Tender Management News

Contract freight rates paid by Beneficial Cargo Owners to move their products by container have increased for a 4th consecutive quarter, according to actual contract rate data from the Drewry Benchmarking Club. Average contract rates on two major container trade routes - from Asia to North Europe and North America – have increased by another 4% between the second and the third quarter of this year. This means that the latest Drewry Benchmarking Club Contract Index has increased by 39% in the year to the third quarter, based on $2 billion of ocean freight spending. “The container shipping market has seen a sustained, radical reversal away from the previous, long deflationary trend,” said Philip Damas, Head of Drewry’s logistics practice.

International transport and logistics executives using container shipping are facing the biggest shift in their ocean provider base for 20 years and must adapt their procurement and contract strategy, according to ocean freight procurement consultancy Drewry Supply Chain Advisors. In the last five years, beneficial cargo owners have been able to secure large reductions in freight costs by running traditional competitive bids with numerous providers in an over-supplied, fragmented market. “Today’s business environment is starkly different, so we are now pro-actively advising our BCO customers that last year’s contract strategy will simply not work as a blueprint for the forthcoming annual ocean tender,” said Philip Damas, Head of Drewry’s logistics practice.

CEVA Holdings LLC, one of the world’s leading non‐asset based supply chain management companies, today reported results for the three months ended 30 June 2014. Xavier Urbain, CEO of CEVA, said, “Our performance improvement coupled with the strong increase in our new business pipeline points to the company being on the right track for growth. Since joining CEVA in January, I have focused on strengthening the executive management team, expanding our current talent base with additional industry experience to drive forward our strategy, building revenue and improving operational efficiency for the benefit of our customers. The numbers show we are gaining traction and are positioned well to make further progress in the future.

The recent decision by Chinese antitrust authorities to block approval of the P3 Ocean Carrier Alliance has increased the demand for Ocean Contract Management. In response, Freightgate is offering free demonstration of its award winning Rate & Tender Management Tariff-Trek! Solution. The proposed mega-alliance by the world’s three biggest shipping - Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Co and CMA CGM would have created common tariff pricing to most of the world’s ocean ports. It was estimated the P3 alliance would have controlled 42 percent on the Asia-to-Europe route, 24 percent in the trans-Pacific trade, and up to 42 percent in the trans-Atlantic. Now, says Freightgate, shippers are in a better negotiating position to control their ocean freight costs.