The economic activity hasn’t been slowing in recent months and spending is high. With the Reserve Bank’s efforts to reduce spending they continually are raising interest rates. Interest Rates haven’t gone up at this rate for 28 years. The Economic activity has caused the warehouse to experience an unprecedented problem. The requirement for third party logistics has never been so high.
With our own warehouse included, Adelaide warehouses have never been so full of stock. Steadfast Australia has been fortunate to have had access to a near limitless amount of space with our “Expanding walls”. However, the limit is nearly reached. At what point does the big sign go up “Adelaide is FULL” and what are we to expect for the economy when the demand is still too high and the stock levels are just too low as storage is full -despite each business holding 30% more product- and the supply of stock just isn’t coming in quick enough anymore. I’m sure you would be aware by now that there are shortages of just about anything each week.
The problem the warehouse faces is the increased time in delivering an order due to the fact that there is no space left in our warehouse for moving to pick stock. Another issue which can increase picking time is the required travel time required to pick an order since our warehouse floor space has tripled in size since last year and is spread across multiple sites.
The same can be said about receiving stock into the warehouse as we just don’t have the room to put anything in without it disrupting the other staff and their movements picking orders.
Although Steadfast is experiencing a storage influx, the cost of acquiring new space is at an all time high from inflation and demand for space. This creates greater cost stress on the future of storing goods in Australia. There may become a need to manufacture again for some products in Australia in order that it be more cost effective again to keep up with demand.
Freight is another section of the logistics industry increasing at an all-time high. The Freight companies are recording record profits in the last year, however, they have been charging Fuel surcharges on top of their increased rates at 40% or greater when the cost of Diesel has been consistent since the start of the year.
We don’t know the economic future, but what we do know is that we will still have a solution for your needs in each situation. We will remain Steadfast and providing ‘Strength through service‘.
