{"id":271985,"date":"2020-04-22T16:42:23","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T19:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=271985"},"modified":"2020-04-23T09:37:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T12:37:56","slug":"logistics-sector-adapted-swiftly-to-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/logistics-sector-adapted-swiftly-to-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Logistics sector adapted swiftly to the pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo – World logistics have faced new challenges due to coronavirus, but it has quickly adapted to the new reality to maintain the supply, especially of foodstuffs, individual protection equipment and pharmaceutical products, to the countries. The sector has also used more digital mechanisms to operate. This is the view of Brazilian and foreign experts that talked on Wednesday (22) during an international webinar hosted by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Rezende of CNT: ports were not as impacted by the crisis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about the transport of goods, the good news is that the adaptation was quick. Many countries were already working on adapting its ports and systems, including rail and road transport. They adapted quickly, and this is the main challenge and the priority now,\u201d AASTMT College of International Transport and Logistics dean Sara Hassan Kamal Elgazzar (pictured above), said from Egypt.<\/p>\n

In the seminar, the debates focused on the cargo transport for foreign trade. The passenger transport was totally affected by the coronavirus pandemic due to the closing of borders and the restriction of people\u2019s movements across countries to keep the spread of the virus at bay, which was mentioned by the lecturers in the webinar.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransport is the first sector to feel the impact, but it doesn\u2019t stop; indeed, it\u2019s now seen as a key activity to fight the crisis, especially the transport of foodstuffs, hygiene products, medications, and hospital products,\u201d National Confederation of Transport (CNT) Transport Development coordinator Fernanda Rezende said.<\/p>\n

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Hannun opened and moderated the webinar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Rezende, a survey by CNT shows that road freight transport in Brazil slid by 43% in March due to sectors such as malls, factories, appliances and auto, but the port activity, tied to the foreign trade, hasn\u2019t felt the crisis yet. \u201cWe are halfway through exporting the crop from Brazil,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

She says that port companies have preserved the demand and saw an increase due to agribusiness but forecast a decline over the next 60 days. Among the changes in ports caused by the pandemic, Rezende mentioned a small crisis over containers, which were retained in some ports around the world and ended up limiting exports, access control in ports, by taking temperature and measures to protect the workers, and the ban on vessel crews.<\/p>\n

According to the lecturers, though, the crisis will leave a legacy, which is the speedup of the use of digital tools in trade and logistics. Elgazzar pointed out that the world was already going through huge macroeconomic chances even before coronavirus, such as the fourth industrial revolution and its applications, such as blockchan and e-commerce. \u201cCoronavirus has speed it up and put pressure on it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rezende said that remote and more intelligent mechanisms were already being developed, but their use was sped up. She mentioned the digitization of customs procedures, the creation of new digital platforms and the use of blockchain in the supply chain, especially in navigation. \u201cThe crisis has boosted the use of digital platforms in trade relations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Nicolas Buhmann discussed digitization<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maersk Line TradeLens manager Nicolas Buhmann talked on the webinar about the huge impacts that the pandemic has caused on sea transport, but he pointed out the opportunities too, especially regarding the digitization of procedures. TradeLens is a digital platform to share documents among a supply chain, such as transport, ports, and customs authorities. He said that the platform is currently being implemented in Jordan customs.<\/p>\n

Buhmann said that amid the coronavirus pandemic, many shipping containers reach the ports, but cannot be transported into the countries due to lack of documentation. \u201cGovernments are really working hard and putting great energy into digitizing some of their processes,\u201d the executive said. According to him, the pandemic made countries work harder on this. He also said he\u2019s in talks with the Arab Chamber to digitize documentation for Brazilian-Arab trade. \u201cAll of this means we\u2019ll be stronger when this crisis ends,\u201d he said regarding digitization.<\/p>\n

Joining the webinar from the UAE, Emirates SkyCargo Product and Business Development vice president Dennis Lister discussed operational adaptations during the crisis. The company is using its airliners to transport crucial cargo for fighting the pandemic, such as protection equipment, pharmaceuticals and food. \u201cEmirates is extremely busy,\u201d said Lister.<\/p>\n

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Lister discussed Emirates’ experience<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the executive, the cargo is being flown to 60 destinations around the globe, with each flight carrying 50 to 60 tons. He said Emirates flew 1.5 million coronavirus test kits from China to Brazil. The company is also repatriating people, including Brazilians this week<\/p>\n

The webinar also featured Eduardo Lima, the licensing and clearance coordinator for cooperative Aurora, Eduardo Lima, who asked questions about marine transportation. Aurora is one of the major Brazilian animal protein producers. Ademir Bazzotti, the director of Morocco\u2019s OCP Fertilizers in Brazil, discussed the company\u2019s pandemic experience. OCP supplies fertilizers and phosphate for animal feed manufacturing to Brazil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the responsibility to keep operating, so that the food supply chain will keep going,\u201d said Bazzotti. Brazil is not self-sufficient in fertilizers, and it imports much of the product that goes into its farming. The director explains that OCP is 100% operational amid the pandemic, with staff working from home wherever possible \u2013 that includes operations in Brazil.<\/p>\n

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Mansour helped steer the webinar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The webinar was kicked off and hosted by Arab Chamber president Rubens Hannun, with input from the Chamber\u2019s secretary-general Tamer Mansour. Hannun explained that the topic for the seminar was chosen because logistics is crucial to keeping the world supplied. Brazil is a major supplier of food items to Arab countries, whose climate does not permit enough local production to meet demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cProducing countries, including Brazil, which is a major producer, have a social duty to make sure there is enough food for its partners, especially during a crisis. These partner countries must be absolutely certain that the food will get to them in these trying times,\u201d said Hannun. The Arab Chamber hosted its first webinar on April 8, on food supplies. The online event featured Brazil\u2019s Agriculture minister Tereza Cristina and Union of Arab Chambers secretary-general Khaled Hanafy.<\/p>\n

Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

T\u00e2mara Machado\/CCAB<\/div>\n
Isaura Daniel\/ANBA<\/div>\n
Isaura Daniel\/ANBA<\/div>\n
Isaura Daniel\/ANBA<\/div>\n
Isaura Daniel\/ANBA<\/div>\n
Isaura Daniel\/ANBA<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Industries such as transport and ports had to rise to the occasion so trade would keep flowing amid the pandemic. The crisis ultimately fast-tracked digital solutions within the industry, according to experts from Brazil and elsewhere who were featured in an Arab Chamber webinar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1455,"featured_media":271960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,114],"tags":[10132,28305,14623,14535,14803,15789],"class_list":{"0":"post-271985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"category-news","9":"tag-food-en","10":"tag-logistica-en-2","11":"tag-logistics-en","12":"tag-pandemic","13":"tag-webinar","14":"tag-webinar-2-en"},"wps_subtitle":"Industries such as transport and ports had to rise to the occasion so trade would keep flowing amid the pandemic. The crisis ultimately fast-tracked digital solutions within the industry, according to experts from Brazil and elsewhere who were featured in an Arab Chamber webinar. ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}