Bulk Carriers Market Procurement Intelligence Report

The market for Non-Military Vehicles and its sub-segments such as Bulk Carriers are at an interesting intersection. Markets across the globe are reeling under shortage of professionals and workforce that have relevant skills and training. Minimum wages and stringent regulations are compelling suppliers to increase their employee expenses which are expected to have an inflationary impact on buyers' procurement cost.

Regulatory guidance on data protection and increasing concern over cybersecurity have increased the costs for suppliers as they incur additional spend on compliance and security. These additional costs have a potential to drive marginal increase in prices across the key geographies.

Suppliers are continuously taking efforts to improve efficiencies and productivity and deploying processes and technologies. Some of these investments are likely to increase their costs in the shorter term, but learnings from other sectors keep the suppliers optimistic about a lean cost structure in the longer run.

Trends like these and many others discussed in this report are necessitating a relook at the way Bulk Carriers is procured and the procurement cost saving opportunities that exist.

It has become imperative for category managers to remain as agile as possible in terms of their procurement practices. However, it is not always easy to quickly spot and implement alternative practices in a category like Bulk Carriers. To help quick decision making, this report advises on several procurement best practices that have worked well for category managers.

For example, Buyers should engage with suppliers that have adopted a global delivery model as it reduces buyers' risk. In this model, any disaster/emergency at any operating facility of supplier will result in the work being transferred to a different facility, thereby ensuring continuity of the project and reduced risk for buyers. This model also provides buyers access to skilled labor from across the globe, thereby improving the quality of engineering products provided by the supplier.

Strong R&D focus is the sign of a supplier committed to enhancing the quality and cost proposition of its solutions. Buyers should collaborate with such suppliers for development of low-cost but highly efficiency products that can bring their OPEX down.

Competitive bidding as a cost optimization tool is extremely potent but should be carefully deployed only when there is no significant differentiation among Bulk Carriers suppliers.

Bulk Carriers procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Bulk Carriers procurement. Some examples include: