<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Two German companies join forces to work in Japan’s developing wind energy sector as the country scales back its dependence on coal and nuclear power in the wake of the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. </div>

Two German companies join forces to work in Japan’s developing wind energy sector as the country scales back its dependence on coal and nuclear power in the wake of the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.

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<div class="phx-topic">Germany’s Coli Schiffahrt &amp; Transport has strengthened its links to Japan’s project cargo and renewable energy market by forming a strategic partnership with Hamburg-headquartered Global Renewables Shipbrokers (GRS). Together, they will target the country’s burgeoning offshore wind energy sector.That comes as a raft of potential developers such as Germany’s RWE and Japan’s Cosmo Oil are eyeing Japan’s wind energy market, which power consultancy Wood Mackenzie said will see installed capacity surge 62-fold to 4 gigawatts by 2028.Coli-GRS met with executives from German power company RWE two weeks ago in Japan, Matthias Mross, GRS managing partner, told JOC.com.RWE established a subsidiary in Tokyo last year to target the country’s wind energy market and has agreed to cooperate with Kyuden Mirai Energy, an offshoot of Kyushu Electric Power.Cosmo Eco Power, a subsidiary of Cosmo Oil, is planning to build a 1-GW offshore wind farm, comprising 125 turbines installed in water up to 200 meters deep, in Ishikari Bay in Hokkaido. Tokyo Electric Power is also eyeing wind energy projects.“There are some interesting projects in Japan that have come up since the beginning of this year,” Johannes Detjen, a senior executive at CMC Coli Maritime Consulting, said.Renewable energy is among the options being considered by Japan as it scales back its dependence on coal and nuclear power in the wake of the 2011 tsunami and ensuing Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Wood Mackenzie estimated Japan could face an energy generation shortfall of more than 10 GW by 2030 as it struggles to reconfigure its power sources.“The situation in Japan has changed quite a lot and they are switching from old energy resources like coal and nuclear,” Detjen said.Under the terms of the strategic partnership, Coli will provide breakbulk and project cargo chartering and transport expertise, while GRS will supply turnkey and project management services. This includes identifying lead contractors and subcontractors primarily for the utilities and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors that are developing Japan’s wind energy sector.GRS is a consultant and ship broker for the offshore wind and other renewable industries. The firm supports negotiation of all contracts across a project's development and during the installation and operations stages, taking on or overseeing the chartering of all vessels, crews, and other offshore services.“Our idea is, of course, to develop the market as described, together with GRS. But also get involved in transportation, our core business …,” said Herbert Loesing, Coli Schiffahrt &amp; Transport managing director.GRS' Mross said his primary focus will be “consulting on wind farm projects and organizing the specialized vessels to construct and maintain the facilities, including ships to help construct foundations and install turbines, blades, and monopiles and cabling.” This means GRS will source the required services under engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) contracts and organize the deployment of jack-up installation vessels, semi-submersibles, deck carriers, offshore supply vessels, tugs, crew transfer, and construction vessels.“We have known each other for quite some time,” Mross said of the tie-up with Coli. “We have worked with each other on renewable and transportation projects.”<h2>Japan’s cabotage rules could affect vessel sourcing</h2>Mross said one issue that could affect the sourcing of vessels is likely to be Japan’s strict cabotage rules. However, while Japanese shipping companies such as NYK Bulk and Project Carriers have MPPs and open deck module carriers, he doubts that Japan possesses sufficient capacity for the scale of projects ahead. While it is possible to reflag vessels in Japan, he said, that could create bottlenecks between sourcing ships and deploying vessels to offshore sites.Detjen said Coli is operating semi-liner project cargo services between Europe and Asia. Those services include the transportation of wind farm components, including power sets and blades, he added.Britain’s Carbon Trust, which has been working with the Japanese government on drawing up policy objectives for renewable energy, said Japan aims to generate up to 24 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.Four areas in Akita, Chiba, and Nagasaki prefectures were identified by the Japanese government in July as the first of 11 sites for offshore wind farms.Mross said Japan’s continental shelf is quite narrow, with water depths of up to 200 meters (656 feet) a mere 20 to 50 km (12.5 to 25 miles) offshore. Consequently, offshore wind farms are likely to be fixed structures close to shore and on floating platforms in deep water.Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>.</div>

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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German companies link up to tackle Japan's offshore wind market