Transport communications

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Archives for December 2012

“K” Line Supports Typhoon Victims in The Philippines

December 27, 2012

Earlier this month, typhoon No.24 hit the Mindanao Island area in the Philippines with full force causing severe damage and problems for many people.

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (“K” Line) extends deepest condolences to the victims of the typhoon and sincerely hopes for a swift recovery from the disaster that hit the Philippines, the largest supplier of seafarers not only for “K” Line but also for the maritime industry around the world.

“K” Line has decided to donate 2 million yen to Japanese Red Cross Society in support of the relief activities and recovery efforts for afflicted areas.

“K” Line continues to extend various supports through its marine transport and other services.

For further information please contact:

Ryoichi Ikeda

Manager, CSR & Compliance Division,

General Affairs Group

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd.

Tel: +81-3-3595-5092    Fax: +81-3-3595-6076

ModusLink Advances Corporate Social Responsibility with Full Membership in Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition

Joins many of its clients on a roster of leading electronics companies working to improve social and environmental issues

WALTHAM, Mass.—Dec. 19, 2012—After two years as an applicant member, ModusLink Global Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: MLNK) has become a full member of the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), which brings a wide range of companies working in the electronics industry together to collectively address issues of social, ethical and environmental concern in the supply chain. EICC’s membership includes the world’s top brands in consumer electronics, enterprise computing, semiconductors and contract manufacturing and more than 40 percent of these leading companies are ModusLink clients.

EICC members adopt a Code of Conduct and an auditing process that is designed to ensure their company operates in compliance with strict guidelines for labor and human rights, worker safety and health, safeguarding the environment, and doing business with a high degree of integrity. Members are also required to have their direct suppliers implement the Code and ModusLink is one of the first supply chain and logistics providers to join the coalition.

“We have long recognized that social and environmental responsibility is an integral part of providing world class service to our clients,” said Scott Crawley, president, global operations, ModusLink. “In fact, this is so important and so widely recognized in the high-tech industry, that it’s becoming a baseline requirement of doing business. Specifically, the EICC Code of Conduct is important to many of our clients and our membership means electronics companies can quickly and easily engage with us for reliable supply chain and logistics services that are verified to be EICC-compliant.”

In addition to ModusLink’s own CSR initiatives, the Company offers many supply chain and logistics services designed to improved clients’ sustainability efforts including:

  • Packaging redesign that can reduce material volume and carbon footprint
  • Component and materials sourcing to eliminate hazardous materials
  • Postponement that reduces transportation costs and carbon footprint
  • Responsible product return, repair and recycling programs, including parts harvesting

Additional Resources

About ModusLink Global Solutions

ModusLink Global Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: MLNK) executes comprehensive supply chain and logistics services that improve clients’ revenue, cost, sustainability and customer experience objectives. ModusLink is a trusted and integrated provider to the world’s leading companies in consumer electronics, communications, computing, medical devices, software, luxury goods and retail. The Company’s operating infrastructure annually supports more than $80 billion of its clients’ revenue and manages approximately 470 million product shipments through more than 30 sites in 15 countries across North America, Europe, and the Asia/Pacific region. For details on ModusLink’s flexible and scalable solutions visit www.moduslink.com and www.valueunchained.com, the blog for supply chain professionals.

Contacts

Media:

Teresa Osborne

ModusLink Public Relations

781-663-5153

teresa_osborne@moduslink.com

Will McClaran

Kemp Goldberg Partners

207-773-0700 x225

wmcclaran@kempgoldberg.com

Investor:

Robert Joyce

ModusLink Investor Relations

781-663-5120

ir@moduslink.com

Liner ‘Cargo Incident Notification System’ is an emerging power

19th December 2012

As a response to concerns arising from the volume of incidents and problems that regularly disrupt operations and endanger lives, property or the environment, five of the top 20 liner operators created CINS (Cargo Incident Notification System) in late 2010 in order to capture key data. The founding five have now been joined by a further five and, together, have been populating the database – hosted by the COA (Container Owners’ Association) – since launch in September 2011. Participants in CINS now accounts for 52% of container slot capacity (source Alphaliner).

CINS facilitates the capture by liner operators of structured key causal information relating to cargo and container incidents. The information capture explicitly excludes any shipper data in order to preclude an anti-trust concerns; the CINS Organisation is committed to comply with the US Sherman Act, Article 101 and 102 of EU treaty and any other similar competition law. The information gathered provides an early warning of worrying trends, whether relating to cargoes that display dangerous characteristics, but have not yet been recognised as such in the IMDG Code, or continuing or emerging unsafe practices in the unit load industry. At the heart of this initiative is a quest for quality – both in terms of pure service delivery, ensuring the cargo arrives in sound condition on time, and also improving the way in which all parties in the supply chain carry out their obligations and communicate.

The incident data captured since launch is now lending weight to – and to some extent challenging assumptions from – the anecdotal evidence from previous years. The records include the nature of the cargo concerned and its packaging, together with details of the routing, and then information on the type of incident and the root cause. The TT Club, as a key insurer for the transport industry, and advisory members of the CINS committee, undertook analysis of the data on behalf of CINS.

While the greatest potential to drive improvements in safety through the supply chain rests in the root cause analysis, a sobering finding has been that a third of the incidents arose from cargoes loaded in Europe and North America (see Chart 1), where packing controls might be considered to be more mature. In part the finding may provide an insight into the nature of trade and the length of the supply chain ‘hinterland’.

Given that the records are initiated by incidents – the presenting problem – it may be unremarkable that more than two thirds of the substances involved are dangerous goods. However, the significance of this becomes clear when looking at the type of incident that is incurred (see Chart 2), where half relate to leakage and a further fifth are mis-declared. Thankfully, only 8% of the incidents by number involve fire or explosion, but clearly the consequences then are far more serious.

In line with the aspirations of CINS to pinpoint what can be done to make the supply chain safer, the analysis of root cause is particularly important (see Chart 3). The whole transport industry is currently exercised on the subject of packing cargo, and the evidence for this is prominent in these records. Half the incidents were found to result from packing issues. This is especially telling when the database reveals that more than a third of the incidents with packing issues involve corrosive cargoes, which by their nature will react with other substances. In fact, when it comes to packing issues, 80% of the records involve dangerous goods.

A further key finding – and chilling for all liner carriers – is that it was found that 21% of the cases involved mis-declaration of the cargo, mostly dangerous goods. This is probably the first time that this ‘iceberg’ risk has been quantified. As investigators continue to sift for evidence on board ‘MSC Flaminia’, the fears of the liner industry that the nature of cargo carried is largely unknown are here shown to be reasonable. It is findings like this that display the potential for the CINS Organisation to have cogent dialogue with enforcement agencies, Competent Authorities and the IMO in order to lead to and support relevant changes in legislation or other safe practice recommendations.

The CINS Organisation is delighted that in its first operational year the statistics are demonstrating so clearly the known problems in the industry. There is now a strong case also to seek broader industry involvement, in order to increase the awareness of areas of concern and trends in containerised shipping, and continue to improve safety in the supply chain. At this key moment in the development of CINS, Reinhard Schwede of Hapag-Lloyd assumes the chairmanship, in a planned two year rotation, from Dirk Vande Velde of MSC, who continues to be actively involved in the project as one of the founding participants.

ENDS

For further details please contact:

Reinhard Schwede

Hapag-Lloyd AG

Cargo Service/ Dangerous Goods
Ballindamm 25
20095 Hamburg
Germany
Phone  +49 40 3001-3644
Fax      +49 40 3001-3830
Reinhard.Schwede@hlag.com
www.hapag-lloyd.com

Dachser welcomes ten thousandth EDI user

40 million electronic orders are processed each year.

Kempten/Berlin, 17 December 2012. The Berlin production site of Rudolf Wild GmbH & Co. KG relies on the electronic interchange of logistics data. The producer of natural ingredients and intermediate products for the food industry is the ten thousandth user to benefit from the advantages of closely meshed logistics systems and has linked its transport and warehouse systems via an interface to Dachser’s EDI centre.

In complex logistics projects with several partners and different IT systems, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the formula for deeply integrated relations between consignor and logistics provider. Companies like Rudolf Wild GmbH & Co. KG transmit their transport and warehouse data electronically to Dachser’s EDI centre, the company’s central communication platform. Here all data are converted, processed and forwarded, resulting in coordinated, transparent and for the most part paperless logistics processes.

“The automated processing saves costs and time and avoids errors,” explains Petra Bögle, head of the Business Integration department at Dachser. “The enhanced data quality benefits downstream systems, for example for invoicing or archiving.”

Dachser began integrating its customers’ IT systems via the EDI interface back in 1985. “In the past few years the switchover to the electronic format has gained considerable momentum,” Bögle adds. “In the past three years alone, the number of EDI users at Dachser has doubled. The total volume of exchanged messages has in the meantime reached 40 million a year.”

About Dachser:

In 2011, the internationally operating logistics provider, Dachser (www.dachser.com), generated total revenue of EUR 4.3 billion. 21,000 staff working in 315 profit centres worldwide handled 49.3 million consignments weighing a total of 37.1 million tonnes.

For more information about Dachser visit http://www.dachser.com.

General picture material can be downloaded at http://www.dachser.com/de/de/picture_gallery.htm.