Letter from the Editor

EDITOR’S LETTER

Trade is, fundamentally, a simple business. Someone has something somewhere in the world and, if they can sell it for a higher price somewhere else and can cover the shipping costs, that’s what they will do. It’s a concept that’s been around for a long time.

A successful long-term trade flow depends, therefore, on stability in the cost of shipping, as well as in the price at the point of origin and the price that the buyer is prepared to pay at the other end.

For some years now, global trade infrastructure has allowed the mature markets in North America and Europe to buy goods and materials from China and elsewhere in Asia, where they can be manufactured or produced at prices that cannot be matched in the buying countries. That same infrastructure has also been used to supply China and other Asian nations with the raw materials and more up-market goods that they need or, given their increasing wealth, desire.

More recently, that established pattern of trade has been threatened. Already destabilised by the US-China trade war, further disruption arrived with the Covid-19 pandemic. Originating in China, it first affected the volume of exports and imports from and to that country but, as the virus spread around the world, it took its impact with it, causing lockdowns and a collapse in demand for all manner of goods (and a surge in demand for others). As a moving target, supply chains had to react nimbly to try to keep goods moving from wherever they could be sourced to wherever the demand (and price) was greatest.

But working restrictions during the Covid lockdown caused chaos at ports on the west coast of the US, leading to massive delays for vessels arriving from Asia with goods for US consumers and having a dramatic knock-on effect on the domestic haulage business. More recently, Covid restrictions at the massive container port at Yantian, China in May and June caused immense backlogs of export goods, many destined for the US market.

Such interruptions in the containerised supply chain have been compounded by actions by the liner operators to reduce spare capacity, initially to reflect falling demand, and by the six-day blockage of the Suez Canal caused by the grounding of the containership Ever Given, with thousands of containers ending up in the wrong place or in the right place at the wrong time. Empty containers are also in short supply, or in the wrong place.

One significant result of all this disruption has been a surge in ocean freight costs. At the end of May, Drewry Shipping Consultants calculated that the rate for a 40-foot container from Shanghai to Rotterdam was 485 per cent higher, at more than $10,000, than a year earlier.

If the cost of shipping a container rises suddenly by $8,000, then the economics of the trade may well begin to look shaky. Many small-scale enterprises in Europe, buying goods from China, now find that their profit margin has evaporated. But for chemical exporters in Europe and North America the situation is the same: can they still turn a profit on exports to Asia? They may have to return to shipping in parcel tankers to get a margin, as high container rates look likely to be here for a while yet.

CONTENTS

VOLUME 42 • NUMBER 07

UP FRONT Letter from the Editor 01

30 Years Ago Learning by Training 04 06

The driving seat Raising the awareness of compliance 08

TANKS & LOGISTICS Hold the fort Fort Vale invests 10

Be prepared Matlack looks at pre-loading 12

Right place, right time Hydera builds South Carolina depot 14 Laundry and more Quala adds to sites and services 16 Close the loop OPW advises on couplers 18 Modal shift CSX acquires Quality Carriers 20 News bulletin – tanks and logistics 21

TSA INSIGHT Supplement featuring the latest quarterly issue of the Tank Storage Association’s magazine INDUSTRIAL PACKAGING Green inside Schütz expands recyclate use Good to go Greif starts the year well 64

66

Back and forth Schoeller Allibert aids circularity 67 News bulletin – industrial wpackaging 68

COURSES & CONFERENCES Close up GPCA calls for collaborative effort 70 Conference diary 71 Get together ChemUK is coming soon 72

SAFETY Incident Log Shine a light Headlamps must be ex-proof Where in the world Chemtrec aids compliance 74

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78

Foot on the ladder HSE highlights loading arm risks 79 REGULATIONS The rules to follow US gets back into line at COSTHA 80 Communication breakdown Problems with OSHA proposals 84 To the point Joint Meeting sets to work 88

BACK PAGE Not otherwise specified 96

NEXT MONTH Consolidation in chemical tankers Latest from storage terminals Dealing with supply chain disruption

Editor–in–Chief Peter Mackay, dgsa Email: peter.mackay@hcblive.com Tel: +44 (0) 7769 685 085 Campaigns Director Craig Vye Email: craig.vye@hcblive.com Tel: +44 (0) 208 371 4014

Commercial Director Marc Freed Email: marc.freed@hcblive.com Tel: +44 (0) 208 371 5136 Production Manager Alessandra Rossi Email: a.rossi@hcblive.com Tel: +44 (0) 208 371 4032 Managing Editor Stephen Mitchell Email: stephen.mitchell@hcblive.com Tel: +44 (0) 208 371 4045

Designer Richard Seymour

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HCB Monthly is published by Cargo Media Ltd. While the information and articles in HCB are published in good faith and every effort is made to check accuracy, readers should verify facts and statements directly with official sources before acting upon them, as the publisher can accept no responsibility in this respect.