We continue sharing our know-hows with you. We will look at a very interesting case we had. We will tell you about a rather complicated case of tea delivery from Japan to Russia during one of the toughest periods of the year – Christmas Holidays.
Allows us to start from the beginning, let’s talk about the product before it appears on the market.

 

 

 

Global manufacturers, local importers and trade houses fight for their consumers. This struggle brings new products on the market and on the shelves of your grocery stores in time for the right season.

But before that, there is an interesting process of product launching:

• Long before the shipment is sent from the warehouse, the retail launch date is set.

• Advertising, marketing and logistics budgets are calculated and approved.

• An advertising campaign is rolled out with atl and btl elements.

We understand the role that is devoted to us in this process, perfect time for a brainstorm. Only by calculating the most precise route, getting the best terms of carriage, meeting all deadlines and executing all document we can solve all of the problems, making the client happy and supplying the public with the tastiest tea.

 

 

Let us take a closer look at what we have:

 

Goal: deliver bottled seasoned tea from Japan to Russia before New Years (2012) in limited time.

• Client – global manufacturer of non-alcoholic beverages;

• Time constraint – November – January;

• Volume of the shipment – 17,248 bottles;

• Place of origin – Shizouka, Japan;

• Place of delivery – Moscow, Russia;

• Terms of contract of sale – EX Works (INCOTERMS)

 

Required services:

• Consolidation;

• Preparation of export documentation;

• Acquisition of radiology certificates;

• Pre-shipping survey;

• Preparation of the cargo for sea passage (palletizing, packaging, installation of air bags in the container);

• Sea freight;

• Transit documentation;

• Delivery from the port to the warehouse;

• Cargo readiness – November 11, 2011

• Delivery date – not later than January 11, 2012

It is important to note that Shizuoka is located at a certain distance from port of loading Simizu, which in tern is not a direct port. Afterwards, containers shipped to Europe were loaded in Shimizu.

 

Route:
The container is delivered to Shizuoka by truck, then it is placed on an ocean ship and has the following rotation: Tokyo -> Hong Kong -> Singapore -> Jeddah -> Suez Canal -> Rotterdam -> Hamburg. In Hamburg it is stored at the port for 3-5 days awaiting a feeder vessel that takes it to St. Petersburg. Afterwards, when it is cleared by customs it is delivered to the final destination – Moscow.

 

 

Important details:
The tea is delivered to St. Petersburg in the dead of winter. Luckily this year the winter was mild and we were able offer our client to minimize the costs by using thermoliner instead of temperature-controlled containers.

 

Brox advice:

 

The client preferred to use reefer containers with a set temperature.
Only four lines service the port of Shimizu, and only two had the necessary amount reefer containers available for the first shipment. We have signed a contract with the terminal for warehouse services. The client delivered all of the cargo to the terminal for storage, due to lack of storage capacity at his own facility.
The total transit time, from the time of delivery to the terminal, was 50 days (including all warehouse operations and waiting time for connecting vessels.)

 

 

In accordance with the shipping line the following sailing schedule was offered:
• Departure: 11/15 -> ETA (Estimated time of arrival) St. Petersburg 12/31

• Departure: 11/22 -> ETA St. Petersburg 01/06

• Departure: 11/29 -> ETA St. Petersburg 01/12

We have worked very hard to maintain this schedule, which, truth be told, was not an easy task.
The holiday seasons brings a lot of unpredictability with it, such as lack of available containers, space on the ships, delays in transit ports, reduced working hours of customs authorities and terminals in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The first sailing was missed due to lack of available reefer containers at Shimizu and space on the vessel. Even if we were able to successfully barge the containers to Shimizu, we still wouldn’t have enough time to prepare all the documents and pass the inspections. Cargo readiness was on the same date as the cut off for delivery to the terminal, therefore subsequent sailings were selected.

The client has decided to form a minimal stock prior to the holidays and it was decided to ship a couple of thousands of bottles by air to Sheremetevo aiport for customs clearance with further delivery to Moscow.

Due to the tight deadlines and vessel schedules the client proposed to split the first lot of six containers to two equal shipments. One of them was sent using new routing via Hamburg. This lead to containers being transshipped on Boxing Day in Europe.

 

 

Despite the holiday season and skipping through the details relating to free storage and container usage time, we organized delivery of the cargo from the port to the terminal for further stuffing into reefer trucks. Additional survey was arranged at the client’s request at the terminal to examine the cargo as well as the lashing inside of the trucks.

The trucks spent New Year’s Eve at a guarded parking lot in Belorussia and left the lot on January 3rd to arrive to Moscow on the 5th. Customs clearance was efficient and the cargo was at the receivers warehouse by the evening of the 5th. During the next five days we delivered the cargo to various locations within Russia.

The other three containers were delivered to St. Petersburg on the 2nd and customs clearance as well as port forwarding was finalized by the 5th. The first part of the lot was delivered to the warehouse in Moscow on the 6th of January.

The second shipment of containers left Japan a week later, on November 29, 2011. It arrived to St. Petersburg on January 12, 2012 and customs clearance as well as port forwarding only took two days, including delivery to Moscow.

 

 

Therefore, the entire shipment was at the warehouse by January 15th and we were able to achieve the impossible – deliver all the cargo on time, during the most unpredictable season of the year. This shipment further strengthened our relationships with our partners and contractors that are as reliable as we are.
In the next know-how we will tell you about the secrets of alcohol making!As professionals, we know our client’s business inside out!

Coming soon