Maritime Cargo Services Tackles Current Tyre Industry’s Complexity

Maritime Cargo Services, a Suffolk-based freight forwarder, was founded by Rob Shelley nearly twenty years ago. Through building relationships with tyre-based companies importing products into the UK, it can now count itself among the country’s leading freight forwarding specialists in the industry. Working closely with 20 major tyre importers, the company manages the customs clearance and delivery of containers to well over a hundred tyre warehouses and depots throughout the UK and Ireland. The company talked to Tyrepress.com about its recommendations for the tyre sector and issues currently affecting global tyre wholesaling.

The company’s relationship with the wholesale tyre market began many years ago when it started working closely with Terry Thomas – latterly of G Force Tyres. Using the experience as a foundation to pursue other tyre-related interests, the many recommendations that followed its success have, the company believes, contributed in no small way to making Maritime Cargo Services one of the UK’s leading and most sought after experts in this very specialist sector.

“From day one we were determined to provide one thing over everything else – an outstanding level of customer service and care. It’s this passion for the customer relationship alongside a well earned reputation for quality and value that has been fundamental in our success and has driven the way that Maritime Cargo Services does business to this day,” states Rob Shelley, the aforementioned founder of the freight forwarder. He continues that the company displays a “commitment to customer confidentiality and optimal reliability for delivering on time and on budget” – both, he believes are key factors in the demands of customers in the tyre industry. The challenge of current market conditions has meant that meeting these demands has never been more important than in today’s challenging market conditions.

On Time, On Budget

Given the state of the global economy, it is no surprise that wholesalers are looking for top-level security, reliability and dependability in their importing and wholesaling. The target of being on time and on budget – while always an important consideration – has rarely been quite so vital. However, issues affecting importing and wholesaling in the tyre market are changing on an almost daily basis (exemplified by the new move towards trade protectionism in the US, covered elsewhere in this issue). This hyper-inflation in the rate of change, believes Shelley, makes it “incredibly difficult for the industry to keep tabs” on how this continual change makes an impact on their business.”

Discussing the current global scenario faced by Maritime Cargo Services, the freight market is currently encountering a period of intense volatility with analysts estimating that the world’s leading shipping lines have lost over US$6 billion between them in the last six months alone. Reportedly, international freight prices had dropped during the course of 2009 by something in the region of 70 per cent, due in the main to the global economy, the banning of the so-called shipping cartels by European Law and the oversupply of container shipping.

However, in the last month this situation has undergone something of a transformation, as freight rates on major trade lanes have experienced record increases, rebounding upwards by more than 50 per cent. This, says Shelley, is mainly due to the shipping lines removing capacity in the Far East to Europe trade routes, thereby enabling the carriers to exploit their position when negotiating rate increases.
Coupled with an increase in trade – there are reports that the US Freight Transport Services Index (FTSI) rose in July by its largest margin since January 2008. The FTSI represents a combined measurement of the month-to-month changes in freight shipments in tonne/miles.
 
Other factors affecting the tyre industry include the fact that customs issues have been – and remain – subject to evolution, and as a result many hauliers themselves are now on the very edge of commercial viability. The inevitable result of the serious issues in the haulage sector is often a substandard service, unreliability and bad organisation as corners are cut. Shelley exemplifies the seriousness of the situation when delays occur: “When you’ve got a team standing by to receive a container, which is just an hour late then it’s costing the tyre industry significant time and money.”

Combined with the ever increasing complexity of the international wholesale tyre industry, these factors combine with the result that it has become “more important than ever for tyre wholesalers to ensure that they’re working with the right freight forwarding partner,” argues Shelley, “one who truly understands and appreciates the nuances and subtleties of the market.”
 
Global Implications of US Tyre Duty rise

The volatility of the global market is only underlined by Barack Obama’s decision to increase significantly the duty on Chinese tyre imports to the US (the figure stands at 35 per cent). Whilst this may well prompt Chinese tyre manufacturers to look at alternative markets it may well also open up the US market to imports from other regions of the world rather than automatically boost domestic US production, which is, Shelley states, forecast to continue its decline. (The international ramifications of this are explored further in the Company section of this month’s issue of Tyres & Accessories and on Tyrepress.com.) “To be honest, trying to second guess what is, at the moment, an extremely fluid market is becoming more and more of an art-form and makes it all the more important that wholesalers are working with the right freighting partner,” concludes Shelley.

Maritime Cargo Service’s Top Tips for Tyre Wholesalers

Company founder, Rob Shelley, offered seven pieces of advice to wholesalers looking for the right freighting partner to ensure hassle free importing and exporting:

“Always ensure that they can offer you:
1) An in-depth understanding/experience of the tyre sector and its particular nuances
2) A sophisticated, user friendly container tracking system designed for you the client
3) A 24/7 customer service facility
4) A thorough appreciation of HM Customs & Excise
5) Accurate accounting processes
6) An extensive and integrated preplanning service
7) Your own dedicated Client Relationship Manager who will: Process all the necessary paper work, Update the tracking system with vessel estimated arrival times, Confirm Customs status and delivery details, Arrange Customs clearance, Liaise with you regarding delivery instructions and, Closely monitor potential demurrage costs”

Related News: Import Tariffs section of Tyrepress.com