CQR Istanbul is proud to announce that it is the main sponsor for the FIATA World Congress 2014, the biggest event in the global logistics calendar. The event is being held from 13th-18th October 2014 in Istanbul and organised by UTIKAD (Association of International Forwarding and Logistics Service Providers).
The motto of the FIATA 2014 World Congress is ‘Sustainable Growth in Logistics’ the ultimate aim of the sector it welcomes.
Therefore to match with the motto, organisers have decided on these aims for delegates.
Establish and develop new business relationships
• Meet with their target audience and potential customers
• Expand your Agency network and increase your market share
• Know the Sponsorship and firms
• Learn about the latest logistics trends & opportunities that will occur in the future
Our member in Riga joined Conqueror in February this year as the network’s exclusive member in Riga, Latvia.
Andrey Sherstobitov, Rinosta’s Liner Manager, recently spoke with us about the company and the changes and advances it has undertaken over the 20 years since it began.
independent freight agent
Q. When and how did you get into the freight forwarding industry?
A. My life in the shipping industry started 2 decades ago when I was a young graduate straight out of Riga Aviation University. My first job was in a company where I was appointed the Riga agent for the container line – Sea Land.
Q. When and why did you join Rinosta?
A. At the end of ’90’s, when Sea Land was acquired by Maersk there was a merger of staff from both agencies in Riga. I took this as an opportunity to get out of a big organization. This was when I then joined Rinosta.
Q. On the 8th August 2013, SIA “RINOSTA SHIPPING AGENCY” joined forces with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) on a project which became called “The External marketing activity of SIA “Rinosta Shipping Agency” in 2013″. Could you tell us a little more about this?
A. The objective of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) is to promote business development by facilitating more foreign investment, in parallel increasing the competitiveness of Latvian entrepreneurs in both domestic and foreign markets. In Rinosta’s case, we received EU funds through the LIAA in order to further our advertising and also our participation in international transport fairs like TransRussia which was held in Moscow last year. As a result, we have been able to take Rinosta to the next level in terms of trading internationally and attracting overseas partners.
Q. What would be the most significant shipment your company has handled? What challenges did it pose and how did your team overcome them and successfully complete the shipment?
A. In reply to such a question, people in shipping often recall an exceptional OOG, heavy or ultra-fast cargo delivery; mentioning meters, tons, hours, minutes etc. The truth is that this doesn’t impress everyone.
At Rinosta Shipping, we work with these aforementioned cargo types on a regular basis, and when tasks are defined in advance, normally, processes run smoothly and on time. Difficulties may arise with unexpected shipments even if it’s in standard containers; such as when a client requests a last minute delivery of a substantial volume of cargo to a far off land, for example.
Two months ago, we received an urgent request from one of our clients to ship fertilizers from Latvia to Beira (Mozambique) in some 166×20′ in one shipment. We had just 1 week to find and choose a carrier, reserve space and equipment and fix the booking and trucks for pre-carriage from loading place to the port. Despite the loading place being in Latvia, Klaipeda port (Lithuania) was considered as POL due to inland route optimization..
Excellent cooperation between the staff at our two offices in Riga and Klaipeda, their good communication with the carrier line and the trucking companies meant for a successful shipping process.
Q. Next year Rinosta will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary? How different is Rinosta now to 1995?
A. In short, Rinosta has changed A LOT. It is almost unrecognizable. The company has gone from focusing on dedicated single break bulk cargo flow in Riga port to a multipurpose entity which handles FCL, LCL, FTL, LTL, AF and warehousing activities within the Baltic States.
Conqueror’s exclusive agent in Paris, is pleased to announce the appointment of its new Co-Director of Sales, Mr Laurent Bourcy as of June 1st 2014
international logistics service provider
Laurent joins AirSea International with a wealth of experience in the logistics industry in both operations and Sales having spent over a decade at Kuehne and Nagel as Regional Manager and five years at Qualitair and Sea in CDG.
Members with sales leads and requests in France (air and sea freight) are invited to get in touch with Laurent as he, on behalf of AirSea International, aims to build cooperation and create strong partnerships with CQR members.
We recently sat down with the Business Development Executive, Ama Agyewaa Agyei, of CQR Tema/Accra to find out the history behind the company and the challenges facing freight forwarders in Ghana.
Q. SevenLog is a fairly new player in the industry being just 2 years old and yet is a big name in Ghana, what has been the secret to its overnight success?
A. I wouldn’t call it overnight success really. It is a success story still being written even after two years. All the members of the Seven Log family had prior experience in different fields of the industry before being carefully handpicked to make a difference in Ghana’s maritime and logistics industry. From inception, we all bought into the dream and worked tirelessly to deliver only the best in quality service for the customer (sometimes even at our expense).
Q.Can you tell us the significance of the name SevenLog?
A. Well first, we specialize in seven areas in shipping and logistics. Also, a look at the African map shows it is shaped like the figure seven. On our rendition (logo) which includes the number 7, the seven is drawn from Ghana, our location, across the map and downward. It is our dream to cover the African continent with time. We also coined the 7rs of logistics to cater to the needs of the customers- Delivering the Right product to the Right Customer at the Right time at the Right place in the Right condition in the Right quantity and at the Right cost.
Q. Does SevenLog specialise in any particular services?
A. Yes we do, we specialize in Shipping agency, Customs clearance, Warehousing, Trucking, Shore Handling, Stevedoring and Material Logistics. Thankfully we continue to prove that Jack can be a master of his many trades.
Q. What would be SevenLog’s most memorable/significant shipment?
A. That would be chartering an airplane to move some containers of army material that were wrongly discharged in Tema, to Yaounde. We had barely 24 hours to pull that off due to the sensitivity of the cargo, but we did. It wasn’t easy, but we did.
Q. What are the biggest challenges facing freight forwarding in Ghana at the moment?
A. At the moment, port congestion is the primary concern. The port requires serious expansion to cope with the increasing demand with regards to sea freight. The port authority is well advised and we believe measures are being put in place in that regard. Undeniably, there are also bottlenecks here and there with regards to customs clearance procedures and delays in cargo inspection due to the increased traffic through the scanner.
Q. How does your team manage and meet these challenges?
A. We are a gold member with Customs and the Destination Inspection Companies. This translates to reduced turnaround time for vessels we cater to, and facilitation of shipments through the otherwise lengthy process. As shipping agents, we have built good relationships with the port authorities, regulatory bodies, as well as with our competitors. In Ghana and other African countries, importance is placed on socio-cultural practices and traditional values which come in very handy when you have a job to do.
Q. What are SevenLog’s medium to long-term goals?
A. It is SevenLog’s aim to be the most reliable logistics partner locally and internationally. We hope to start our global expansion with West Africa and provide quality industry specific solutions to all our clients worldwide. At the moment, we have offices and facilities spread across all Ghana’s major trade ports. That’s a good start I guess.
CQR Tel Aviv was recently hired to transport a million-pound work of art from Portugal to Israel by one of its prestigious Israeli clients. The piece of art consisted of 1000 steel figures and stood 12m X 2.9m and weighed 4,500kg.
Logistics Industry
Due to the high value and oversized dimensions, Jacky Line got together 3 of its experienced team who were then solely responsible for arranging the lashing, securing, escorting, loading under deck from origin up to placing the statue at its final destination, a private residence.
Moving an object of this nature is no easy feat as the pictures show, but including positioning of the crane with up to150 tons support, Jacky Line is proud to say that the whole project went smoothly from beginning to end.
From across 63 countries, 117 members of the industry’s only network of audited partners, Conqueror Freight Network, gathered for its 3rd Annual Meeting in May 2014.The Intercontinental, Kuala Lumpur provided the setting for the annual Conqueror meeting, where participants were there to assist each other in driving forward their businesses in pursuit of conquering the world.
“Cooperation is one important element in our triad of tools for boosting the business volume of our members; another is our city-exclusivity, like the multinationals, and the third and most important is our annual meeting. As you can see, members are making the most of their individual meetings as well as competing for each other’s attention away from them,” explained Mr Antonio Torres, Managing Director of Conqueror Freight Network.
“I have to say that prior to last year’s meeting, I was sceptical about the benefits of attending such meetings but I can honestly say that as a direct result of meeting our fellow members in 2013, we saw a noticeable increase in shipments from fellow members and I firmly believe that the same will happen again this year,” said one member.
Conqueror Freight Network is no longer the new kid on the block. This well-established alliance of carefully selected independent freight forwarders is also celebrating a significant milestone at its annual meeting; covering 200 cities in 100 countries; its current coverage stands at 214 cities in 105 countries.
Last month, saw the launch at Yantai airport of the first step in CQR Qingdao’s latest venture as Air Incheon’s GSA & GHA in China
international logistics
Currently, they are operating 3 flights per week (Tues, Thurs, Sat) from Yantai to Incheon and Narita airports with full cargo freighters (Boeing 737) and narrow body aircrafts but they are expecting to increase to 5 flights a week very soon.
Customers include DHL Express, LG and Foxconn and the majority of the cargo is time-sensitive and electronic products which are packed in PMC pallet(main)&PAG/PAJ pallet and LD3/AKE containers(main)&AAY containers.
The team are responsible for all documentation, government approval and permission (by CAAC,ECRA),ground handling agreements, signing with the airport group, organizing necessary training and translating training materials into Chinese, aircraft movement data(MVT&FPL) receiving and dispatching, collecting and sending, aircraft inward/outward declaring etc., and of course marketing surveys and sales.
“This is real challenge for SF Systems Qingdao because this is the first time we have been involved in air market operations so deeply, in addition of course to doing local sales work as normal. This is an important step for our company’s development,” explained XiangYu, General Manager Assistant.
In addition to the normal trade routes between China, Korea and Japan, they are also operating services from Incheon to Yuzhno-Sakhalin in Russia for the oil and gas industry with a regular service but at more reasonable rates.
“We hope that our fellow CQR members who have these kinds of shipments in this area will contact SF Systems Qingdao to be their air project cargo solution provider,” said Xiang Yu.
From across 63 countries, 117 members of the industry’s only network of audited partners, Conqueror Freight Network, gathered for its 3rd Annual Meeting, 9th – 11th May. The Intercontinental, Kuala Lumpur provided the setting for the 3rd Annual Conqueror Meeting, hosting 117 agents from across 63 countries who were all their to assist each other in driving forward their businesses in pursuit of conquering the world.
best freight forwarder network
“Co-operation is one important element in our triad of tools for boosting the business volume of our members; another is our city-exclusivity, like the multinationals, and the third and most important is our annual meeting. As you can see, members are making the most of their individual meetings as well as competing for each other’s attention away from them,” explained Antonio Torres, Managing Director of Conqueror Freight Network.
I have to say that prior to last year’s meeting, I was sceptical about the benefits of attending such meetings but I can honestly say that as a direct result of meeting our fellow members in 2013, we saw a noticeable increase in shipments from fellow members and I firmly believe that the same will happen again this year,” said one member.
Conqueror Freight Network is no longer the new kid on the block. This well-established alliance of carefully selected independent freight forwarders is also celebrating a significant milestone at its annual meeting; covering 200 cities in 100 countries; its current coverage stands at 214 cities in 105 countries.
The network has a combined annual turnover of USD 2.2 billion employing over 17,000 freight professionals who handle over 1.05 million shipments each year comprising of 175.000 tons of airfreight cargo and 600.000 TEUS of seafreight cargo, making this exclusive network a top 10 player in the global market.
best freight forwarder network
“With only 1 in every 10 applications passing our selection process, reaching such a milestone is not as easy as you may think,” emphasised Torres, “We have worked hard to find only the best agents for the network and removing any company found to be only taking shipments and not offering any.”
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