EP_11 沒事乖乖待在家！物流專家談談長賜號事件

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2021年3月23日，貨櫃船長賜號擱淺在蘇伊士運河的事件受到關注。蘇伊士運河和巴拿馬運河以及馬六甲海峽為世界三大重要海運樞紐，因此擱淺事件而受阻的船運估計會影響12%來往於亞洲及歐洲的國際貿易。於是本集邀請到任職於重要跨國公司的全球物流專家Thomas，和大叔們一起討論複雜的責任歸屬問題。
首先點出各相關人員/公司以及他們之間的關係：
1.) 貨櫃船長賜號，為日本公司正榮汽船株式會社所擁有
2.) 作為長賜號的擁有者，正榮汽船為「船舶經營者」
3.) 長榮海運向船舶經營者租借貨櫃船，因此是「承租方」
4.) 此承租方案稱作「濕租」，指的是船舶經營者提供船、船員、船隻維護以及保險，而承租方支付相關租賃費用，如燃料費、稅金等等。亦可稱之為「定期租船」。
考慮到此型態的租約模式，大部分責任會落到船舶經營者身上，那麼承租方須對貨船的延遲負任何責任嗎？對此，大叔們很驚訝現在國際上並不會因為運送延遲而獲得賠償，如果真的申請，賠償金額也無法覆蓋大部分的損失。因此在這些案例中保險公司給予的賠償金就很重要。
我們可以從長賜號事件向外思考，針對運送貨物有沒有更多其他的可能。在亞洲與歐洲之間，除了海運（約45天的運送時間）及空運（約1天）之外，經新亞歐陸大橋的貨運火車（約14天）也是另一個新選擇。
那麼，直接重新建構產品供應鏈真的會比規劃長距離的運輸來得簡單嗎？事實是重新建立一個生態系統需要花費大量時間及金錢，且不同地區在結構上本來就會有其優勢及劣勢，比如說如果Apple要將製造工廠移回美國，其成本是令人望之卻步的。因為包含在內的時間、金錢成本以及產業群聚效應，要想重組這類的全球供應鏈仍會受政治因素影響。
On March 23rd, 2021 the container ship Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal (https://cutt.ly/DbZZXjD). As one of the three critical sea lanes, along with Panama Canal (https://cutt.ly/bbZXWY8), Strait of Malacca (https://cutt.ly/4bZXTz0), Suez Canal (https://cutt.ly/SbZXPye) obstruction is believed to have impacted some 12% of the global trade especially between Asia and Europe.
TUX uncles invited Thomas, a global logistic specialist at a major multinational firm, to discuss the intricacies of who owns what and where liabilities fall.
Let's start with the key parties and their relationships.
1.) The ship "Ever Given/長賜號" is wholly owned by the Japanese firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha/正榮汽船株式會社.
2.) As the owner of Ever Given, Shoei Kisen is the vessel operator/船舶經營者
3.) Evergreen/長榮海運 is the charterer (承租方) who leases the ship from the vessel operator
4.) The specific chartering method is called "Wet Lease/濕租" whereby lessor (vessel operator) provides craft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance, whereas the lessee (charterer) pays for the hours operated, fuel, fees, and any other duties, taxes, etc. This method is also referred to as Time Charter.
Given this contractual arrangement, most of the liabilities fall onto the lessor. Does the lessee have any responsibility for the cargo delay? TUX uncles are surprised to find out that international conventions does not recognize delay in shipping for compensation. Payment in the case of damage is also limited. Therefore, insurance providers become an important part in compensation in these cases.
Looking beyond the Ever Given incident, the abilities to have multiple options in transporting goods have become critical. Between Asia and Europe, in addition to sea (~45 transit days) and air (~1 transit day), cargo trains through the New Eurasian Land Bridge/新亞歐大陸橋 (https://cutt.ly/sbSdxt8) provides a viable midpoint choice at 14 transit days.
Is it easier to re-shape supply chain instead of managing long distance transportation? Building up a new and robust ecosystem takes money and time. Different places have structural (dis)advantages; for example, moving manufacturing to US for Apple was proven prohibitively expensive. Ultimately, due to the costs and time involved, it is often politically painful to sustain this kind of global realignment.

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