fashionLogistics Sea-air via Incheon
THE KOREAN sea-air option being used by UK forwarder Allport to move fashion goods out of China into the UK starts with an ocean freight movement out of any one of several major Chinese container ports, including Yantian, Shanghai or Hong Kong, into Seoul. There, the 20ft and 40ft ocean containers are transferred by road to the company’s
own Allport Korea operation at Seoul Incheon International airport, where the fashion products are unloaded and repacked in air freight ULDs for onward movement by air to the UK. “That option offers a cost-saving of up to 30 percent on a direct air freight
movement from China to the UK and a transit time of 8-9 days compared with a pure ocean freight transit of typically at least 25 days,” claims Allport’s Clyde Buntrock.
of their traffic flows. One result of that requirement,
confirm several logistics service providers, has been a resurgence of interest in sea-air options for shipping fashion goods out of China and other Asia Pacific region countries to both Europe and North America. “Increasing air freight rates are a
concern for customers and they are looking at other options to minimise their transport costs. Therefore, multimodal transport methods such as sea-air and air-sea are becoming interesting solutions,” reports DB Schenker’s De Silva. A similar view is outlined by Clyde
Buntrock, business solutions director for UK independent international forwarder Allport, a major player in the Asia Pacific - UK fashion logistics market. “Everyone is trying not to ship their products using premium air and over the last couple of years there has been a huge shift from direct air to sea-air,” he claims. Logwin’s Sonntag provided further
confirmation of the growing fashion industry interest in sea-air transport. “We are observing an increasing trend towards using our sea-air routes (from Asia) to Europe,” he stated. Likewise, Seko Synergy’s Emerson comments: “Sea-air has been a good option for us over the last year or so as the economics have moved customers away from the knee-jerk ‘it’s late, let’s air freight’ mindset to something more creative.”
COST-EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE DB Schenker’s solution to growing demand from the fashion sector and other industries for multimodal
34 AIR LOGISTICSCHINA
transport options out of Asia Pacific to Europe and North America is its DB SCHENKERskybridge product which offers various sea-air routeings, including Asia to Europe/Latin America via the US west coast and Asia to Europe via Dubai or Vancouver. “It is also a cost-effective alternative for shipments from Europe to the South Pacific region,” claims the global logistics service provider. From a fashion industry
perspective, De Silva comments: “The DB SCHENKERskybridge product, with a major hub in Dubai, serves quite a lot of fashion customers. With an average two-week transit time from major Asian origins to Europe and US markets, the sea-air transport option is gaining momentum.” UK-based forwarder
Allport generally uses a different sea-air route for
UK-destined fashion goods manufactured in China
involving transhipment in South Korea (see Panel above). “The Korean sea-air option is not new - in fact it has been around for quite a while. But having a market that wants to exploit it is new,” notes Allport’s Buntrock. He adds: “I think the pressures of the recession, cost
considerations and just the dominance of sourcing from China mean that this option is being looked at much more seriously by the fashion industry and taken up more.”
Buntrock: “over the last couple of years there has been a huge shift from direct air to sea-air”
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