World Trade - October 2008 - (Page 7)

® INSIDE WORLD TRADE Group Publisher Tom Esposito Publisher Sarah Harding Editorial Director Neil Shister shistern@bnpmedia.com Managing Editor Lara L. Sowinski Art Director Michael T. Powell Contributing Writers Mark Bernstein, Richard Barovick, Gail Dutton, Winn Hardin, Joshua Kurlantzick, Andrea MacDonald, Clay Risen, Jeremy Smith, April Terreri, Amy Zuckerman WORLD TRADE MAGAZINE EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Grant Belanger Ford Motor Company Director South America Operations Steve Palagyi Director, Paciﬁc Region PRTM Consulting Erik Autor Vice President and International Counsel National Retail Federation Susan G. Esserman Chair, International Department Steptoe & Johnson Beth Enslow Global Supply Chain Resiliency Marsh, Inc. Kurt Cavano, Chairman and CEO, TradeCard Frank Vogl, Vogl Communications, Washington D.C. Thomas E. Crocker Co-Chair International Trade and Regulatory Group, Alston & Bird LLP Tune Up Your Supply Chain he news coming from U.S. ports is not particularly uplifting. True, ‘glass half full’ types can take solace in the growth in exports. The nation’s two busiest container ports (LA and Long Beach) have seen a year-on-year gain of more than 23 NEIL SHISTER percent, which suggests that—in addition to the scrap paper and scrap metal which typically lead the way—U.S. shippers are out-bounding more plastics, chemicals and Caterpillar tractors (to say nothing of agricultural products). The number of empty containers shipped back to Asia from west coast ports is down more than 20 percent. As one cynic observes, makes you think that the principal American export during the ‘consumer boom’ of cheap credit and easy debt was the air in all those unﬁlled containers! Imports, on the other hand, are on pace to record their second straight year of declines in overall international trade. This hasn’t happened in at least 30 years. In the most recent period, for the six months from January through July, only two of the 10 busiest ports did more business than the previous year: Vancouver (servicing Canada) and Savannah (the ﬁrst major stop coming north from the Panama Canal). Imports off-loaded at the major west coast ports (remember the congestion problem a few years ago?) were down 13 percent. Part of this reﬂects the collapse in new home construction. The biggest declines at Long Beach were such things as stone, plaster and cement (down over 15 percent). Ditto wood and furniture and bedding. But, the in-bound pipeline of consumer goods is also trickling down. As these trends—more exports, less imports—consolidate into more permanent business conditions, supply chains must adjust. Which will be easier said than done, an enterprise supply chain (like the proverbial battle ship) being T SALES Publisher /Midwest Sales National Sales Director-East Sarah Harding 216.991.4861 hardings@worldtrademag.com Randi Giambruno 516.377.3906 giambrunor@worldtrademag.com Ed Lohmann 925.648.2562 lohmanne@worldtrademag.com Vito Laudati 630.694.4018 Fax: 248.283.6618 laudativ@bnpmedia.com Hong Kong Ofﬁce Publicitas Wendy Lin Tel: 852.2527.3525, Fax: 852.2528.3260 Steve Beyer Tel: 847.516.1977, Cell: 630.699.7625 beyers@bnpmedia.com National Sales Director-West Inside Sales Manager/Print Asia Director Custom Media OPERATIONS STAFF Production Manager Marketing Coordinator Web Seminar Project Manager Reprint Manager & Trade Show Coordinator Group Audience Development Manager Multimedia Manager Corp. Audience Audit Manager Research Editor Postal List Rental E-mail List Rental Single Copy & Back Issue Sales John Talan, 248.244.8253 Danielle Kimble Bryan Cairns, 248.786.1613 Sunny Coverly 610.436.4220 ext. 8522 coverlys@bnpmedia.com Christopher Sheehy Katie Jabour Catherine Ronan Amy Mills Robert Liska, 800.223.2194 robert.liska@edithroman.com Shawn Kingston, 800.409.4443 shawn.kingston@epostdirect.com Ann Kalb, 248.244.6499 kalba@bnpmedia.com WORLD TRADE HEADQUARTERS 600 Willowbrook Lane Ste. 610 West Chester, Pa. 19382 www.worldtrademag.com CORPORATE something that doesn’t turn on a dime. If past actions suggest future ones, there’s likely to be considerable resistance to the sweeping changes required to deploy an agile supply chain. Some of the blame is organizational silos, some because of ingrained habits and practices, some from company politics and turf ﬁghts. To better focus on the nature of the problems facing the supply chain—the challenges to production, logistics and distribution posed by a shift in the global economic paradigm—we have assembled a special report in this issue. A full spectrum of solution providers—3PLs, technology, transportation—have been surveyed by our best reporters to learn how they’re able to help customers manage supply chains in tough times. In some respects, the sector has never been more ready to take on new challenges. The consolidation of providers has expanded their capacity to offer broad, more comprehensive solutions. Information technology, whose unfilled past promises have left users understandably skeptical, is zeroing in on platforms capable of providing visibility spanning an entire global supply chain (logistics and compliance included). The next generation of distribution centers will address the hitherto contradictory business priorities of reducing inventory while accelerating speed to ﬁnal market. True, current measures of port traffic reveal a U.S. economy moving from one paradigm to another. But, supply chain expertise and resources are available as never before with potential to moderate much of the pain and smooth out the transition to the next stage of the global economy. CORPORATE DIRECTORS Publishing Timothy A. Fausch Publishing David M. Lurie Publishing John R. Schrei Audience Development Christine A. Baloga Information Technology David P. Brown Finance Lisa L. Paulus Human Resources Rita M. Foumia Conferences & Events Scott A. Wolters Production Vincent M. Miconi Directories Nikki Smith Creative Michael T. Powell Marketing Douglas B. Siwek Clear Seas Research John E. Thomas BNP Media Helps People Succeed in Business with Superior Information BNP Media Corporate Telephone: 248. 244.6400 Neil Shister, Editorial Director shistern@worldtrademag.com For subscription information or service, please contact Customer Service at: Tel: 847.763.9534 or Fax: 847.763.9538 or e-mail WTR@halldata.com PRINTED IN THE USA WWW.WORLDTRADEMAG.COM 7 http://www.worldtrademag.com http://WWW.WORLDTRADEMAG.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Trade - October 2008

World Trade - October 2008 Contents Tune Up Your Supply Chain Globalization: The Real Competitive Threat Supply Chain Watch Tradewinds Shippers and Providers Collaborate to Take on a Challenging Economy Tweaking the Supply Chain to Optimize Value and Minimize Cost Supply Chain Software Morphs Into Enterprise Management Can Warehousing Really, Truly Be Strategic? Everybody is Global Between the Devil and the Deep The Hidden Costs of ‘Free’ Translation Blowing Smoke

World Trade - October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.