BBC Globalisation Project Runs Aground In Japan

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]BBC: What happened to the Box in Japan?
The BBC Box project, launched in September to tell the story of international trade and globalisation by tracking a standard shipping container around the world, has faced delays on the latest leg of its journey in Japan. Ian Aitchison from the shipping line NYK, which is working with the BBC to manage the logistics of the project, explains why.

As a member of the Box project team and as someone very keen to see the Box move onwards from Yokohama, please let me explain some of the background to the issues we have been facing since the Box arrived in Japan in April...Despite our efforts, circumstances have conspired against us and meant the Box's stay in Japan has been rather longer than planned! The first problem to befall the Box was a legal one. The process to clear the Box through Japanese customs was not as straightforward as planned, when customs staff took a keener interest than anticipated and requested additional duties be paid as a result of the satellite transceiver equipment (a tracking device) inside the Box...more...

Spotted on News on Japan.

[Coligny]

So that's where bored to death people go to work... the BBC... do they hire ?

[Coligny]

On a side note, after reading more from newsonjapan, are they some kind of religious nutjob organisation ? or it's just when they link to video from breibart ?

[Choeki]

Something is wrong here. That is a 40ft container they're using, which should be fairly easy to fill coming out of Japan. The major steamship lines (K-Line, NYK Lines, APL, Maersk, Hapag Lloyd, etc.) usually don't book LCL loads - consolidation companies/freight forwarders are the ones that book the containers for that and load them themselves; then release them to the steamship lines. Either that or companies use the same freight forwarders to book containers for them and then load them themselves from their manufacturing facilities or warehouse docks. Even if it was a customs issue when it arrived, the container isn't so important since usually de-vanning into a bonded warehouse is fairly easy if the commodity inside is not HazMat or perishible (obviously the container isn't a reefer/refrigerated unit). More than likely someone just dropped the ball when it arrived in Japan and forgot about it or the consignee decided they didn't want the cargo (or couldn't pay for it - possibly they went bankrupt or their credit was cut off?) so it languished inside the container until they could figure out how to either dispose of it or return it to the shipper using another container so they wouldn't have to send it back to Brazil. Either that or it could be something as simple as the pallets that the cargo was loaded on inside the container were not treated or had bark on them (a major no-no these days for international shipping).

On an associated note, "fully utilizing the space inside the container" is a crock of shiat - "blocking and bracing" is alive and well (using wood struts or other jury-rigged structural elements to keep cargo in place) to ship cargo in containers. There are many shipments that are simply "not stack-able" due to the fragility of the commodity or the packaging itself so sometimes a full half of the container may be empty (usually the upper half, but not always).

Finally one more thing - the satellite transceiver is being imported, but not being kept in the country. If the BBC has a broker worth his or her salt it would be on a worldwide ATA Carnet tour and would be duty free.

[Ketou]

Duty on transiting goods is a bit rich.
The outbound leg was mentioned as being automotive. Being a container would usually mean parts or used cars. Cars would definitely be a problem if the batteries take up too much space. Also if its not a 40' HC.
Having to turn muck around and find a forwarder doing LCL may have taken them some time.

[Choeki]

The outbound leg was mentioned as being automotive. Being a container would usually mean parts or used cars. Cars would definitely be a problem if the batteries take up too much space. Also if its not a 40' HC.
Having to turn muck around and find a forwarder doing LCL may have taken them some time.

Not so sure about that - if it was car parts it would most likely be some kind of electronic component if it was coming out of Japan (pallets of 35 cartons with three ECUs in each and similar commodities). I can't imagine the batteries taking up more than 1 or 2 CBM unless they decided to go with some kind of battery with liquid medium (which then would have caused it to be classified as HazMat), so they're probably dry cells of some kind. Shipping cars in a 40ft STD container seems a bit daft for a automotive manufacturer to do since they have entire vessels set up specifically to ship them in the hold. I suppose a caveat would be if it was some kind of prototype or rare model they want to take overseas, along with spares. If it was a small company or individuals trying to export automobiles, then they would probably have used a freight forwarder (which brings us back to the LCL issue). Although it's not uncommon for smaller companies or individuals to book FCL shipments through freight forwarders in order to save money since the standard tariff from most steamship lines are sometimes more than ten times what they charge freight forwarders (volume by discount). Plus, they can make use of the freight forwarder's credit status since shipments are almost always considered "pre-paid" to the steamship lines when freight forwarders book shipments with them (basically acting as principal does in a surety bond situation).

Anyway, if anything it probably would have been a faster process to simply drop the container at any number of freight forwarder's CFS warehouses simply by having that particular container jump the equipment waiting list on availability for consolidated shipments. I'm not so sure what the rules are in Japan regarding equipment availability and reservation, but simply putting it the next in line for a confirmed booking to whichever destination they needed it to go to should have been fairly quick and easy... Come to think of it though, lots of shippers are trying to cheap out by booking 20ft containers exclusively (exacerbating a worldwide equipment shortage) so it may have just been that no one simply wanted to use a 40ft due to the extra cost. After all, most ocean freight isn't considered "hot," so many shippers may be willing to wait for another 20ft container to be available rather than use a readily available (and more expensive) 40ft...

[Ketou]

Cars shipped by container are used vehicles. New of course go by Ro/Ro.
Thailand imports about 1500 used units a month and containers are often utilized. 4 normal sized cars in 40'HC is no problem.

[MeinJapanLongTime]

Wonder if they had frequency approval. Somehow I doubt it.