Logistical Aspects in Managing Supply Chain and Production

On June 16th, the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce (CICC) together with our Mechanical Engineering Working Group (MEWG) and Logistics Working Group (LWG), held its fifth webtalk of the series called "Sharing Is Caring: Issues for the MEWG in China”.

The webinar, with more than 30 participants online, has collected testimonials by the Italian company Santoni and experts in the logistics sector to understand the logistical aspects in managing supply chain, production and customers in the current emergency phase and to receive updates about the current logistics situation, news and perspectives.

"During the lockdown in Shanghai, Santoni Shanghai started to steadily recover the operations on April 19th. The biggest challenge was the interruption of logistics and supply chain during this period. Materials couldn’t be delivered to Shanghai directly and logistics cost had a significant increase. For the materials, Santoni set up a transfer station in Jiaxing (a subsidiary), near Shanghai. All goods were sent to the transfer station first and then shipped to the Shanghai plant through the milk run process. After a series of comprehensive solutions,  Santoni’s business got a better recovery. In summary, integrated supply chain, agile logistics and flexible transportation are our key approaches to overcome the interruption."

—Andy Duan,
Operations Manager of Santoni (Shanghai) Knitting Machinery Co., Ltd.

"Considering the issues related to inland transportation faced during the lockdown, my suggestion to shippers and importers when preparing a budget, is to reserve at least 25% more regarding logistics expenses as no matter truck expense/ airfreight charge / seafreight charge have been increased a lot. Besides, they should leave more time in advance for delivery as delays will happen all the time.  In the next few months in terms of sailing reliability, we can still foresee port congestion and delays. Starting from last year congestion continuously happen at every maintained seaport."

—Kelly Cai,
Senior Manager/ Import Department, Ventana Serra International Freight Forwarder

We thank all the panelists for their views and the moderator Antonio Tagliati, MEWG Vice Coordinator and Sales and Marketing Manager at ISB Industries.

WEBTALK #6

Don’t miss the next and last appointment of the MEWG Webtalk series “Sharing is caring” focused on Human Resources, which will take place on June 23rd, at 11:00 am (Beijing time).

Find out more here.