November 1 and 2 saw a select gathering of industry professionals at the Ambassador Hotel in St Petersburg Russia for the annual SeaNews Freight 2011 Conference.

On the 11th November 2011 the Russian and WTO working parties agreed terms that will pave the way for Russia’s acceptance to the World Trade Organisation. Russian lawmakers are expected to approve membership early next year following the December parliamentary elections. Russia will then formally join the group 30 days after Duma ratification.

The philosophy of Just-In-Time (JIT) is simple: inventory is waste. JIT inventory systems expose the hidden cost of keeping stocks and the JIT inventory philosophy defines how it is viewed and how it relates to management. Until now, that is...

For years now the automotive industry has been talking about collaboration. At conference after conference, seminar after seminar, whole sessions have been devoted to the discussion of this most elusive of concepts. What is collaboration? Who needs to espouse it? On what levels should it function? Are we any nearer to achieving it than we ever were?

Russian logistics change as “world class” projects begin operations

I was concerned to read the opening address made by ECG President Costantino Baldissara at the recent annual conference of the Association of European Vehicle Logistics in Paris. He referred to “a terrible summer” for the vehicle distribution sector and strongly hinted at the likelihood of a double-dip recession leading to further weakening of car markets across Europe if economic growth levels are not sustained.

Costantino Baldissara, President of ECG, the Association of European Vehicle Logistics, believes that government investment into scrapping schemes is the only foreseeable way to haul the sector out of danger.

Welcome once again to Ogle’s Eye, my weekly blog on automotive supply chain issues. I look forward to receiving your contributions and comments, either on what I’ve written or on whatever subject takes your fancy.

Virtually every shipping line in the world has now adopted slow steaming as a means of conserving fuel and lessening the impact on the environment. Car manufacturers seem reconciled to the fact that slow steaming is the order of the day.

Four major car manufacturers (Ford, General Motors, Renault-Nissan, Volkswagen) have signed up to the latest version of the Russian governments Decree 166, committing $4 billion in the process and promising to manufacture between 300,000 and 350,000 cars each per year with the localisation content set, at the moment, at a minimum of 60%.