Coca-Cola turns to bulkers to ship production materials
The carbonated drink maker The Coca-Cola Company has taken some extraordinary measures to keep its production line running. The company shipped a total of 60,000 tons of materials on three bulk vessels, equivalent to 2800 TEU’s that traditionally would have shipped with the shipping lines.
IN a brief post on social media, procurement director – global logistics at The Coca-Cola Cross Enterprise Procurement Group, Alan Smith said the company had to think outside of the box to make sure its production lines have sufficient material to keep running. The company decided to use bulk carriers due to the inability to secure neither containers nor space on container vessels due to the current ocean freight crisis.
He further noted that it takes nearly the same amount of truckloads to move the equivalent of 2800 TEUs. Asked whether the company could face delays at ports of discharge due to the current congestion issues, Smith added, that for the loaded materials, the company is heading to less-congested ports. He added that the demurage & detention charges are currently at a high level noting that coordination is vital on both the planning and operations side for loading and discharge. Smith added these are the first of many shipments planned for the coming months.
Jumping on the trend
Coca-Cola is the next in line of companies to take unorthodox action to ship its materials. The likes of Walmart, Home Depot and Ikea have already chartered vessel to make sure their operations are running smoothly. Some shipping companies have even gone to the extent of repurposing bulk carriers to carry containers onboard.
According to Kent-Ove Jacobsen, business development manager at G2 Ocean, the shipping market is currently upside down and containers are also shipped on bulk carriers as well as heavy lift vessels with 700 tons lifting capacity. However, he noted that loading containers on these vessels is sub-optimisation of the vessel’s capacity.
However, according to Smith’s post on social media the materials have been loaded in sacks onboard the 35,000 DWT Weco Lucilia C, 34,400 DWT Aphrodite M and the 35,100 DWT Zhe Hai 505.
