FourKites: 50 pct shippers have zero visibility into ocean freight

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- A new study by FourKites revealed that the past few years of supply chain disruptions including COVID-19, market volatility, global political conflict, material shortages and extreme weather events have driven 73 per cent of respondents to invest in supply chain visibility, with 46 per cent planning to invest more this year.

In a statement, FourKites said other key survey findings included 50 per cent of respondents reported having zero visibility into their ocean freight, with more than 20 per cent relying on manual track-and-trace processes to track their ocean freight.

More than half of respondents were most concerned about labour challenges, high shipping costs and impacts to customer service, with 35 per cent also reporting concerns around congestion at the ports whilst 73 per cent of respondents reported having some level of visibility into their over-the-road (OTR) shipping.

The survey findings have been published in the report titled The Great Reset: Ocean Shipping in a Post-Pandemic World that includes expert analysis on the current state of ocean shipping, predictions for 2023 and ways shippers can shore up their supply chains to build resilience for the future.

VentureSoftPM founder and an industry expert, Chris Stauber said shippers and other players in the supply chain ecosystem are getting smarter about allocations by tapping into more reliable and real-time data, instead of guessing.

“They want to know, for instance, what the risk-versus-reward will be for going to an extra port or country to move their containers, or for shifting from one supplier to three for raw supplies. Additional investment is required to get better data, but the value of that data brings a huge reduction in risk,” he said.

FourKites’ has seen continued growth in its ocean visibility business over the past year with now tracking 98 per cent of global ocean container traffic across more than 270 lanes and 120 carriers, across every container port in North America and all major ports in Europe.

Over the last 12 months, FourKites has tracked more than 1.3 million ocean shipments, a 163 per cent increase in ocean volume year-over-year (yoy) and has seen 70 per cent growth in ocean customers yoy, with customers now including Cardinal Health, LyondellBasell and McCain Foods.

The survey polled over 350 supply chain professionals to shed light on the top issues facing the ocean shipping industry.

-- BERNAMA