The Friday Five: LogTech is coming in hot with a major golf sponsorship

As Slync.io makes #logtech history as the new title sponsor of Dubai Desert Classic, Halloween looks extra spooky and labor strikes threaten to wreck havoc on the supply chain. Let's get to it.

LogTech couldn't be hotter as Slync.io announces title sponsorship of Dubai Desert Classic [European Tour]

There is no greater sign that illustrates how prominent logistics and logistics technology are right now than this week’s announcement that Dallas-based technology provider Slync.io is the new title sponsor for the Dubai Desert Classic starting in 2022.  

Not only has the purse side of the event doubled to $8 million from the previous year, but the European Tour staple is also now part of the prestigious Rolex Series which means the traditional “Desert Swing” will include two back-to-back events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.  

“We are excited to partner with the European Tour and Rolex on the Dubai Desert Classic,” explained Chris Kirchner, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Slync.io. “Dubai is one of the great cities and a key player in global logistics. This event will be a great place for us to kick off our year with our customers and enjoy some world-class golf.”

It's a ghoulish season if you are in the Halloween business as supply chain woes continue [FreightWaves]

Seasonal retailers are in for a fright as Halloween is fresh on the heels of back-to-school shopping — which had its own supply chain challenges. Supply shortages caused by congestion and the port closures due to the delta variant of COVID-19 are narrowing an already small window of in-store retail opportunity.  

Congestion and heavy anchorage wait times have shifted some marine traffic to Savannah from Long Beach. So Savannah is now seeing an increase in anchorage wait times as well as their volume has increased.

“In Savannah, we saw by week 28, there was an increase of anchorage wait times from null to 1.1 days,” said Capt. Adil Ashiq, MarineTraffic’s executive for the North American West Coast. “In week 29, there were 4.4 days, in week 30 we saw 3.5 days and now null” added Ashiq. “There are approximately 11 vessels headed towards Savannah in the next two weeks, so we may see an increase — but with the turnaround times at dock being roughly 1.1 days, it is unlikely to increase dramatically.” 

Fast growing visibility market still experiencing fragmentation despite consolidation from large players [JOC]

Despite multiple consolidations and large rounds of funding among the Gartner Magic Quadrant leaders, the global visibility market continues to expand with new providers jumping into the fray. Investors are open to exploring different approaches and continue to pump new venture funding into the market as seen by the recent funding of Overhaul, Roambee and Vizion.

Eric Johnson, senior technology editor at JOC, discusses what is motivating buyers and how the industry itself can be categorized based on need. “To get a clearer picture, shippers must categorize visibility providers along two sets of spectrums: first, whether the provider is a data generator, consumer, or both; and second, whether the provider relies on hardware-generated data, carrier-conveyed data, or both.”  
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Labor strikes at Korea’s global shipping giant place additional burden on supply chain [Financial Times]  

Sailors and dockworkers voted in favor of a labor strike posing a credible operations threat to Seoul-based HMM. A meeting is planned for Wednesday in hopes to reach an agreement between parties. Analysts have said a strike would lead to further disruption in global tech and auto supply chains and more bottlenecks at ports.  

A spokesman for HMM said workers were “demanding the company normalize their pay while the company wants to gradually increase the pay level” while also admitting that wages had not increased in the past eight years. HMM did offer an eight percent increase and a bonus worth six months of salary, but the union refused the offer.  

The impact of a strike would have a profound financial impact. HMM estimates “a three-week strike would result in about $580m of operating losses for the company and other shippers with which it has formed alliances.”

Carriers doubling down on ship orders [SupplyChainDive]

Booming bottom lines and a continued lack of capacity have led to carriers doubling their orders for new container ships. Peter Sand, a BIMCO analyst, said that out of the 619 container ships that are now on order for future delivery, 381 have been ordered in 2021. He further went out to say that “never has 3.44m TEU been ordered in such a short time span.”

Although the new vessels will help the strained capacity eventually, it will do little to help the current bottlenecks shippers and logistics service providers are struggling with currently.  

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If you missed it, check out last week’s logistics news recap which game plan'd peak season for retailers and wholesalers. And be sure to stay tuned every Friday for a roundup of the week's biggest logistics headlines in our weekly blog, The Friday Five.

If you want to learn more about how Logistics Orchestration® by Slync.io can help you navigate the complexities of global logistics, just schedule a consultation!