International Shipments Research Articles

The Role of Container Security Initiative (CSI) in Improving Supply Chain Security in Indonesia

The Container Security Initiative (CSI) is a pivotal program in enhancing global supply chain security, particularly in Indonesia. Introduced as a response to terrorist threats post-September 11, 2001, CSI aims to secure international container shipments through pre-screening at ports of origin. This article analyzes CSI implementation in Indonesia, its impact on supply chain security, and its role in bolstering maritime security. CSI has proven effective in mitigating smuggling risks and improving logistical efficiency. The program also fosters international cooperation in addressing transnational threats. Despite challenges such as increased operational costs, CSI contributes significantly to Indonesia's national security and economic stability. Effective CSI implementation has the potential to strengthen Indonesia's position in global trade and enhance resilience against maritime security threats.

Exploring temporal dependencies among country-level logistics performance indicators

PurposeThe Logistics Performance Index (LPI), published by the World Bank, is a key measure of national-level logistics performance. It comprises six indicators: customs, infrastructure, international shipments, service quality, timeliness, and tracking and tracing. The objective of this study is to explore temporal dependencies among the six LPI indicators while operationalizing the World Bank’s LPI framework in terms of mapping the input indicators (customs, infrastructure, and service quality) to the outcome indicators (international shipments representing cost, timeliness, and tracking and tracing representing reliability).Design/methodology/approachA Bayesian Belief Network (BBN)-based methodology was adopted to effectively map temporal dependencies among variables in a probabilistic network setting. Using forward and backward propagation features of BBN inferencing, critical variables were also identified. A BBN model was developed using the World Bank’s LPI datasets for 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2023, covering the six LPI indicators for 118 countries.FindingsThe prediction accuracy of the model is 88.1%. Strong dependencies are found across the six LPI indicators over time. The forward propagation analysis of the model reveals that “logistics competence and quality” is the most critical input indicator that can influence all three outcome indicators over time. The backward propagation analysis indicates that “customs” is the most critical indicator for improving the performance on the “international shipments” indicator, whereas “logistics competence and quality” can significantly improve the performance on the “timeliness” and “tracking and tracing” indicators. The sensitivity analysis of the model reveals that “logistics competence and quality” and “infrastructure” are the key indicators that can influence the results across the three outcome indicators. These findings provide useful insights to researchers regarding the importance of exploring the temporal modeling of dependencies among the LPI indicators. Moreover, policymakers can use these findings to help their countries target specific input indicators to improve country-level logistics performance.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on logistics management by exploring the temporal dependencies among the six LPI indicators for 118 countries over the last 14 years. Moreover, this paper proposes and operationalizes a data-driven BBN modeling approach in this unique context.

Enhancing supply chain resilience: A machine learning approach for predicting product availability dates under disruption

The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing political and regional conflicts have a highly detrimental impact on the global supply chain and cause significant delays in logistics operations and international shipments. One of the most pressing concerns is the uncertainty surrounding the availability dates of products, which is critical information for companies to generate effective logistics and shipment plans. Therefore, accurately predicting availability dates plays a pivotal role in executing successful logistics operations, ultimately minimizing total transportation and inventory costs. We investigate the prediction of product availability dates for General Electric (GE) Gas Power’s inbound shipments for gas and steam turbine service and manufacturing operations, utilizing both numerical and categorical features. We evaluate several regression models, including Simple Regression, Lasso Regression, Ridge Regression, Elastic Net, Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM), and Neural Network models. Based on real-world data, our experiments demonstrate that the tree-based algorithms (i.e., RF and GBM) provide the best generalization error and outperforms all other regression models tested. We anticipate that our prediction models will assist companies in managing supply chain disruptions and reducing supply chain risks on a broader scale.

PECULIARITIES OF THE CUSTOMS AND LEGAL RELATIONS SUBJECTS INVOLVED IN THE MOVEMENT OF GOODS IN INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ITEMS AND EXPRESS MAIL

The article is devoted to identifying the specific features of the subjects of customs and legal relations, involved in the movement of goods across the customs border of Ukraine in international postal items and express mail. The customs relations subjects involved in the movement of international parcels across the border can be divided into two main groups: subjects who formulate customs policy in the field of cross-border parcel traffic and subjects who actually implement it through law enforcement activities. In addition, the author notes of the peculiarity of customs and legal relations in the field of international parcel traffic, which is presence of specific participants: postal operators and express carriers, performing their tasks only within mentioned relations. The subjects, implementing customs policy in the area of cross-border movement of goods in international postal items and express mail, form the largest group of participants - public authorities that determine the procedure for declaration, customs control and clearance of relevant goods and also ensure its implementation. The concept of subjects of customs relations involved in the movement (shipping) of goods across the customs border of Ukraine in international postal items and express mail are defined for the first time: they are all persons authorised to perform customs formalities of such goods in accordance with customs legislation and other by-laws acts. The author notes that legislative definition of the concepts of «subject of customs legal relations» and «subject involved in the movement (shipping) of goods across the customs border of Ukraine in international postal items and express mail» would ensure their regulatory certainty and consolidate the specifics of the legal status of these concepts, which will play a positive role in improving the legal regulation of the relevant customs relations and eliminate difficulties in law enforcement activity. The relevance of the practice of facilitating electronic declaration, digitalisation, automation of customs formalities and informatization of exchange between customs authorities and other parties concerning the movement of goods in international postal and express mail is determined, taking into account the continuous development of e-commerce and increasing role of international shipments of cross-border trade in the world.

International Transportation Mode Selection through Total Logistics Cost-Based Intelligent Approach

Background: International transportation has grown substantially, causing total logistics costs (TLCs) to rise. Companies are increasingly striving for their reduction. The most crucial factor affecting TLCs is the transportation mode, and its appropriate selection has become vital for firms. Maritime transport is the most preferred mode for international shipments, while air transport is also increasingly preferred due to the rise in underweight and high-frequency shipments, the expectation of reduced delivery times, and inventory costs. However, a thorough comparative analysis is necessary for the selection. Methods: This paper proposes an intelligent approach based on TLCs. Non-linear optimization is adopted for regular replenishment, while maching-learning classifiers are employed to establish a decision boundary for the chargeable weight of shipments. Conclusions: The study assists in decision making and also establishes a country-wide threshold, highlighting the importance of a country-based logistics strategy. The paper successfully establishes the trends and relations between logistics parameters, which assists the logistics decision making. Research identifies the gaps in the existing literature and bridges them by addressing the required concerns.

A Study on Freight Forwarders’s Function with Reference to Maxxpress Logistics Pvt Ltd.,

Freight forwarders typically arrange cargo movement to an international destination. Also referred to as international freight forwarders, they have the expertise that allows them to prepare and process the documentation and perform related activities pertaining to international shipments. Some of the typical information reviewed by a freight forwarder is the commercial invoice, shipper's export declaration, bill of lading and other documents required by the carrier or country of export, import, or transhipment. Much of this information is now processed in a paperless environment. A freight forwarder organizes the safe, efficient movement of goods on behalf of an exporter, importer or another company or person, sometimes including dealing with packing and storage. Taking into account the type of goods and the customers' delivery requirements, freight forwarders arrange the best means of transport, using the services of shipping lines, airlines or road and rail freight operators. In some cases, the freight forwarding company itself provides the service. Companies vary in size and type, from those operating on a national and international basis to smaller, more specialized firms, who deal with particular types of goods or operate within particular geographical areas.

Competitiveness based logistics performance index: An empirical analysis in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries

Logistics, beyond being a strategically important function for global supply chains, is a sector of considerable size in terms of the global economy. Thus, economy-wide logistics capabilities have a strategic impact at the national level, supporting countries to achieve a global competitive advantage. For this reason, the logistics performances of the countries not only show the success of using their existing logistics capabilities but also provide significant indications about their competitiveness at the global level. Due to this strategic impact, this study aims to deal with the logistics performances of OECD countries from the perspective of competitiveness and to determine the competitiveness-based logistics performance index (CB-LPI). For this purpose, data envelopment analysis has been applied with two different techniques. The input variables are the Global Competitiveness Index, and the output variables are the Logistic Performance Index. In this empirical study, 7 inputs (infrastructure, skills, product market, financial system, information and communication technology adoption, business dynamism, innovation capability) and 6 output variables (Customs, Infrastructure, International shipments, Logistics quality and competence, Tracking and tracing, Timeliness) have been used. This study is handled in a total of 5 periods. These periods are 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. As a result, it was determined that the competitive logistics performances of 8 countries (Australia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey) were at the level of full efficiency in each period in the application of both techniques. In addition, the CB-LPI covering all OECD countries has been established. Based on the scores obtained, country-based suggestions for countries have been developed.

공급망 리스크가 국가 물류 성과에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구

This study analyzed changes in logistics efficiency in OECD member countries and examined how much logistics performance is affected by supply chain risks in each country. This study was analyzed using the Logistics Performance Index distributed by the World Bank. Malmquist productivity analysis was performed using “Logistics quality and competence” and “Infrastructure” as input factors and “overall LPI score” as an output factor. As a result, it was confirmed that the trend of productivity changes in OECD countries was very similar to that of the technology change index. And it was confirmed that countries in Asia, Europe, Oceania, and South America had similar trends in productivity changes, but countries in North America had similar trends in efficiency changes. In addition, we analyzed how risk factors were affected by productivity changes by performing Tobit regression analysis, As a result, international shipments factor had a negative effect and timeliness factor had a positive effect.

Strategic Multi-Echelon and Cross-Modal CO2 Emissions Calculation in Parcel Distribution Networks: First Step Toward a Common Language

Sustainability in distribution networks is currently the focus of study at institutional, academic, and commercial levels. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is on all the programmatic agendas, and the goals are clear for years toward carbon neutrality. As one of the main polluting sectors and growing trends with e-commerce, transport must align its efforts to contribute to the cause. In this paper, a strategic model is proposed for the calculation of CO2 emissions in the distribution of parcels. Novel in this research is that it integrates both line-haul transport and last-mile distribution at a strategic level and includes key elements such as time windows and population density in the calculation. Through an applied case in parcel distribution in Belgium, the calculation of CO2 emissions with the proposed model is illustrated. The model is enhanced by analyzing the time windows effect and the electrification of the last-mile fleet. The results concerning CO2 emissions in parcel distribution in Belgium show that it is possible to reduce emissions not only through the electrification of the fleet but also with an efficient distribution network. The effect of the network structure will be more evident with international shipments that include more polluting modes of transport. However, the results for Belgium show that the last mile is currently the most polluting segment. The proposed model could further be complemented by including reverse logistics, in-house calculation, and packaging emissions.

Retrogressive moulting in khapra beetle, Trogoderma granarium (Coleoptera: Dermestidae)

AbstractInsect larvae typically moult to grow, but here we investigate insect larvae that moult to shrink; that is, retrogressive moulting or retrogressive development. We demonstrate this phenomenon in khapra beetle, Trogoderma granarium Everts (Dermestidae), among the world's most invasive pests of stored grains and cereal products, and a quarantine pest of interest for many countries. Larvae survived a 3‐month period of starvation, moulting up to six times and reducing their body mass by about half, on average. When reprovisioned with food, most larvae resumed the normal trajectory of development and pupated within a month. Thus, retrogressive development is a mechanism that may favour species whose resources exhibit feast‐or‐famine dynamics. By enabling survival during periods of privation, retrogressive development contributes to the invasiveness of the khapra beetle by allowing them to persist for long periods in empty storage facilities or empty containers used for international grain shipments.

Трансформація концепцій логістичного і проєктного менеджменту в контексті цифровізації та євроінтеграції

The paper is devoted to the essence of logistics, project, logistics and project management. The comparative analysis of the logistics efficiency index was carried out in Ukraine in comparison with the countries of the European Union, which made it possible to note its low values in our country both under martial law and in the pre-war period, as well as the components of this index (customs, infrastructure, international shipments, logistics competence and equality, timeliness, tracking and tracing). The consequences of the impact of digitalization on the transformation of logistics and project management, which are manifested in the reduction of time for information exchange, saving of resources and acceleration of all processes, have been determined. It was established that in the realities of the digital economy, increased risk and uncertainty, the Agile approach, smart logistics and electronic logistics are relevant approaches. The importance of increasing the adaptability and flexibility of management activity, which allows for ensuring the sustainable functioning of economic entities in conditions of high risk and uncertainty, rapid and unpredictable changes in the surrounding environment, is noted. The directions for improving logistics and project management in conditions of digitalization in the field of personnel support and human resources development (including the development of digital culture and digital skills, increasing the competence of personnel in the field of application of modern digital tools and information and communication technologies, minimizing the digital divide), financial and investment support, organizational support, material and technical support (including software products and technologies) and information security were carried out.

Evaluation of Logistics Performance of The OECD Member Countries with Integrated Entropy and Waspas Method

ABSTRACT The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) developed by the World Bank is important in evaluating countries’ logistics activities. Moreover, the LPI creates a competitive environment among various countries. It also provides an opportunity for countries to develop their logistics performances based on their geographic positions. This study uses the World Bank’s recently published LPI data of 2018. Based on this data, the logistics performances of 38 OECD member countries are determined by integrating the ENTROPY and WASPAS methods. The result of the calculations conducted using the ENTROPY method shows that in order of importance the logistics performance criteria are infrastructure, customs, logistics quality and competence, tracking and tracing, international shipments, and timeliness, according to their significance. Therefore, the infrastructure criterion is the most important in comparing the logistics performances of the OECD member countries. As a result of the analyzes carried out by the WASPAS method using the criterion weights determined by the ENTROPY method, the logistics performance rankings of the OECD member countries are obtained. According to the ranking results, the first five countries are Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Netherland, and Austria. In addition, the analysis results obtained by the integrated ENTROPY and WASPAS method were compared with the LPI rankings of the sample taken from the World Bank report results. Key Words: logistics, logistics performance index, ENTROPY, WASPAS JEL Classification: C44, L91, R40

Nice PC Maker: An Online Interface to build Custom PCs

A custom-built PC is assembled to cater a specific user needs. Internationally, there are many e-stores available for users which offer them to build and order their systems as per their needs. In, 2020, Pakistan observed a covid-19 lockdown and mostly international shipments are cancelled due to the pandemic. This real world situation highlighted the deficiency of local market to fulfill the demands of custom-built PC users. In this paper, we propose and design a generic architecture of an e-store (Nice PC Maker (NPM)) to facilitate users with custom-build PC option along with other added features such as pre-build system purchasing and PC components purchasing. WooCommerce product builders (wordpress) are used to implement the architectural design. We also configured this generic architecture for a local client which helpes them to increase their business and facilitates users to get their desired systems.

The impact of Covid-19 on gamete shipping by Australian and New Zealand patients.

Cross-border surrogacy and egg donor arrangements are an increasingly common means to family building. Establishing patterns of use has always been difficult in relation to Australian patients. Accurate data is stymied by lack of documentation of international third-party reproductive care available to Australian authorities. When international travel bans came into effect, it is hypothesised that those planning to use cross-border reproductive care had to rely significantly more on local in vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinics for services such as sperm freezing, embryo creation and gamete release procedures. To quantify and characterise the impact of the Covid-19-related travel ban on international and interstate gamete shipping by Australian IVF clinics. Thirty-one Australian and New Zealand IVF clinics were invited to provide de-identified data on interstate and international gamete export applications from two 12month time periods pre- and during Covid-19-related international travel lockdowns. Seven IVF organisations provided data on: patient age; type of gametes exported; destination country/state; and date gamete release approved. Most gametes (78%) were shipped to another Australian IVF clinic and 22% internationally. Patient-initiated shipping domestically and internationally both showed significant increases when comparing pre- and post-Covid datasets. Of the 21 destination countries reported for international shipments, the US was the commonest (39%), followed by Ukraine (21%) and Canada (9%). The inability of involuntarily infertile patients to travel internationally, rather than halt cross-border reproductive care, has led to a significant increase in the uptake of gamete shipping. The high proportion of internationally shipped gametes going to the US and Ukraine is likely a reflection of the availability of surrogates and donors and more amenable legal frameworks.

Dynamic association between socio-economic, environmental and logistic operations: Evidence from SSA BRI host countries

This study examines the connection among green logistic operations, countries-level economic, environmental, and social indicators in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Belt and Road Countries. Using the system generalized method of moments (S-GMM) estimator, this study analyses annual data from 2008 to 2018 and offers three key findings. First, economic indicators China’s foreign direct investment (FDI), trade openness and economic output) are positively associated with green logistic operations. Second, logistics are positively correlated with renewable energy while inversely correlated with carbon emissions. Third, social indicators are also directly associated with green logistic operations measured through health expenditure and institutional quality. Lastly, information communication technology also spurs green logistic operations. Manifestly, Chinese outbound FDI in SSA substantially improved the quality of their logistics in terms of infrastructure, cost, time, customs services, tracking, and the consistency of international shipments. These findings show that green logistics provide adequate infrastructure, and supply chain partners share information more frequently, increasing trade volume, growth potential, and environmental sustainability. Similar results are also endorsed using a feasible generalized least square (FGLS) estimator and suggest that SSA should take effective measures to improve their logistics operation.

Benchmark of countries’ performance in logistics: An approach based on world bank open data

Logistics which can be considered as the science of planning, implementing and controlling the physical flow of materials and goods from point of origin to point of use to meet customer`s need at a profit has become very important in recent times that it now plays a vital role in companies’ performance as well as the economies of nations. One of the attempts to measure logistics performance at national level is the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) published by the World Bank Group. In fact this study dubbed ”Benchmark of countries’ performance in Logistics – an approach based on World Bank Open Data” argues that there is a close relationship between global competitiveness level of a country and its logistics performance level. It discusses some types of Logistics and also aims to analyze the logistics competitiveness of some countries from a national competitiveness perspective using World Bank Open Data. This work sought to compare Logistics Performance Index (LPI) of Ghana and its region as well as Hungary and its region. Finally, the work made use of international score card where six key dimensions (thus Customs, Infrastructure, International shipments, logistics competitiveness, Tracking & tracing and Timeliness) are applied to benchmark countries' performance and also display their derived overall LPI index to discuss Logistic Performance of Hungary together with that of Ghana.

Shipping augmentative biocontrol agents.

The majority of worldwide trading in live arthropods is done by specialised companies that produce and distribute beneficial insects, mites and nematodes for augmentative biological control of pests on crops. These beneficial arthropods, predators or parasitoids of crop pests and some nuisance species, which are harmless to humans, plants and other animals, are mass-reared, transported and released in the target environment as a viable alternative to chemical pesticides. As such, they play a major role in achieving a more sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Thousands of international air shipments are performed yearly by up to 30 major companies. Over the decades that this industry has been active, no significant transport problems have arisen. This is due to stringent standards that the industry has generated, including designated departments to deal with quality control and logistics, as well as guides for each species concerning packaging, storage and transport conditions. In addition, transporters always adhere to the regulatory standards of the importing and exporting countries, which is attested to by the documents included by the companies with each shipment. Two major issues arise when shipping live arthropods: first, the need to maintain stable environmental conditions within the shipping units (maintaining a cool chain) and, second, minimising transport time (preventing delays). This paper discusses the procedures implemented by the companies to assure quality, the documents required and provided currently, and the challenges to the safe transportation of beneficial organisms.

Risk assessment procedures in Argentina for the safe import, quarantine and release of biological control agents against pests.

The decision to import and release biological control agents is a national one that may involve various authorities. It will be overseen by the national plant protection organisation that implements the responsibilities described in the International Plant Protection Convention. This article provides an overview of the decision processes and roles of these authorities in Argentina. Argentina has a long history of coordination with the other Southern Cone nations on plant protection and other technical sanitary and phytosanitary matters associated with trade. This article reports on 25 years of evaluation, import and release of exotic biological control agents. Not a single import with a permit has faced rejection on the basis of phytosanitary requirements. This record highlights the region's commitment to integrated pest management approaches that rely on international shipments of live insects and other beneficial organisms.

International shipments of Wolbachia-infected mosquito eggs: towards the scaling-up of World Mosquito Program operations.

The Wolbachia insect control method, employed by the World Mosquito Program (WMP), relies on introgressing Wolbachia through target Aedes aegypti populations to reduce the incidence of dengue. Since 2010, the WMP has been producing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes at numerous sites across the globe for release in 11 countries. As the technology has matured, greater focus has been placed on mosquito production at larger central facilities for transport to remote release sites, both domestically and internationally. Of particular note is the production of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes at the WMP's Australian production facility for successful international deployments in Fiji, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Sri Lanka. This requires careful management of both production and supply-chain processes to ensure that the quality of the mosquito eggs, specifically the hatch rate and Wolbachia infection rate, is maintained. To ensure the cost-effectiveness and scalability of the Wolbachia method, these processes will be further refined to facilitate deployment from large centralised production facilities.

Developing resilient supply chains in the Southern African Development Community: Lessons from the impact of COVID-19

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on international trade and supply chains. Border closures and reduced demand for traded goods provoked demand and supply shocks in supply chains, including those of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Continued vulnerability of regional supply chains affects the long-term socio-economic development trajectory of the SADC.Objectives: This article investigates whether supply chains and their various components have exacerbated the pandemic’s trade impact, with specific reference to the SADC. The objective is to inform regional development policy interventions to improve the resilience of the SADC supply chains in future disturbances.Method: An econometric analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between supply chain efficiency (and the various sub-indicators) and the impact of the pandemic on merchandise trade volumes. The latter constitutes the dependent variable of the analysis and is quantified by measuring the deviation from the pre-shock growth path in the base year (2020) of the pandemic. Data sets from the UNCTADstat database were used. The independent variables are the sub-indicators that form part of the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), the data of which are sourced from the World Bank (2022). In addition to the chi-square test of homogeneity and the Shapiro–Wilk test of normality, regression analyses were conducted to determine the significance of the independent variables, in addition to their association and correlation with the dependent variable.Results: The analysis indicates that supply chain efficiency and components related thereto, including customs clearance, infrastructure, international shipments, logistics competence, tracking and tracing and lead time, are of high significance to and correlate with the impact of the pandemic.Conclusion: Regional development policy in the SADC should prioritise the targeted improvement of specific physical and non-physical infrastructure to support the development of efficient and resilient supply chains. Interventions should focus on improving border and customs processes and tracking and tracing capabilities of logistics service providers. This will contribute to the achievement of regional development objectives and catalyse the competitiveness of the SADC in the face of increased supply chain regionalisation.