'Global fragility' is adding to the pressure on forwarders

As high-value, temperature-sensitive cargo, pharmaceutical shipments can be complex and it is crucial to meet the requirements of shippers. This week The Loadstar will run a short series on pharmaceutical logistics to examine trends and changes in the market 

Pharma shippers are demanding their logistics operators increase their visibility of the rising confluence of factors affecting their supply chains.

Amid a deteriorating geopolitical situation, economic uncertainties and a worsening impact from inclement weather, pharma specialists have told The Loadstar that their customers have been putting pressure on them to ensure time-sensitive shipments are protected.

Sascha Herzig, president of Puerto Rico-based ETH Cargo Services, said its Caribbean location had provided something of a head start as far as weather issues are concerned.

“It is crazy hot here at the moment, which is always bad because it makes movement of pharmaceuticals more complicated. And being where we are, it is always crazy hot – and it’s getting hotter earlier in the year,” he told The Loadstar.

“But this situation isn’t unique to Puerto Rico, increased temperatures are being seen everywhere.”

Nonetheless, being in the “hostile environment” Mr Herzig describes has given ETH some advantages over its competitors, and it has also prompted the company – and its Puerto Rican customers – to accelerate their green efforts.

He noted that “the issues plaguing this US territory, including the heat and hurricanes, forced us into ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking” to avoid major temperature excursions.

And Lionel D’Silva, NNR Global Logistics’ head of airfreight development, said the issue of temperature excursions became more pronounced during pandemic with the spectrum of permissible temperatures “vastly” expanding.

“Some medicines [developed to fight Covid] were being sent at -70ºC and even -80ºC, which left major question marks over whether we could be entirely sure that they would be landing at airports with the necessary storage conditions. So, after they touched down we did not know if they were being handled in a viable manner,” said Mr D’Silva.

While none of this is beyond the ordinary for pharma forwarders, both Mr D’Silva and Mr Herzing stressed that the map of difficulties had increased in recent years.

And the difficulties have only increased in the aftermath of the pandemic, particularly with the war in Ukraine and escalating tensions in the Middle East and between the west and China – Mr Herzig noting that his customers had “become more aware of the present level of global fragility”.

“Before Covid, customers weren’t that keen on seeing how one issue can affect the Puerto Rican supply chain, now, I have almost weekly calls with shippers,” he added.

“Issues that are thousands of miles away from one place have consequences in another, and I think now, as forwarders we need to be looking at the potential ramifications to the supply chain from a situation brewing in a spot of the world we may normally ignore – like the Panama Canal disruption, for example.

“There are so many things forwarders need to be looking out for and asking our customers to consider, this is doubly true for pharma forwarding.”