Freight forwarders accepting SOC requests grows to 18% in 2021: Report

Though there is considerable improvement in demand for SOCs, the major forwarders are yet to fulfil the demand for the boxes on the route from China to Germany, revealed the report.

"SOC can offer an advantage depending on the situation. But you need to have the right process in place to manage the flows. SOC increases reliability for empty container availability. The downside is that you need a dedicated team/person to manage these shipments," Florian Braun, head of ocean freight, EMEA, Flexport said.

"Forwarders are increasingly positive about SOCs but are also uncertain of the success of processes around them. The rise in awareness for SOCs shows that industry participants are responding to the supply-chain pressures by diversifying their sourcing strategy. We've observed a growing year-on-year acceptance for SOCs as well as demand to improve the management costs and efforts. We believe the solution lies in digitising the process to enable forwarders with a seamless, hassle-free opportunity of using SOCs," said Christian Roeloffs, founder and CEO, Container xChange.

In December 2021, Container xChange put to a test the world's 50 largest freight forwarders to investigate how they respond to SOC requests. It reached out to ship industrial machinery parts from Shanghai to Hamburg using SOC containers. The results showed that 18 per cent of the companies that were tested were able to organise the SOC move and source the containers without any restrictions. This figure of 18 per cent compares to 10 per cent of the companies in 2020, and 6 per cent in 2019. SOC acceptance and awareness has grown over the last three years. 90 per cent of the respondents were clued up on the SOC market compared to 68 per cent of respondents last year and 35 per cent in 2019.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (RR)