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NEWSFLASH  APRIL 2006

SEKO Wins Gold Award for Supply Chain Management but UK retailer is the real winner!

A supply chain solution designed and delivered to a leading UK retailer has won SEKO Worldwide (UK) the British International Freight Associations (BIFA) prestigious supply chain “Gold Award”. The top prize completes a hat-trick of BIFA Gold Awards for SEKO UK. The implementation of a web enabled logistics ERP system that produced annual savings of $2 million dollars a year resulted in SEKO being awarded BIFA`s technology award in 2005. A year earlier the company won the prize for service and quality in the airfreight category. Announcing SEKO`s success at the BIFA annual freight service awards in London, the judging panel commented “ SEKO proved to the judges that it had met the challenging targets posed by their customer and surpassed both the fiscal and operational expectations of their client”. The solution revolved around moving store allocation and pick and pack operations from the clients UK facilities to SEKO owned and managed operations in Shenzen and Shanghai in China. This process relieved the customers over-burdened UK distribution operations and allowed a low cost scaleable operation to be switched on and off with the customers seasonality. SEKO`s own SupplyStream© suite of software allowed the customers buyers and merchandisers to speed up and slow down the China fulfilment operations at the click of a mouse.

SEKO UK Wins Gold Award for Supply Chain Management 2006

David Emerson, Director of SEKO Worldwide said “ We knew that our “Speed Trade” business model of pay as you go logistics in China would work for this particular client and we are obviously thrilled to win a hat-trick of BIFA awards. The growth of our “Speed Trade” operation shows us that our vision of providing customers with low cost but high quality solutions that combine logistics and transportation is the right approach in today's competitive market place”. For further information on “Speed Trade” or any other service provided by SEKO please contact david.emerson@sekogln.co.uk or request a brochure.

The Department of Trade and Industry has announced several key Anti Dumping Duty (ADD) initiatives that will impact importers who trade with certain countries.

1. ANTI-DUMPING PROCEEDING CONCERNING IMPORTS OF CERTAIN FOOTWEAR WITH UPPERS OF LEATHER ORIGINATING IN THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA AND VIETNAM Notice to Importers 2726 alerted traders to the European Commission’s proposal for anti dumping duty to be imposed against certain footwear originating in China and Vietnam. At the EU Anti-dumping Committee meeting held on 16 March 2006, Member States debated the EU Commission proposal for provisional Anti-dumping measures. On 23 March 2006, the EU College of Commissioners adopted provisional anti-dumping duties on certain footwear with uppers of leather originating in China and Vietnam. The duty rates, together with details of the phase-in, will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 6 April 2006. These are the same as advised in Notice to Importers 2726 except that the start date for the first period of the phase-in is 7 April 2006. 2. ANTI-DUMPING PROCEEDING CONCERNING IMPORTS OF CERTAIN BED LINEN ORIGINATING IN PAKISTAN At the EU Anti-dumping Committee meeting held on 16 March 2006, Member States approved the EU Commission proposal to reduce the anti-dumping duties on bed linen from Pakistan. The proposal will be implemented as quickly as possible by the European Commission. Further details about the European Commission’s investigations are available from the following web link: http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/respectrules/anti_dumping/stats.htm

SEKO UK and Pan-Air & Sea step up mutual co-operation.

Turkey has long been a key trading partner with the UK and SEKO Worldwide UK has been developing even closer ties with its exclusive partner in Turkey Pan-Air and Sea. Since mid 2005 SEKO UK and Pan have been operating a joint marketing campaign to develop business between Turkey and the UK and vice-versa and the efforts of both sides appear to be paying off. Keith O`Brien UK managing director of SEKO Worldwide said “ We aligned ourselves with Pan because the owners of the company are very much like us in the UK – young, dynamic and highly entrepreneurial and like minded companies tend to work well together” Business volumes in both directions have grown at a rate of 25% month over month since the summer of 2005 but imports into the UK continue to dominate. “Pan have a great approach to customer service and our UK customers are benefiting from their hands on and personal service – this coupled with their knowledge of the fashion business in particular plays into our area of expertise as well. We are now looking at further enhancing our operations to include a dedicated GOH (garments on hangers) operation inbound from Turkey”. For more information on SEKO`s services from Turkey please contact sales@sekogln.co.uk or request a brochure here Pan-Air and Sea can be contacted here: PAN air & sea freight Tevfik Bey Mah . Tahsintekoglu Cad. No:29 34295 Sefaköy-Kucukcekmece Istanbul Tel :+90 212 5793000/Pbx Fax: +90 212 5795500 www.panairsea.com

Inbound Ocean Freight Rate Restoration April 2006

Primary ocean carriers inbound from Asia have raised ocean freight rates by $200 per TEU effective April 1 2006. Since December 2005 there had been a noticeable softening in the inbound Asia market as demand dipped and new, larger vessels came on line and improved capacity on the key inbound trade lanes but as the market hardens going into 2006 and China continues to grow at lightning speed it was only a matter of time before the carriers decided to increase rates. SEKO UK will be contacting non-contracted customers throughout the month of April to discuss these increases.

SEKO makes Forbes Magazine On Line edition

An interview with SEKO Worldwide USA director Steve Goldberg was featured in an on line article relating to the US air cargo industry. To read the full article click here: http://www.forbes.com/logistics/2006/03/15/airfreight-forwarding-shipping-cx_rm_0316airfreight.html

Cient and Project Updates

Since our last newsletter we wanted to share some of the projects and client operations that have been undertaken by SEKO since December 2005 - SEKO has recently taken over the shipping department of one of our major clients in Hong Kong and China. This operation is a natural progression of this client relationship which see's SEKO managing the clients entire supply chain from production through to delivery. - A US based manufacturer of mobile phone accessories has appointed SEKO UK to manage their total European customer service and supply chain operations including customer and inbound call management, logistics and invoicing. SEKO UK will also manage all aspects of VAT and fiscal representation in the EU25 for the customer. - A major lingerie brand in the UK has entrusted SEKO to manage its inbound logistics and customer deliveries via our “Speed Trade” business unit. The customers factories deliver into our operations in China who pick and pack the product against customer orders received on the customers web site and sales centres. Product is then shipped globally directly to the customers door. - A UK based cosmetics company has appointed SEKO to manage its US logistics operation via the SEKO logistics hub in Indianapolis IN. Product will be shipped from global sourcing operations into the hub from where it will be picked, packed and shipped across the US and Canada to commercial customers and home shoppers who order on-line. SEKO USA operate 52 offices across North America and can offer next day delivery to over 200 US cities overnight from the hub using a combination of ground and air services.

What would you like to see from our e-newsletter ?

Would you like to see some specific information from the SEKO e-newsletter ? We welcome your input and ideas and should you have any specific requests please let us know at sales@sekogln.co.uk

All business conducted in accordance with our standard trading conditions as published by the British International Freight Association, BIFA 2005 Edition.