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On 25 November, CLECAT held the 2021 edition of its annual Freight Forwarders’ Forum, entitled ‘Building Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chains’. Following the opening session with keynote introductions from Magda Kopczynska, Director waterborne transport in DG MOVE and Matthias Bauer, Senior Economist at ECIPE, on lessons learned from the COVID-crisis, the event brought a lot of debates and insights on issues impacting on the freight forwarding sector.

The first session, entitled “Liner Shipping Post-Covid, A Brave New World?” was opened and moderated by Mr Peregrine Storrs-Fox, Risk Management Director at TT Club, who introduced the report ‘Brave New World – Container transport in 2043’. The report from 2018 outlined scenarios for the container shipping industry and discussed how the industry may ensure value creation over the next 25 years. Against today’s disruptions in the maritime supply chain, the panel discussed whether disruptions in the maritime supply chain have displaced the vision of the future given in brave new world. The panellists discussed the value proposition through the supply chain – and who is ‘the customer’ as the pandemic has taught all actors to consider their specific supply chain needs in more detail in order to be more resilient and build redundancy. Panel members also considered what is being seen in digitalisation across the industry, including ‘disruptors’ and opportunities for current players, and recognised that decarbonisation has become a major issue and potential differentiator in container shipping going forward.

The second session, entitled “Platforms – Taking Risks and Overcoming Fears”, focused on the role of platforms in the international supply chain. The importance of a neutral digitally connected ecosystem for data sharing, which is trusted, secure and ensures data sovereignty allowing the owner to remain in control of his data, was emphasised as crucial precondition from the freight forwarding perspective. Whilst acknowledging the challenges and risks ahead, the panellists highlighted the need to move forward, as it bears the potential to significantly increase the efficiency in the panning of transport operations. Significant dialogue and mutual agreement and clear rules on the principles of trust, security and data sovereignty would be essential to overcome the existing challenges and fears. The panellists also discussed the importance of the EU eFTI Regulation, which obliges authorities to accept transport information in a digital format, as well as the connected work of the Digital Transport and Logistics Forum (DTLF).

The third session, entitled “Closing the Gap - Moving to Zero Emissions Logistics”, discussed challenges and best practices in the industry for moving towards a carbon-neutral transport sector. The panellists discussed the results of the COP26 and assessed the wins for businesses, policy makers and the climate. An important result was increasing engagement of business, with collaboration being an enduring theme. There was also recognition that over the next decade, much of the reduction in logistics emissions will have to come from changes to business practice, as they can be implemented more quickly and often at a low or even negative carbon mitigation cost