Welcome to the SBS Worldwide April bulletin.

Container space on the North Atlantic continues to be at a premium as we mentioned in last month's bulletin. Reading in the world's freight press over the last 14 days, it's clear that some of our competitors are turning down new business as they are unable to fulfil their commitments. We cannot guarantee that all of our containers from the USA will ship as booked but we do have slots from the steamship lines to ensure that our priority bookings are met. At least the information in our last monthly bulletin is being verified in the freight press and I hope that our emails are read and received positively by all recipients.

Our Solutions business unit has been successful in selling the concept of 'Virtual Warehouse'. We are consolidating consignments overseas, bringing them into the UK and USA and distributing directly to the end user, thereby eliminating the cost and time incurred by running through our customers' facilities. There are many options within our Solutions branding and, as I have discovered, a whole new vocabulary!! I would encourage you to hit the link that follows to obtain further details of the opportunities available. Solutions Enquiries

Thank you for your continued support

Best personal regards

Steve

Please forward your suggestions for any additional information you would like to see in our monthly bulletins to bulletins@sbsworldwide.com.

If you have any comments regarding our service, either good or bad, these should be sent to feedback@sbsworldwide.com. This enables us to recognise our staff if the feedback is positive or, if you have had a bad experience, it gives us the chance to look into the problem.

Index to April Bulletin

• Air
• Courier
• Media
• Ocean Freight

• General Facts
• A few Freight Facts

• Closure of Factories During the Olympic Games
• China Launches E-tagged Container Route
• Chinese Visas
• Rate Adjustments

Service Information

Air

As part of the Security Regulations for listed agents, we are required to follow strict processes when handling freight for export by air. Invoices must be supplied with shipments as this is in an important part of the procedure for making cargo 'known'. Please contact Stewart Page if you have any enquiries relating to these requirements or need any other assistance relating to air exports.

Export Customer Service Supervisor
DDI: +44 (0)1753 210123
Email: stewart.page@sbsworldwide.com

Courier

Our courier division operates one of the best, simple and easy to use on-line systems you will find in the market place. Easy storage of all of your addresses plus the ability to create electronic airway bills and automatically request a collection without the inconvenience of having to pick up the telephone.

For further information or to request a demonstration, please contact couriersales@sbsworldwide.com

Media

We recently attended the London International Book Fair with our Media team. It was our busiest fair to date with many visitors to our stand and our Carbon Footprint initiative drew many enquiries from passing visitors. There will be more features rolled out on Carbon Footprint in the coming months and we welcome any questions and enquiries from customers and visitors.

Ocean Freight

Although many of our regular customers will be aware of the customer service staff within Ocean Imports, a reminder of the contact information is below. Any enquiries relating to shipments should initially be directed to Trish and Sam who will be pleased to assist.

Patricia (Trish) Iversen North American Customer Service DDI:+44 (0)1322 424759 Email: patricia.iversen@sbsworldwide.com	Samantha Cordina Asia Pacific Customer Service DDI:+44 (0)1322 424746 Email: samantha.cordina@sbsworldwide.com

Spotlight on Vietnam

General Facts

A Few Freight Facts....

Vietnam is building no fewer than six deepsea ports in joint ventures with leading port and shipping companies, which will be able to handle the biggest vessels afloat.

A report published earlier in the year noted that containerised volumes had grown by 19% a year over the past decade, with Ho Chi Minh accounting for more than 70% of throughput. However, the port there can only handle vessels of about 1,600teu, requiring containers bound for the US and Europe to be transhipped via Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore, which invariably increases the cost. Vietnam's 21 airports, including its three international airports, also have severe capacity constraints and only 19% of the country's 222,000km of roads are paved.

Vietnam's airports are being beefed up under a US$7.2bn programme. A new terminal has been completed at the main airport in Tan Son Nhat, which handles two-thirds of Vietnam's international air traffic; a new terminal is slated for the Danang International airport and at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport by 2010.

The government also has a masterplan for a new airport at Long Thanh, 50km outside Ho Chi Minh, which will replace Tan Son Nhat as the country's primary gateway. To be developed in two phases over 5,000ha beginning from 2010, it will be one of the biggest airports in south-east Asia, with four runways and five terminals when fully completed, capable of handling 5m tonnes of cargo and 80m passengers a year.

Industry News

Closure of Factories During the Olympic Games

All high pollution factories in the Beijing area are being ordered to close from 20 July to 20 September. Beijing city traffic will be subjected to restrictions, although this will not affect the transportation of goods from factories to airports and seaports. These measures are being put in place in order to improve air quality during the Olympic Games.

China Launches E-tagged Container Route

A Chinese vessel with e-tagged containers left Shanghai in March bound for Savannah port in the US. This was an historic moment which marked the world's first international e-tagged container route. The e-tags installed on 20ft container equivalent units (TEU), will record information throughout the journey, including delivery and off-loading times and any openings during the voyage.

Chinese Visas

It is recommended that anyone requiring a visa to cover a trip to China in the coming months applies early as The Commissioner's Office of China's Foreign Ministry in the HK SAR will not be issuing multiple entries/working visas until further notice. Only single/double entry visas will be granted but the duration of stay will only be valid for 30 days.

Rate Adjustments

Ocean Freight

Empty Equipment Repositioning Charge

We have been advised that there will be an Empty Equipment Reposition Charge (POS) applied by shipping lines with effect from 7 May 2008. This is due to the deteriorating equipment supply in parts of North America which is creating additional costs for the movement of empty equipment to supply the increasing demand for export bookings.

We will be passing on these costs at the rates shown below which will apply on all Transatlantic East Coast and Cross-Border via Montreal dry cargo originating from points in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin

$150 per 20' container
$300 per 40' and 45' container

We will keep you advised on this situation.

Asia Pacific Region

Following a decline in volumes from Asia to Europe in February, carriers are now reporting increased volumes moving via ocean into Europe for March with volumes reaching 834,416 TEU's. This represents a 20.9% increase for the same period last year.

Many carriers withheld from implementing a GRI effective 1st April and extended their Q1 rates until 30th April at which time rates would again be reviewed. Even though the market is reporting increased volumes, SBS is fairly confident that our current rate agreements with all major carriers will remain unchanged and validity will be further extended to 30th June 2008.

North American Region

Ocean freight volumes from the USA to Europe are proving to be major issue with vessels currently heavily overbooked. Bookings for FCL containers are still having to be made 4-6 weeks in advance to guarantee space and equipment is available. As reported in last month's bulletin, SBS do have guaranteed space with carriers but, even with this in place, we are encountering problems like any other forwarder / logistics provider. What we are encouraging is the use of our weekly consolidation services as we have not experienced any problems to date because these services are scheduled. We suggest that you contact us for details of these services which, in the current climate, you may find beneficial.

Air Freight

Aviation fuel surcharge amendments

With the continuing increase in the cost of oil all major carriers have announced further increases to the fuel surcharge over the next 2 weeks.

Imports to the UK: US$ 1.00/kg (or local currency equivalent)
Exports from the UK: GB£ 0.66/kg

Effective 8th May all major carriers have announced further increases to:

Imports to the UK: US$ 1.10/kg (or local currency equivalent)
Exports from the UK: GBP 0.72p/kg

We will continue to show this surcharge as a separate line item in our documentation.

US Haulage Fuel Surcharge Increase

Due to the continued increase in the cost of diesel, USA LCL truckers have increased their fuel surcharge from 26% to 30%. Unfortunately, this is an increase in cost to us and we have no choice other than to pass on this surcharge with immediate effect. We will continue to monitor the situation and you will be notified of any further changes.

Charity Day

For the March quarterly staff charity, we supported Comic Relief and raised almost £200 through staff dress-down and name-the-bear competitions.

We will be participating in this charity event on Friday 16 May. Whilst we are now only doing quarterly charity events, we feel this is a worthwhile event both in raising money for the Worldwide Cancer Fund as well as raising awareness of cancer and the importance of healthy eating. Platters of fruit will be available in departments for voluntary contributions and staff will be asked to dress-down - yellow being the theme!

If you are interested in organising an event for Fruity Friday, there are ideas on the official website: www.wcrf-uk.org/fruity_friday/index.lasso

Thanks to Sharon Beattie who organises the charity events and helps to collect the money!!

Sharon

International Holidays

**Labour Day Holiday in China and Hong Kong on 1 May 2008**

To enable you to view international holidays, please click on the link below and select country/date of interest. This will provide up-to-date information on local public holidays.

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar