Why Is There a Shipping Container Shortage?

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As you might have guessed, over 90% of international shipping around the world is through ocean container shipping, which utilizes over 40 million containers daily. However, container shortages have been a problem since November 2020. As a result, sky high container shipping costs have been produced. Costs have at least doubled, and sometimes have even increased as high as 10X the norm depending on your route and timing. For a 20 foot container going from China to the US, it normally costs about $1600; now it can be as high as $3600 each. For a 40 foot container, it can cost anywhere from $5,600 to $9,500, or even higher depending on the shipping line.
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The Financial Options for Growing Your Business

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Growing your business takes careful planning. If you’re like many small and medium-sized businesses, allocating financial resources to cover set expenses, investments and finance growth strategies is where creativity and resourcefulness are needed.

It’s likely you have a list of growth initiatives that you believe will carry you to the next level. Top growth-focused projects for businesses at this stage include:

  • Expanding product lines
  • Increasing marketing efforts
  • Onboarding a fulfillment partners to support growing demand
  • Hiring additional personnel to meet changing business needs.

Identifying the right resources to fuel your expansion can ensure you get and stay on a growth trajectory. But how do you do this? Continue reading “The Financial Options for Growing Your Business” →

Suez Canal

Interesting Logistics Facts from the Suez Canal Logjam

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Strong wind blows recently caused an Evergreen ship to get stuck in the Suez Canal, resulting in the delay of about 350 ships. It was the worst delay in the last 150 years. With the tide rising, the 24,000 container (TEU) ship was finally pulled out of the closure position. This accident is an opportunity to look at the value of the Suez Canal.

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Time Management

How to Manage NPI Timelines for Innovative Products

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Timeline management is critical for launching new generations of innovative products to the worldwide market. With pressure from global competition ever present, innovative companies are using the methodology of concurrent engineering (CCE), in which design, research, and manufacturing are all taking place at the same time. With the CCE model, traditional manufacturing process controls and standard operating procedures no longer take place in the chronological manner they were designed for. With new materials, new technologies and new processes introduced constantly, timeline management on new product introductions (NPI) is facing all uncertainties. Risks are mixed into the “chaotic” appearance of NPI. In this situation, the actual timeline management is largely dependent on the problem solving skills of the subcontractor network, or extended supply chain, which make the innovations possible.

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What to Look Out for in a Post-Pandemic Economic Surge

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There has been a lot of good news on the economic recovery horizon for 2021. With summer approaching, vaccines being deployed, and trillions of dollars infusing into the economy from the governments of other major countries, the economy is beginning to show signs of heating up again. It was reported that about a 20% increase in new money was injected into the worldwide currency system in the last year. A lot more will come in still, as the US may pass laws to add another 1.7 trillion dollars for COVID-19 support and $2.7 trillion more for infrastructure improvement in the next 10 years. Similarly, China will add more magnetic floating trains among its major city links, which will be an instrument to help inject multi-trillions into the economy again. All of these factors will lead to an economic surge.
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Preparing for a Pandemic Chinese New Year

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Chinese New Year is just around the corner, occurring on February 12, 2021. All of us at E-BI hope the Year of the Ox will bring peace and prosperity to the world. As we are still in the pandemic, here are a few things we would like you to be aware of.

MAKE PLANS FOR YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN WELL IN ADVANCE
Most factories have reached 100% of their production capacity as they face a seasonal surge of orders and backlogs. For houseware type products, current backlogs could last into May of this year.
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