Ben Richardson, CEO at SulNOx, confident they can cost-effectively decarbonise commercial shipping. Watch the video here.
This appears to signify that Starcom's management have finally reinstated their PR and Marketing campaign, and not before time. They also appear to have improved/enhanced their Helios offering as evidenced by today's news regarding Starcom Online. I'm aware from communications with the CEO of their North African Distributor that this was partly at his behest and he intimates that they're regularly signing up new customers. Not necessarily reportable contracts but he's recently witnessed increased interest in Helios.
The BOD, NED's and Employee(s) now own approx 17% of the enlarged share capital. There are a further 4,000,000 warrants which must be exercised by 24th March 2022. This is only 5.5 months away and the exercise price is 1.5p which is approx a 50% premium to Friday's closing sp. I would be very surprised if the BOD didn't exercise these share options.
We're all waiting for news of the large reported contracts to drop which were reported just before the pandemic. I think the BOD's recent actions reflects their renewed confidence in the company's future and hopefully it won't be too long before that much awaited news arrives
This morning's RNS is a cracking endorsement for long term shareholders whose commitment may have been wavering due to lack of news on the contracts front. Hopefully, this will provide some much needed confidence.
The BOD,NED's and Employees now hold over 17.5% of the enlarged Share Capital. That demonstrates they've got plenty of skin in the game and the fact they're prepared to convert Loans into Shares thereby ensuring the company is not deprived of much needed capital is testament to their ongoing personal financial support. Let's also not loose sight of the fact that this was at a premium of roughly 40% to the current sp. Where else on AIM would you find such loyalty to existing shareholders.
DHL are in advanced talks on proof of concept. This has been ongoing for over 2 months but is not unusual for DHL as something similar occurred approx 2 years ago when they were involved with BMW in connection with the use of Blockchain. They're simply very thorough.
Also, i think the terms of reference may have changed . NOT sure if this requires enhancements to Lokies or there are other products in Starcoms stable that are of interest. We need to bear in mind that all Starcom products are interchangeable and have been specifically developed with this in mind. Not overly worried about the delay. If anything, it supports DHL's views of Starcoms products. Only recently discovered that some DHL trucks in North Africa use Helios so they are already aware of what Starcom have to offer.
DHL are especially interested in full visibility of consigned inventory (opened, consumed, expired, replenished etc). They recently mentioned on record that customer expectations are driving their business forwards. Post Covid they've noticed the increase in business activity which they maintain is driven by the younger element of Millenials and Generation Y, all of whom are extremely tech savvy and more demanding. They want to embrace the new technologies which their older peers have resisted. The Logistics industry is rapidly consolidating and many well known names will soon disappear and we'll be left with a handful of large companies who will control and dictate how this market develops.
Anyhow, for those who are sufficiently interested i'm attaching a copy of a recent 45 mins webinar from their Life Sciences and HealthCare division. It's extremely interesting from Starcom's perspective as it describes DHL's outlook for the future of Logistics and the important role Sensors will play as we move towards 5G tech. Hope you find it of sufficient interest https://bit.ly/3ikNlXg
There are some excellent comments there. Points 1 & 2 specifically apply in Starcom's case. Hopefully, we shall soon witness the relevance of Point 1. There are several matters which seem reasonably close to fruition. I'm hoping that the possible order with the Russian Distributor will soon become evident. Starcom have been involved with several proofs of concept with the Russian Railways Federation(RRF) which is probably why it's taken so long for the contract to materialise.
RRF have changed tack several times on their digitalisation of the railways system which is a huge project. I believe they're getting closer to finalising this so hope to be hearing some good news ,on this front, very soon
In 2020, for the first time, a transit container train was delivered from China to Europe using digital technologies of the ETP GP platform on the territory of the Russian Federation. It is planned to expand the use of this service by organising digital transit not only across the territory of Russia, but also along the railroads of neighbouring countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan and China).
Reliability and timeliness of cargo delivery are the most important customer demands. Therefore, the group members consider the development and implementation of an end-to-end container train schedule to be very important. Test shipments on a hard schedule are already being carried out on the direction Chongqing–Duisburg. To extend this practice to other routes, together with their colleagues, they are preparing for approval a procedure for developing end-to-end timetables for container trains on the China–Europe route.
In 2020, they also began the workout of technical and technological issues for tracking cargo along the entire route using blockchain technology. Taking into account the need of participants in international container transportation for the operational monitoring of container trains’ locations, the use of blockchain technology will allow equal access to information to improve the quality of resource planning at border crossings and the efficiency of interaction between carriers in terms of prompt response to emerging deviations.
Taking into account their customers’ demand for traceability of cargo shipments, the participants of the seven-party agreement are working on the development of electronic data exchange for tracking cargo movement using the existing system.
They also note the growing interest of their European partners in the development of transit transportation for food cargo and agricultural products from European Union (EU) countries to China that use electronic navigation seals.
All of these steps are aimed at further cooperation in the digital format and creating a single information space for international transport along the transport corridors of railways in Russia.
Hopefully, the reference to electronic navigation seals will enable Starcom to promote the use of Lokies. However, there's also a huge opportunity for Tetis and it's to be hoped that the BOD along with their Distributors are doing their damnedest to ensure that Starcom manage to obtain their fair share of new business that this initiative should bring .
An important issue of the digitalisation of transit container shipping is to convert multimodal container transportation CIM/SMGS consignment notes to an electronic format. This will require their foreign partners to be ready to interact with national customs administrations in an electronic format.
Another important direction of their efforts is to further accelerate and simplify the transit of cargo and containers through the bottlenecks – interstate border junctions. In this regard, the right solution seems to be to reach agreement with carriers of neighbouring countries on the exchange of not only shipping documents, but also electronic shipping documents, such as invoices and packing lists. Such information exchange is provided, for example, with Finland, Latvia and Lithuania. This allows them to inform the Russian customs administrations about goods imported into the customs territory of the EAEU in advance.
They view this, as a positive development , the expansion in using the services of the electronic trading platform ‘Cargo Transportation’ (ETP GP) for foreign participants. Its purpose is to submit to any interested client an optimal offer for basic transportation services with or without the provision of rolling stock for this transportation in digital format.
As of March 2021, more than 6,000 companies were registered with this platform. It is also important to note that foreign enterprises from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Latvia, Finland, Poland, the Republic of Korea and Kyrgyzstan use the platform along with Russian companies. The strategic goal for the development of the platform is to expand the number of services available to foreign companies and attract foreign service providers.
There is a seven-party working group on container train transportation on the China-Europe route. The members are railway companies from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Belarus, Poland and Germany. Interestingly, initial interest for Lokies came from Kazakhstan, Russia and Poland,as mentioned on 2/3/2020 in the Final Results for 2019.. More than 3,300 containers were transported in the first quarter of 2021 alone, compared to 10,500 containers in 2020.Regarding transit container traffic as a whole, the end of 2020 saw a 34 per cent growth to a record 831,000 TEUs; in the first quarter of 2021, 230,000 TEUs were transported in transit, an increase of 73 per cent over 2020. You also need to factor in that this trend was partly affected by the pandemic, as well as the related disruptions in the operation of shipping lines and a shortage of empty containers.
They see good prospects for further integrating Russian routes into global supply chains and achieving the ambitious goal of increasing the volume of container transit to 1.7 million TEUs by 2024.
That's very interesting. Samson Logic received over $400K of new funding in October 2020 and the project with Starcom using "Kylos Connect" is apparently proceeding very well. I think this is a great application of what their tech is capable of.
Kylos is very adaptable and flexible as outlined in the new video, above.
I spoke with Yosi Schwarztuch, Starcom's Business Development,After Sales and Logistics Manager. He confirmed that this tech could also be applied by crane operators for the loading of ship containers. Extremely flexible, with similar principles to those that feature in the project conducted with Samson.
So many possibilities. They urgently need to address these matters within their Sales Division and alert potential customers to what is available especially as this offers a Business Solution in an area currently crying out for innovation given the constraints the Shipping Industry is currently working in.
This is a YouTube video released yesterday by Starcom in relation to the application of "Kylos connect" for the protection of Trailers https://bit.ly/3yEaOJj.
Hopefully, this is an indication that communication channels are about to be reestablished.
This is a very topical issue at the moment given the container and port congestion on the Trans- Pacific routes which are badly affecting ports in China and West Coast US , principally LA/ Long Beach. Theft of trailers is on the increase in the US and this coincides with retailers scrambling to get sufficient stock into their outlets.
There could never be a better time to promote their credentials as this provides the catalyst and hopefully Starcom's sales team and their Distributors can capitalise upon this opportunity.
It's good to see that someone has some confidence having bought 1.419,222 shares for just short of £12K. Let's hope we hear some good news soon from the BOD. A nice Lokies contract, possibly with the Russians would be most welcome and would certainly benefit the sp
It’s a great opportunity to add at this price or for a Bed and ISA transfer. Someone has been offloading for over 2 weeks now. Not sure if we’ve seen the end of them yet but if the Lokies interest manifests itself then there will be a rapid improvement in sp performance. Still have sufficient patience to wait for further developments. BOD are happy to continue backing the company and can’t see why Igor would have increased his position recently if he had any concerns regarding the company’s short term future. He’s not a wealthy man and he’s in a better position than anyone to see what may be coming down the pipeline. Just think someone has lost patience and considers they can make a better return elsewhere
MR made a very interesting comment at the AGM. He said freight costs had increased by a factor of 4/5 . In the light of this Tetis which cost $400 usd was previously viewed as high cost but was now regarded as affordable because in the overall context it's cost was relatively low in terms of the aggregate shipping cost.
I've just researched this and apparently transporting a 40-foot steel container of cargo by sea from Shanghai to Rotterdam now costs a record $10,522, a whopping 547% higher than the seasonal average over the last five years, according to Drewry Shipping. With upwards of 80% of all goods trade transported by sea, freight-cost surges are threatening to boost the price of everything from toys, furniture and car parts to coffee, sugar and anchovies, compounding concerns in global markets already bracing for accelerating inflation. This was back in early June so by now is likely to be a factor of 6 times as expensive.
A confluence of factors — soaring demand, a shortage of containers, saturated ports and too few ships and dock workers — have contributed to the squeeze on transportation capacity on every freight path. Recent Covid outbreaks in Asian export hubs like China have made matters worse. The pain is most acutely felt on longer-distance routes, making shipping from Shanghai to Rotterdam 67% more expensive than to the U.S. West Coast, for instance.
There's now clear evidence that freight forwarders are considering other options such as rail freight, using the silk road initiative as it's not only much cheaper but can also be quicker.
Absolutely agree. I thought Colin's question was was very well phrased and i hope that the BOD take on board what he had to say on their marketing efforts. It's all a matter of "style over substance" and the actions of many AIM investors never ceases to amaze me. The RNS was atypical of Starcom's poor style of reporting.They were referring to matters over which they cannot exert any influence or control and which are impacting on all SME's everywhere and it dwelt too much on past events whilst failing to give sufficient recognition to the positive aspects and anyone who dialed into the AGM will be fully aware that there's a lot to look forward to .
https://twitter.com/Clarets1954/status/1414564443959218179?s=20
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https://twitter.com/Clarets1954/status/1414568211346075655?s=20
Further info on the new electric Polaris Ranger which is expected to be released in early December 2021 and incorporates Starcom hi-tech https://bit.ly/3e9krri
Apollo do appear to be providing the Logistics backup but their product offering doesn't appear to be as sophisticated as Starcom's. Either Dr Reddy's have opted for a cheaper option or one or more 3rd parties are providing additional technical assistance to Apollo.
It's proposed that additional Share Options will be granted at next weeks AGM so the BOD will not wish to see the share price advancing before that meeting. Hopefully, once the Share Options have been approved we'll see a resumption in regular news updates to shareholders informing us of developments across the board as regards all product offerings and their respective markets.
Also, pleased to see that the collaboration with DHL is taking place at their Singapore hub. The 23,600 square metre facility features what DHL describes as the industry’s first fully automated express parcel sorting and processing system in South Asia. The new facility,opened in 2016 and, is 33% larger than the previous hub and its location within the CAC, a 24-hour Free Trade Zone managed by Changi Airport Group, which allows consignments to be shipped or transshipped within an hour.
The new hub processes up to 24,000 shipments and documents per hour and can handle more than 628 tonnes of cargo during the peak processing window. According to DHL, this processing speed is six times faster, while the handling capacity is three times more, as compared to the manual operations in the previous facility.
This has enabled them to add more network flights in and out of Singapore, such as the recent introduction of the Phnom Penh-Bangkok flight that adds to their existing Bangkok-Singapore service, as regional trade continues to grow. This incorporates Vietnam which is growing at an exponential rate within South East Asia.
It's also probably fair to say that the potential business growth in this region will exceed anything that's happening in any other part of the World so it would be of great benefit to Starcom if Lokies could establish a foothold for itself in Singapore
Also, very good news today from the BOD who have again demonstrated the lengths they are prepared to go to in providing financial support for their Company. Unlike many AIM companies with Directors on large salary and benefits packages, they are prepared to defer taking a salary for a further 12 months in lieu of share options which can be exercised at the recent closing price.
Yet again they've avoided diluting the holdings of their Shareholders and have firmly aligned their interests alongside those of their patient long term holders. The BOD are demonstrating they have faith in the future of this company and anticipate earning their rewards through growing the company and extracting their return when they eventually dispose of their shares..
This resonates with their actions in Pilot Media, a company they previously grew and sold for over $100 Million. This helps to reaffirm my belief that they have similar intentions here and that they're not prepared to consider any offers until they've managed to grow the business to a level at which it becomes attractive to predators and they'll eventually relinquish control when they can dispose of their shares at a healthy premium to it's quoted share price.
All the main BOD are in their late 50's so this is likely to be their final business venture before they head off into retirement and they'd prefer to leave on a swansong .
I'm expecting a big improvement in Turnover, profit margin and profitability over the next couple of years. This should also become reflected in cashflows as the company becomes self sufficient and capable of financing its working capital requirements and it's future growth prospects. Eventually, we'll receive an RNS informing us of some lucrative contracts that have been awarded.
The company has an excellent suite of highly rated hi-tech products that complement each other and winning the recent DHL award indicates that many knowledgeable people within the Logistics industry concur. The RNS we are awaiting could come from one of several directions as the company is beginning to amass a group of successful customers who will help it to deliver it's future growth
Forto, a German freight technology start-up has today raised $240 Million from a group of investors led by Softbank. It will invest in expanding its platform for organizing trade shipments between China and Europe. It offers a single platform for managing the journey of a shipping container from origin to destination – a task long handled with pen, paper and post-it notes, said Forto CEO and co-founder Michael Wax.
“A shipment from Shanghai to a warehouse in Berlin should not be more difficult than a payment via Paypal or Stripe today,” Wax told Reuters, comparing the digitalisation of logistics with that of consumer payments.
With supply chains strained by shifting consumption patterns and a steep economic recovery, Forto says its freight management system is key for clients to maximise the visibility and flexibility of their own shipments.
“We are building the digital backbone of global trade – 90% of the goods that we have in our hands are either in a container or have been in a container,” said Wax.
This is an indication of the direction in which the rack and trace market is moving and there is considerable investment underway as this industry embarks on a period of consolidation. Big bucks are at stake and healthy returns for those leading this change
We must also factor into this the recent takeover of Panalpina by DSV, who are an iTrackIndia customer. That results in the creation of the 2nd largest airfreight provider in the world - DHL currently leads that pack. Furthermore, on 27th April DSV agreed to acquire Kuwait's Agility Public Housing for $4 Billion making it the world's 3rd largest freight forwarding company. Only DHL and Kuehne and Nagel are larger.
Finally, word on the street is that DSV are in talks with D B Schenker(the world's 4th largest freight forwarder) to acquire it for somewhere in the region of $8-10 Billion.This deal won't take place until 2022,at the earliest.
If this deals goes ahead it will place DSV on a par with DHL or could even take over No.1 spot. Now that's a mouth watering prospect especially if we happened to have a foothold in both camps
The above ignores Contguard, Cubemonk and several other high profile customers such as, CropX and Zero/Polaris.. Winning this award brings us into prominence within the European rail/cargo freight market. This is forecast to rapidly expand over the next 5 years and if we can gain a foothold within some of the largest freight forwarders/Logistics operators then there's a rich seam to be sewed
Some of the largest European Freight Forward Operators see China-Rail as an important complement to sea freight. The emphasis, however, is on supplementation because the entire cargo volume cannot be handled by rail. As always in logistics, it remains an interplay of the various modes of transport and the best individual solution for the
respective customer's requirements.
Particularly at present, with recent blockade in the Suez Canal and the changes in the sea freight market (Covid 19), it can be assumed that importers will increasingly examine their supplier network for alternative modes of transport such as China Rail and position themselves more broadly.
In the area of digitalisation, a few projects can be highlighted, in addition to the maintenance and further development of interfaces for automated order transmission and processing with customers and partners. For example, some of the larger operators are currently implementing a cross-group and cross-division digital document management system. In other words, a truly complete "digital forwarding file". They are also developing their web portals including the Track & Trace function in the general cargo area and can now inform the consignees about the status of the delivery in relation to the order and the consignment. Starcom have already recognised how this market is developing and they have specifically designed the architecture of their software to enable it to be slotted within the framework of a customers network without affecting their other internal operating systems.
There's currently a lot going on within the rail freight industry especially in relation to Euro-Asia and the Middle East. That RNS in 2020 which referred to several customers prepared to order Lokies without proof of concept , specifically mentioned several prominent countries who occupy locations within the NSN.
Everywhere you look at present indicates that significant capital investment is being applied both by Countries to improve their infrastructure and large cargo freight companies, such, as PKP in Poland (one of the largest cargo freight carriers in Europe) and is aimed at exploiting opportunities which will be presented by expansion of the NCN. Lokies are ideal for this mode of transport and I foresee a huge market developing in this area. Winning this award with DHL not only brings Starcom and their suite of products into the limelight but will hopefully enable us to exploit DHL's huge contacts book. I really hope Starcom's sales team are up to the task of making the most of this opportunity.