the movement of cargo through one of China’s biggest and most important ports, Ningbo. Strict controls were imposed on lorries moving goods to or from the Beilun district in Ningbo after …
Having conceived, created and launched the MVT Eco module in 2021 – to monitor the CO2 equivalent emissions, of each consignment we move – and committed to environmental transparency, Metro has now officially offset our emissions for 2020. Companies’ response to climate change is arguably the most pressing issue facing society, which is why the UK …