Under the title “The Procurement response to the crisis in the industrial sector”, the III Euskadi Buyers Congress was held on November 19, organized by AERCE-Euskadi, the Association of Procurement, Contracting and Procurement Professionals in Spain.

Experts, suppliers, analysts and purchasing and supply chain professionals participated in the event, which this year was held online, to assess and seek common solutions to this delicate situation for the business.

Within the event, the table “The problem of freight and the price increase in transport from the perspective of Purchasing” was moderated by Iban Ibáñez, CEO at Zentralcom and member of the board of directors of AERCE Euskadi and Javier Setien , commercial manager of Vasco Shipping Services (Representative of COSCO in Euskadi) and the general director of ERTRANSIT Carmen Aragón.

With the industry immersed in the midst of a crisis due to the shortage of raw materials and components, as well as the inflationary trend also of energy and transport prices, the III Congress of Buyers of Euskadi, was an ideal setting for purchasing professionals and of supply chain management, they will seek answers in one of the most convulsive situations in recent years for the industrial sector.

To the questions of the assistants of “when is going to normalize the logistics?” The participants at the table agreed that 2022 will foreseeably be a year very similar to 2021 and it will not be until 2023 when the situation normalizes, although freight rates will not return to the prices existing in the pre-pandemic.

Faced with the increasing escalation of risk in procurement processes, which has tripled in the last year, the purchasing directors present pointed out some ideas that they are already implementing in their companies, such as stock planning well in advance to be able to continue producing. , the reduction of the lots to buy to protect the treasury accounts, or prioritize availability at price.

For Carmen Aragón “forwarders must be integrated into their customers’ supply chains to know their needs and thus be able to plan and anticipate. A digital supply chain model, with integration of services, based on transparency and long-term relationships ”.

Javier Setien, from Vasco Shipping, recommended resorting to purchasing centers to group orders and trust national freight forwarders, closer to the customer’s reality and a “fundamental figure to promote competitiveness in the market”.

The table also addressed issues such as the intermodality of transport, or the rise of air transport as an alternative in certain products to the congestion suffered by maritime transport. The companies present agreed that although “before we were used to working with zero stock, under a Just In Time model, now it’s time to plan.”

Carmen Aragón affirmed that “the stock has become a necessary cost to cover the possible inefficiencies and unforeseen events of the suppliers and the transport chain. In this sense, the use of customs facilities that facilitate the organization of traffic and the optimization of its financial flows makes sense ”

The institutional opening to the Congress was carried out by Gonzalo Fornos, President of AERCE Euskadi and Enrique Portocarrero, director of the Círculo de Empresarios Vascos. Managers and purchasing directors from companies such as Tubacex, GESE, Patentes Talgo, RS Components, CIE Automotive participated. Ategi, Acorn Tools, Megatech, Kaiku, Achilles, …