As we’ll know, the world has for a while now witnessed some degree of economic crisis, which isn’t a result of regional ecological concern but against the backdrop of the ongoing events in the economic sphere. However, prior to these events we had high expectations which could be dashed due to imposed economic barriers. To lift this context off the ground, we, therefore, ask: Is your 2023 target feasible with current events?
Having successfully transited from Q1’23 to Q3’23 with looming uncertainties that are steadily gaining untold momentum, it became clear that we’re rather faced with the option to think out of the box noting that we had carefully laid out structured and feasible quarterly trade targets. Contrary to our expectation, the output seems to be going down the slope against our pegged margin, which as a result, is raising a lot of questions, such as, what more should we expect in Q3 and Q4, should the subject matter persist.
Trade in its complexity is really broad noting all fields of expertise. However, irrespective of your trade specialty, shipping, or logistics operation, we’re one way or the other faced with a number of trade challenges since service delivery functions carried out in this economic space are inter-connected, as such, poses serious concern in our respective field of trade. Cross-border trade is typically an economic subsector that is greatly influenced by politics, thus, regional powers. With the ongoing geopolitical events in this economic sphere that led to the restriction of commodities or products from restricted markets (sanctioned states) believed to be economically robust, the global supply chain is suddenly faced with the ugly side of irregularities due to the impact of the aforementioned concern.
Looking at the commodity space, it became clear that a number of products that cut across wet and dry cargo are really making their contributions in the inflation space, and this could be traced to supply chain concern which is restricting a number of products from being freely traded in the international markets, thus, creating a vacuum. As a result of a limited supply of these products across notable markets and regions, inflation of commodities became the case, which does not in any way aid trade, but instead weaken global trade activity.
The looming crisis in the commodity space is currently perceived as a concern that is increasingly showing signs of instability even as it worsens, and this is known to be the case in the field of energy. It’s fair to note that energy is core in all sectors of the economy, while the devastating impact in the field of energy would rather mean disaster to other sectors of production including agriculture. With this shortfall coupled with geopolitics, trade is greatly impacted.
Drifting from the litany of the current crisis as we focus on our respective trade ambition and targets, it is believed we already have mapped-out quarterly trade plans which if well-structured and deployed will assure us of our quarterly targets irrespective of our trade offering. However, while we’re faced with fewer trade activities due to influencing factors in this field of economic sub-sector, it’s understood trade firms are struggling in this challenging time to meet up with their budgets, this has become a huge burden on a number of firms notably in the shipping industry.
Going forward, originating and delivering trade is practically core to the global supply chain, but with this setback, shippers are rather left to rethink and re-strategize with their team and partners, which imply coming up with new ideas and plans even as issues take a new dimension. However, it’s worth noting that the act of shipping is often juicy when the axis of the trade transit route coupled with the market of origin and destination is void of political and commodity concern, but contrary to this, we’re rather at this time faced with the opposite, making the already complex activity (trade) a lot more difficult.
In a broader dimension, regional political blocs seem to be widening the existing challenges in this sphere notably with the issue of single currency concern, a concern that has triggered ditching the globally accessed single currency for trade which is against the backdrop of restriction of specific markets commodities to be freely traded on the international markets. In view of this, the BRIC countries consisting of a number of viable markets appear to be on the verge of introducing a new currency believed to be stronger and safer than the existing single currency for cross-border trade, and this will potentially alter the existing trade architecture.
Hence, with the present uncertainties we’re urged to engage and exercise our competence while deploying our experience as tools in our respective fields of trade, and this is also significant in broadening our knowledge for research purposes. Therefore, being urged to put into practice the subject topic, we’re poised to ask:
- What’s your 2023 long-term trade plan?
- Have you laid out your quarterly trade plan & target?
- Having adjusted to the present, is your adjusted trade plan yielding results?
WHY IT’S SIGNIFICANT TO MAP-OUT NEW QUARTERLY PLAN
As events fuelling trade uncertainty continue to gain unexpected momentum more significantly as we have witnessed in the previous quarter (Q4’22) down to the current quarter (Q3’23), we can rightly say that urgent measures are to be taken by concerned parties in the field of cross-border trade. Except we’ve decided to allow the factors influencing and triggering this concern to deter our effort, otherwise the need to re-strategize with concerned parties on a feasible plan while undermining events should be considered paramount.
To ensure our quarterly trade plans offer us the needed result, it’s vital to look into our ‘Trade Quote’ because a good quote is core if we must get things right. Therefore, we urge that we tailor our trade quote based on trade offering or specialty while bearing in mind the looming uncertainties as we strive to edge ahead of our competitors. Hence, the terms and conditions of our quote should be structured with suitable conditions and feasible rates (cost per trade), while the latter will require an appreciable level of expertise in order to have it positioned within the realm of possibility. Should there be any need to have an SLA (Service Level Agreement) in place, then all parties are to adhere to the stipulated trade commitment which must be defined based on the clearly outlined service.
Furthermore, deploying a workable plan per quarter notably in the remaining quarters of 2023 (Q3’23 and Q4’23) is significant with the aim of altering the current trade architecture such that reduced freight rate, handling, and other shipping cost could be achieved, this will also mean transiting shipments via safe and navigable transit routes that offer shortened transit time, where necessary, deploy trade reroute approach in other to circumvent unprecedented political concern.
Lastly, offer clients and partners good rates and rebates while ensuring incremental and sustainable trade volume is amassed in order to keep up with budget, and this cannot be overemphasized. However, if you’re engaging as a trade consultant or for research purposes, you will be required to figure out the influencing factors and inflation rates across geographies and markets via regular consignees and shippers, noting that this will offer you the needed experience, data, and guide which is obtainable in our trade articles.
In all of the above, it is significant to figure out where our crafted quarterly plans aren’t articulating properly or laid out wrongly, and have it fixed.
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