Home > Industry > Coronavirus > Notebook Airfreight Costs Jump From $12 A Unit To $80, Brands Have To Bid For Space

Notebook Airfreight Costs Jump From $12 A Unit To $80, Brands Have To Bid For Space

Brands shipping into Australia are now being forced to bid for airfreight space.

According to the CEO of Acer Darren Simmons, a notebook cost $12 a unit to air freight prior to the recent holiday period. This has blown out to $80 a unit with brands now having to bid to get space on aircraft after several airlines cut flights out of China and other Asian Countries.

Harvey Norman CEO Gerry Harvey has said that stock levels at his stores are falling and that prices rises of over 10% are imminent.

He has also called on the Morrison government to provide interest-free loans to manufacturing firms to stimul­ate local employment and industry as the coronavirus hits the economy.

Mr Harvey, the founder of Harvey­ Norman, said he would make a personal request to Josh Frydenberg that the government provide financial support to help local industry grow.

Myer CEO John King claims that when it comes to supply the supply side, he is feeling reasonably comfortable, even though about 65 per cent of Myer’s home brands are sourced from China.

By Friday, all of the factories the group uses will be back online, and about 40 per cent of Myer’s containers should arrive in March, and the catch-up cargo in April.

Yesterday Myer reported a 3.8% decline in total sales and 36.5% drop in statutory profit to $24.4 million for the 26 weeks ended 25 January 2020.

Italian appliance manufacturer Smeg who cut a deal with Coles to run a promotion that
Offered customers who find one of 100 ‘Fresh Stikeez Golden Avocados’, a free Smeg FAB28 refrigerator is facing supply problems according to insiders due to the outbreak of Coronavirus in Italy.

Smeg has not said how much the deal is worth or how many fridges they will supply.

The Company has also not replaced Olivia Anderson who quit the Italian Company after 12 months in the job with the Companies CEO Jim Kalotheos taking on the role.

Recently the BBC stopped production Company Love from accepting free fridges from Smeg.

The BBC spokesman said: “Love… had a loan agreement with Smeg to supply the fridges. That agreement did not meet editorial guidelines”.

The corporation also asked Smeg to remove a notice from its website boasting about its association with The Great British Bake Off, which features judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood.
This is not the first time that a Smeg promotion has gone pear shaped.

Google and Microsoft have moved to accelerate their efforts to shift production of hardware to other parts of Asia because of the Coronavirus.

Both Companies were set to launch new products in Australia.

The problem for all these countries is that moving supply chains quickly will be a tough task and China will still have to play a major role. That might mean mitigating risk is a lot harder claim analysts.

Google is set to begin production of an upcoming low-cost smartphone, rumored to be called the Pixel 4a, in Vietnam as soon as April.

The upcoming flagship smartphone will also be manufactured there in the second half of the year, according to reports.



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