Remaining competitive in the shipping industry can be incredibly difficult in times of COVID-19. As things change on a daily basis, everything is uncertain and we all have many unanswered questions. To move forward, 20+ shipping industry leaders will come together online at the Digital Container Summit on September 3 to define rebound strategies collectively and discuss business in personal meetings with other participants.
There is a lot of confusion and uncertainty; nobody really knows what to do and how things will change over time. To get a glimpse of how the world would look in the near future, well-known and widely-respected shipping experts will come together at the Digital Container Summit to discuss COVID-19 recovery strategies and collaborative solutions.
The list of experts and thought leaders include people like Thomas Bagge (CEO, DCSA), Dr. Ralf Belusa (CDO, Hapag Lloyd), Martin Dixon (Director of Research, Drewry), Ulrik Sanders (Global Leader Shipping Industry, BCG), Wolfgang Lehmacher (Ex-Director of Supply Chain & Transport, World Economic Forum), Eric Johnson (Senior Editor Technology, JOC.com) and Lars Jensen (CEO, SeaIntelligence Consulting). Each with their very own point-of-view on COVID-19, the shipping industry, and rebound strategies.
The Digital Container Summit promises be a unique opportunity for everyone involved in shipping to have their questions answered by some of the brightest minds in our industry.
One of the shipping industry leaders is Lars Jensen, CEO at SeaIntelligence Consulting. Many know him for his sharp analysis and news posts on LinkedIn, most magazines feature his results and his opinion in their articles.
“COVID has not changed anything”, said Lars in a pre-interview with the organizers, “but accelerated digital progress”. As an example he mentioned the non-existing electronic bill of lading: At the beginning of the pandemic, Indian ports had to wait for weeks to get papers signed by their Chinese colleagues who were all in lockdown. Lars Jensen thinks that COVID-19 just accelerates a trend that was already there.
As more than 50% of the people in shipping lines work from home now, Lars Jensen predicts a loss of up to 40k jobs in the shipping industry. “COVID-19 has proven that our systems work, as we’re still able to move 85% of global value although 50% work from home”, he said. However, that’s not good for employees.
“When you’re able to do most of the work from home we’re also able to automate jobs,” Lars Jensen added, “more than 40 000 jobs will disappear over the next 3-5 years because of that”.
For Wolfgang Lehmacher, the former Head of Supply Chain and Transport Industries of the World Economic Forum, the new normal has three names: virus, volatility and uncertainty.
“We have to navigate this and we cannot do this blindly!” Lehmacher said. According to Lehmacher, “we need the information to support our decision-making processes and more cloud-based software to make working from home more efficient, such as software for remote inventory management”.
To attend the keynote sessions, speak to the leading industry experts about recovery strategies, and schedule personal video meetings with other attendees from the shipping industry, Container xChange has opened its formerly client-only Digital Container Summit to the entire industry. Click here to know more.
