One thing Kerry Logistics was keen to stress in interviews with Asia Cargo News was that its recently launched in-house Sea-Air and Road-Air service for Far East Asia to get goods to Europe is a response to the pandemic and the accompanying equipment/capacity problems and not about warehouses.
“Warehouse availability was not a major issue in driving different modes of transport, it was mainly due to long delays on ocean freight, due to equipment availability, schedule unreliability, and longer transit times,” Emma Rowlands, UK sales director at Kerry Logistics in Manchester, said.
The only viable routing to move volume cargo was to transit from China by ocean via Dubai into the EU. “The frequency of flights and capacity through Dubai is still sufficient to enable daily flights into the EU. This is supported by our fast transit clearance through our own facilities in Dubai,” explained Rowlands.
Kerry also developed a Sea-Air solution into the US West Coast from Southeast Asia, moving cargo by air into Shanghai and then via the express ocean service into Long Beach.
“The Road-Air solution is a deferred airfreight service, designed to ensure the most cost-effective option moving cargo by road from any origin in China to our Beijing hub,” she said. “We have a full trucking network across China to collect on bonded express trucks and move cargo into Beijing, where there is good flight capacity into the European Union and the United States. The rates from Beijing are also more competitive than other regional airports, as Beijing is not a traditional fashion or electronic sourcing region, so the rates do not peak as much as Shanghai or Guangzhou.
MICHAEL MACKEY
