Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
In the month since the Suez incident, there has been a noticeable increase in China-Europe rail freight services. It would be unrealistic to think that rail could possibly substitute large container ships in transcontinental transportation. However, just like during the Covid pandemic, rail proved during the Suez crisis that it is a viable and reliable mode of transport. Furthermore, other factors like the high costs in air freight, and container shortages in maritime transport, make rail look even more enticing.
Together with the short transit times, Eurasian rail freight seems to become a crucial part of the supply chain equation. When it comes to shipping specific goods like electronic devices, time-sensitive products or when there is a sudden demand increase, rail freight is there to provide dedicated and tailor-made solutions.
Interest spiked in overland logistics from the moment the Ever Given hit the banks of the Suez Canal on 23 March. Rather than sending consignments to east coast ports in China, forwarders immediately looked in the other direction, seeking to put boxes on trains heading west. Trade partners right across Europe, the Middle East and Asia were quick to realise how disruptive the blockage could be. There was a sharp rise in enquiries and promotions as soon as the extent of the problem was identified. For goods with any sort of time-critical delivery and price sensitivity, rail by any of the New Silk Road routes became the most feasible solution and alternative, ahead of air and road freight.
This should prove beneficial for Starcom and it's suite of track and trace products as there is a huge market waiting to be exploited
Defibrillators should be made available at all schools, gym's, sports halls, playing fields, community halls etc as they're invaluable to all communities and provide more benefit for your £ than any HS2 initiative
https://twitter.com/Clarets1954/status/1405837304174944259?s=20
https://twitter.com/Clarets1954/status/1405838855111065606?s=20
In the February 2020 RNS Trading Update the BOD commented,"Following its successful launch in April 2019, Lokies, the Company's intelligent reporting padlock product, is attracting growing demand. The Company has recently signed an agreement with the Russian distributor that had previously tested the product and ordered an initial 500 units. This conditional agreement sets purchase targets for the distributor and supply targets for the Company and, whilst there are no binding purchase commitments, the Company is targeting the delivery of up to $2 million worth of Lokies in 2020. The agreement is for three years and provides exclusivity to the distributor in Russia, subject to them meeting certain targets.(That order still remains pending)
"The Board believes that Lokies, as an Internet of Things ("IoT") solution, could become the market leading product in the 'smart padlocks' market".
In the March 2020 RNS accompanying the 2019 final results the Business Review Statement commented " Lokies, was successfully launched in April 2019 and has been well received in the market, with proof of concept ("POC") projects having been initiated with various key customers. In addition, a number of customers in Russia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Bulgaria and Poland, have placed initial orders, forgoing the customary POC stage in order to reach their respective local markets faster. The Board believes that this innovative Internet of Things ("IoT") product can become a leader in the "smart padlocks" market and has the potential to spearhead significant growth for Starcom as it can be marketed via both B2B and B2C models."
Confirmation has now been received that the new transhipment terminal on the Kazakh-Chinese border started operating just over a week ago, so that order may now be very close to completion.
Also, note the planned increase in the volume of TEU's which the terminal will be capable of handling. https://bit.ly/3iNEI8K.
Encouraging signs for Starcom as a new report covering rail freight expansion suggests significant new investment as a result of global supply chain issues should provide a larger market for their Track and Trace logistics products.
A report, published by Research and Markets, an American-based specialist in business analysis, has singled out rail freight as a significant area of commercial growth in the next five years.
North America leads the global rail freight market but Asia-Pacific is expected to overtake North America during the forecast period. Moreover, the rise in global trade and various trade agreements are boosting the global trade flows. The surge in rail is anticipated in Asian markets – such as the recently announced Indian initiative by Maersk. Clearly, the New Silk Road, facilitated by China’s Belt and Road initiative is a significant factor behind that expected Asia-Pacific growth. The report examines the longer-term returns investors can expect from rail freight, noting that average tonnage per train is up by 80 per cent in the last decade.When shipping by rail, the lower interest costs for the tied-up capital partly cover the higher transportation costs, making rail freight a very cost-efficient shipping alternative. Rail freight is a factor in developing local economies. In some regions of Central Asia, Eastern Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa characterised by groupings of many small countries, rail freight can increase economic integration by providing access to international and regional markets and connecting landlocked countries.
The software solutions segment dominated the market for track and trace solutions and held the largest revenue share of over 54.0% in 2020 due to its growing adoption in healthcare companies, including pharmaceuticals, bio pharmaceuticals, and medical device companies. These software solutions are used for continuous management of manufacturing facilities, product lines, case and bundle tracking, and warehousing and shipping. Companies developing this software are investing in R&D for better product development which is expected to propel the growth.
The hardware solution segment is expected to show lucrative growth over the forecast period. The printing and marking solutions segment held the largest revenue share in the market. This system plays important role in the production and supply chain to ensure quality and product authenticity. Rising demand for serialization and the need to achieve regulatory compliance is fueling the market growth. Printing and marking equipment is expected to play a crucial role to meet the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) requirements by 2023.
Moreover, advancement in coding technologies such as laser marking systems, Large Character Marking (LCM), and Thermal Transfer Overprinting (TTO) is expected to fuel the market in the coming years.
The global track and trace solutions market size was valued at USD 2.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.0% from 2021 to 2028. Associated advantages such as continuous transparency, packaging and logistics management, and product ID verification services facilitating hassle-free product movement within the distribution channel is the key growth driver for this market.
The COVID-19 impact is revealing the importance of traceability and standardization to effectively monitor people, supply chain, and assets in the healthcare industry. The COVID-19 outbreak has heightened the risks posed by the global trade in counterfeit pharmaceutical products. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a rising capacity of false medicines linked to COVID-19 is on sale in developing countries along with an upsurge in counterfeit medical products related to coronavirus.
The growth of the market for track and trace solutions is anticipated to be fueled by the rising deployment of track and trace solutions by pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Drug counterfeiting is a major problem faced by pharmaceuticals and bio pharmaceutical companies. Thus, companies are adopting track and trace solutions for supply chain monitoring. It has been found that the influx of substandard/counterfeit medications is more prevalent in low to middle-income countries such as India and Africa. According to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) report in 2019, around 20% of all sold drugs in India were counterfeit.
Moreover, stringent regulations and standards pertinent to serialization implementation and aggregation are expected to drive the market for track and trace solutions. In July 2019, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) imparted new guidelines on product coding in order to reduce counterfeiting in Australia. tbc
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zubair-chopra-200020119_dhl-dhlsmartguard-lock-activity-6811260190315343872-8jyC
Excellent news on Lokies, Igor. Many congratulations to all of the hard working members on Starcom's team. Hopefully, this will act as a Catalyst not just for Lokies but also for all other Starcom tracking products
Forwarded Jun 17 at 12:45 PM Igor Vatenmacher 1:03 PM
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Igor and all the boys at Starcom are really excited about the prospects of winning this prestigious competition and i begin to sense they see this as their defining moment. By all accounts, many global players in the Logistics, Track and Trace market, have sat up and taken note of this result. Further exposure through DHL will also throw the spotlight on their other product offerings. I'd have thought Tetis and Kylos, to name but 2, would be of particular interest to DHL on the shipping front
Missing link, below https://bit.ly/3vvbIp1
I, also, think this is very feasible. All it needs is a couple of relatively decent sized contracts, they don't have to be huge. Ideally, these should be with influencers, namely those companies at the cutting edge of the technology curve. When their competitors realise the impact this new technology is likely to have on market share, they'll be all over it like a rash and FOMO will apply
5G will bring many advantages to the farming industry some of which are outlined in this article bit.ly/3vvbIp1
One outcome from the recent G7 event was a US-led initiative to throw money at developing world infrastructure projects in a bid to beat China at its own game.
While the US government fact sheet doesn’t explicitly refer to 5G, the WSJ reports the 5G-specific part of the cunning plan known as ‘Build Back Better World’ has been unilaterally added to the agenda by the US. The long and short of it is that the US has belatedly realising that combating bribes with threats doesn’t work and is now working to ‘incentivise’ developing economies around the world to shun Huawei and ZTE kit.
While major wireless carriers Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are racing to install 5G, they've so far focused only on metropolitan areas because of their high concentration of potential customers. It may take a few years before their 5G networks are widely available in rural areas, meaning farmers will have to wait but the US administration is urging them to speed up this process and we may witness some tax incentives introduced which will be aimed specifically at the telecoms industry as the administration seeks to overhaul China,as quickly as possible.
Consequently,it's feasible 5G may begin to have a tangible impact on farming within three to five years.Many farmers have already installed sensors in their fields that are connected using 4G, which operates at up to 100Mbps. In comparison, 5G speeds of up to 10Gbps are expected. The difference allows for faster connectivity between devices along with enabling more devices to connect to a single cell tower.
Upgrading to 5G could increase the impact of the technology by improving connection speeds and allowing for devices to more effectively communicate. For example, it would allow farmers to install more sensors to track more data points and help them run their operations more effectively. 5G will change the nature of jobs in farming and agriculture substantially but there is some uncertainty that more technology, including 5G, will actually impact the number of farm jobs overall. Instead different roles will be in higher demand, likely data analytics and farm management, but that doesn't necessarily translate into a lower headcount.
Smart agriculture in general is about allowing farmers to be more informed and efficient; it’s not specifically about eliminating jobs. Whatever the case, the stakes are high. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the planet will need 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2009 because of a rising global population. Advancements in farming will be a big contributor.Technology must be applied to the problem and connectivity is essential, and therefore 5G in agriculture is inevitable."
https://twitter.com/Clarets1954/status/1405104696969281539?s=20
https://twitter.com/riddler_smitb/status/1363140870162292736
Estimate that 30% of the globe will be covered by these sensors
Over the course of the last several days there's been a number of self congratulatory postings amongst various members of Starcom's senior management team on LinkedIn. They've principally been aimed at Avi for his leadership and innovation skills but include thanks to Igor for his valuable contributions. What's that all about? Not exactly sure.
Then yesterday the proceedings are interrupted with "a like" message from someone at Rakuten Mobile Inc. They’re one of the world’s leading internet companies. Curiouser and curiouser. The individual concerned is section manager on the AI platform, based in Tokyo, Timothy Katee.
Rakuten Group, Inc. is the largest eCommerce company in Japan, and third largest eCommerce marketplace company worldwide. Rakuten provides a variety of consumer and business-focused services including e-commerce, e-reading, travel, banking, securities, credit card, e-money, portal and media.
Intriguingly we're then joined by Madhavi Babar, Section Manager 5G Core and 4G Packet Core at Rakuten Mobile Inc.
Back in May, Rakuten signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Fujitsu to jointly develop 5G Open RAN solutions which will be a market leading innovation for the global market . This will help to deliver new cost effective business solutions which bring significant incremental value to all customers with access to this technology.
If Starcom are incorporating this feature into their suite of business products then it would place us head and shoulders above most of our competitors and give us and our customers a huge competitive advantage and would put us amongst the global players.
This would be quite an accolade for such a small hi-tech company but would open up avenues to large global companies with huge marketing budgets.
Further background for that order of 750 freezers
https://bit.ly/3z8MX5f
Rockwell has closed deals for over 750 Covid-19 vaccine freezers with various hospitals and institutions. AIG, Apollo, Omega and Care Hospitals were already using its vaccine freezers and many more were in discussions for the same. The company, which has two manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad with a capacity of over four lakh units, is in the process of exporting the vaccine freezers, including to Japan as part of an initial pilot deal,” Mr.Prateek Gupta said.
750 is the initial order, what might this eventually amount to for the rest of India and Japan. What if? they all contain a KylosConnect unit?
We are in the process of exporting our vaccine freezers to various developed countries including an initial pilot deal with Japan,” Prateek Gupta added.
Japan are having major issues with their vaccination programme. If Rockwell are helping with a pilot study, who is assisting Rockwell with the "track and trace" aspect. Anyone we might know?
“Rockwell is working closely with Dr Reddy’s to develop wireless IoT-based controllers and data loggers which can give access to real-time data of temperature and performance for the vaccine freezers assuring the vaccine storage,” said Prateek Gupta, Director, Rockwell Industries.
Clearly Rockwell don't have the capability so who do we think may be providing assistance with this?
Furthermore, someone offloaded 1 Million shares this morning and not so much as a sniffle from the MM's. In the past, the sp would have been caned. Why do you think there's been no similar price action today?
Infers MMs are
Happy with risk
Have a buyer
Aware of news
Or combination
https://twitter.com/riddler_smitb/status/1402645694398316549
1.5min +
https://twitter.com/Clarets1954/status/1402648191095513091?s=20
Here's a very interesting catalogue put together by Technoton. They were our joint participators in the Fuel Distribution and Fuel Management solutions that were provided to an African customer.
We still cooperate with each other so good to see how flexible our technology is and the numerous different ways in which it can be deployed to provide practical business solutions in so many different industries and a wide array of different types of plant and machinery
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/technoton_advanced-machinery-telematics-technoton-activity-6800342864007053312-SXAk