Monday, 18 June, 2018
Tuesday, 19 June, 2018
Wednesday, 20 June, 2018
CONFERENCE OBJECTIVE:
To provide Canadian retailers, manufacturers, consumer product companies, agriculture exporters, and other shippers with timely, authoritative and actionable intelligence to better manage their supply chains. Through data sharing, solutions-based discussion and insights from industry leaders, shippers will leave the event better able to mitigate disruptions, hold transportation providers accountable, and improve supply chain visibility.
THEME: FINDING NEW PATHS TO EFFICIENCY
The surge of imports and exports — up 8.5 percent at the top four Canadian ports in the first half of 2017 — through Canadian ports and inland networks is revealing limitations in capacity at marine terminals and rail networks, and opened new avenues to improve the interchange of cargo from the terminal to the intermodal ramp, distribution centers, and out of the truck gate. Additional infrastructure, however, is only part of the solution because there are limits to how much the private sector and the government can invest, and shipment reliability requires operational innovation to maximize terminal, rail, highway, and warehousing assets.
New technology can help drive operational efficiencies and improved supply chain visibility, allowing shippers and transportation providers to hold each other more accountable, but the industry first must have a clear understanding of technology's limitations, that data-sharing is necessary across the supply chain to prevent siloing, and what technology can be adopted when a company doesn't have boundless capital or IT talent.
At the same time, regulatory headwinds aren't relenting. The Canada Border Services Agency continues to hold 1-2 percent of imports, frequently without citing a reason. And trucking regulation requiring electronic logging devices is rumbling out of Ottawa, raising capacity and pricing concerns for truckload shippers.
With challenges mounting at a time of economic and trade growth, Canada's container shipping industry needs a constructive space to ask the hard questions and engage in data-informed discussion to realize its full potential as a trading nation. The Canada Trade Conference aims to help guide and drive this conversation in order to bring understanding, connections, and new solutions in these changing times.
FEATURED TOPICS:
• TERMINAL EFFICIENCY: Do ports have enough container capacity to handle the surge of imports and exports?
• INTERMODAL SERVICE: How can port authorities, railroads, beneficial cargo owners, marine terminals, and ocean carriers work to improve service amid the pressures that come from mega-ships and growth in e-commerce?
• TRANSLOADING: What do railroads, ports, and industrial real estate developers need to do to maximize the potential for transloading of imports and exports?
• CUSTOMS REFORM: How can the industry mobilize efforts to improve inspection processes that cause costly delays?
• REGULATION: What pressure does the trucking industry face, and how can shippers go about securing capacity as truckload capacity tightens?
• EMERGING PORTS: What do new developments offer shippers in terms of supply chain diversification and new ways to access domestic and foreign markets?
• LOGISTICS TECHNOLOGY: What solutions offer the most value to shippers and transportation providers?
• AIR CARGO: How can shippers mitigate tighter capacity and higher rates?