'Slow-Steaming' Impact Being Felt Across Supply Chains, Reports The Journal of Commerce in This Week's Cover Story

NEWARK, N.J., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Aligned in related goals of cutting shipping and fuel costs, shippers and ocean carriers are supporting a reduction of vessel speeds on certain long routes. In this week's feature story, The Journal of Commerce addresses the impact of "slow-steaming" further down the supply chain and why it's a trend that is likely to stay.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100201/NY47084 )

Manufacturers and retailers looking to cut shipping costs by slowing their supply chains are finding unlikely new supporters of the strategy: the ocean container lines carrying the overwhelming majority of goods in international trade. Financially strapped ocean carriers are cutting fuel costs by reducing vessel speeds on a growing number of long routes, and the impact of "slow-steaming" -- sailing 25-knot vessels at 20 to 22 knots -- is reverberating across supply chains. Even amid a halting recovery, the economy is literally slowing down on the water, with dozens of routes — mostly out of Asia — extended by several days. Some shippers are adjusting their inventories to meet the changing service patterns and it appears that emissions-reducing benefits are adding reasons for its use to continue.

The Journal of Commerce cover story (http://images.magnetmail.net/images/clients/cbmedia/JOC0201102.jpg) analyzes the major impact slow-steaming is having on global supply chain patterns. With most analysts predicting it is here to stay, slow-steaming is a trend to which the industry must adapt.

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SOURCE The Journal of Commerce