In late 2016, USA Freight Forwarders were approached to offer its forwarding services for an ‘out of the ordinary’ project from Guayaquil, Ecuador. This project was complicated in that the equipment (a large, plastic machine) had to be dismantled, packed in 6 x 40’ open top containers, shipped to Johannesburg, South Africa and reassembled. The equipment in Guayaquil was to be replaced by other machinery imported from Italy which would be shipped in 13 x 40’ open tops. Dealing with ‘open tops’ are a particular challenge, irrespective of origin.
After many enquiries to locate a reputable Agent, we teamed up with Blu Logistics in Ecuador. The red-tape involved and the subsequent approval required by the Ecuadorian Embassy that our company was legitimate, was a time consuming process. However, by February 2017 we were ready to proceed with the shipment. Fortunately, our customer stayed with us, albeit, becoming frustrated by the long process.
The importer established the Letter of Credit and one of the clauses was, “6 x40’ open tops, no partial shipments allowed” … The reason for this was simply that the machine in Johannesburg had to be assembled in the same sequence that the machine had been dismantled at origin. A delayed unit would have huge implications and down time for the riggers at site would have been costly.
Open top containers were not readily available and an intensive search commenced by our agent in Ecuador. Fortunately, these were finally located and secured. (The L/C had to be amended for later sailing while we tried to locate the open tops).
The dismantling of the machine commenced in June. All units were passed for inspection at port, barring two, which were customs-stopped. Finally the containers left on 20 June 2017 for the 7-week journey to South Africa.
Despite the challenges of this extra-ordinary project, our communication (at times very difficult because of the language barrier and time zone), common shipping knowledge and enthusiasm between ourselves and Blu Logistics was extremely rewarding.
The plastic plant in Johannesburg is fully operational and we wouldn’t hesitate to undertake a similar project again.
Visit to Carotrans International, USA
On a recent trip to the USA, I visited our USA principals, Carotrans International (Seafreight) and Navigational Logistics (airfreight). I met with Matt Spartz, Head of Operations in New Jersey, as well as the Atlanta office. Chris Wilson (previously a regular visitor to SA) has been appointed the new President of Carotrans Intl, based in Los Angeles.
Key developments are that the nearest Carotrans office to the exporter will handle all LCL and FCL bookings. This makes sense in that the exporter is in close proximity to the office, as well as working in the same time zone.
Growth in most of Carotrans markets has increased by 10% year-on-year both on the Full and Part-Load product, attributed mainly to the favorable dollar.
The major carriers have seen an increase in volume, but a reduction in freight rates. This remains a mystery, despite the regularity of mergers and slot chartering and I can only attribute this to all parties wanting to operate independently. Rates to SA have remained stable which I am sure is due to the majority of cargo being shipped on the direct service to SA due to time sensitivity.
Carotrans Intl offer weekly LCL services from Charleston and New Jersey into Durban. Johannesburg cargo is unpacked in Durban and road-hauled to Johannesburg on the same day. A weekly LCL service is offered from New Jersey to Cape Town.
Our FCL service remains weekly.
One of the interesting projects USA Freight Forwarders has been involved with recently is a cross trade movement of golf carts and parts from Charleston – Port Louis for the launch of two golf courses being launched in Mauritius.
In the last two months we have shipped in excess of 200 carts. The cargo has been transshipped in Valencia and the feeder vessel on-carries the cargo to Port Louis via Oman. This takes an average of 6 weeks.
Article written by Alistair Heald : 3 October 2017