Xeneta, an ocean freight rate benchmarking and market intelligence platform, has launched Xeneta Shipping Index (XSI).
The Oslo-headquartered firm created XSI to transform the way shippers, freight forwarders and carriers conduct freight rate negotiations, and to allow all parties to set rates at transparent, efficient and fair prices that directly follow market fluctuations.
XSI is a global ocean freight index with its foundations in Xeneta’s neutral database of over 65 million contracted rates, covering over 160,000 port-to-port pairings, which is crowd-sourced from more than 700 leading international businesses, including power shippers such as Electrolux, Nestle, Unilever, ThyssenKrupp, Tata Steel and Continental.
It provides a real-time overview of the very latest ocean freight rates.
The new index allows stakeholders in the negotiating chain to tie rates to the market relieving them from frequent or periodic contract negotiations.
Patrik Berglund, Xeneta CEO, said: “After several years working closely with cargo buyers and sellers, the one thing that is a clear pain point for many organizations is the inefficiency and opacity of contract negotiations.
“Freight rates are dynamic and prone to rapid change, so a shipper traditionally negotiating what they consider to be a fair rate for a long-term ocean freight contract can find that, three months later, they’re paying far in excess or below the actual market rates.
“This has the very real potential to make their products uncompetitive in the marketplace or risk supply chain disruptions.
“Similarly for carriers, when the market is low or high, they risk shippers taking their business somewhere else or not living up to their contracts as these are not enforceable.
“The current situation is not ideal for buyer or seller and neither one has the upper hand.”
Read a Port Technology technical paper by Patrik Berglund, CEO & Co-Founder, Xeneta, about freight rates and where is the container industry is heading
Xeneta has several customers already running on the XSI, Ekornes — the owner of the Stressless brand of reclining armchairs and sofas, and Ekornes ASA — one of the largest luxury furniture manufacturers, which used the XSI in partnership with global logistics leader DB Schenker.
Stian Østrem, Executive Project Manager, Ekornes, said: “The elimination of the tenders saves us internal resources costs and provides us with the possibility to allocate more full-time resources on supply chain optimization projects.
“We are able to improve our lead times and generate significant financial savings, compared to any short-lived procurement success through tender negotiations we had in the past.
“Xeneta, with its detailed market data and index solution, allowed us to establish a trustful relationship with our freight forwarder and focus on quality and delivery, which is the key value for our customers.”
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