A powerful shipping lobby group has called for consolidation in the ocean shipping industry as Maersk Line releases a manifesto to change the way the business is run.
GT Nexus Shipper Council, which contains members from multinationals including Kraft and Cargill, is putting itself behind Maersk and calling for technology and business processes convergence across the shipping industry.
“Reliability is not good enough, the industry is too complicated for customers and transparency of its environmental performance and record needs to be greatly improved,” says Elvind Kolding, Maersk chief executive officer.
Dennis Melger, strategic sourcing manager for logistics at Celanese Corporation, adds: “We believe there is an opportunity to engage the liner industry as a group and make broad substantial change that benefits everyone. We are thrilled to see Maersk Line take the lead.”
Ideas that have been put on the table by the shipping council include improving forecasting and allocation management by using a secure company-neutral platform; using electronic bills of lading instead of paper to speed up the documentation stage and better use of technology to improve business processes between shipper and carrier.
Reader Comments