New Cleveland Warehouse Adds Space for Our Growth
In order to support our growth, our Cleveland warehouse is moving to a new space on April 15th, 2024.
This move supports our current capacity and gives us room to grow. The new warehouse, located at 5300 Lakeside Ave E, will increase our capacity by 40%. The move will also increase our capabilities in the following ways:
- Better tracking and visibility, providing our customers with faster and more comprehensive service.
- More streamlined pick-ups and operations.
- A more modern facility.
We have started to transition our inventory to the new location, and plan to be fully operational by April 15th. Our operations team is working hard to ensure there are not disruptions by this transition.
If you have any questions, please reach out to your Vanguard Safety representative or call us at 866-848-2736.
New Vanguard Safety Sustainable Vacuum Sealing Packaging Initiative
In January, we launched new vacuum sealing packaging for 12 of our polypropylene hoods, bouffants and sleeves.
Vacuum sealing removes all air from a bag and seals it closed with a combination of suction and heat. The suction removes the air from the bag, and the heat seals the bag shut.
The new packaging has some exciting new benefits including:
- •Reducing case size by up to 30%, which minimizes the overall footprint of the packaging.
- Ability to fit more product on each pallet and container.
However, one of the main reasons we started this initiative was to build upon our Sustainability platform, which is extremely important to us. By vacuum sealing the packaging, we also use up to 30% less packaging materials, thus reducing both our carbon footprint and waste impact.
These are the products with new vacuum sealed packaging:
- B19N13: White Polypropylene Hood, Large
- B19N14: White Polypropylene Hood, XL
- B19Q13: White Polypropylene Hood, Large, 200 Ct.
- B19Q14: White Polypropylene Hood, XL, 200 Ct.
- B19N23: Blue Polypropylene Hood, Large
- B19N24: Blue Polypropylene Hood, XL
- B19N34: Red Polypropylene Hood, XL
- B11B11: White Polypropylene Pleated Bouffant, 21”
- B11B12: White Polypropylene Pleated Bouffant, 24”
- B11A13: White Pancake Bouffant, 28”
- B15A22: Blue Premium Pancake Bouffant, 24”
- B16M10: White Polypropylene Sleeve, 18”
We will continue to review our product offering and use vacuum sealed packaging for other candidates where and when we can.
Read more about our sustainability platform here.
Raw Material and Market Snapshots
- Nitrile: Increased slightly in the last 2 months, additional increases expected in the near future.
- Vinyl: Increased in the last 2 months, but pricing has plateaued.
- Latex: Stable
- Poly: Stable
- Oil: Hovering around $87 per barrel, which is an uptick from its sharp drop late last year when oil was as low as $68 a barrel.
- Freight Negotiations: The ocean freight market enters into negotiation season starting in April, which is effectively a global reset on freight. With the uncertainty this year with the Red Sea and Panama Canal, rates are still expected to be high.
Red Sea Crisis Still Ongoing
The Red Sea crisis is giving ocean carriers varying opinions on how or when to go about returning to the waterway.
In a recent service update, CMA CGM said it reevaluated the situation in the southern area of the Red Sea, concluding that the “evolving conditions allow us to resume transit on case-by-case basis.” The container shipping company said the situation is being closely assessed for each vessel before transit. All other vessels will still be rerouted via Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
Unlike CMA CGM, Maersk still hasn’t committed to sending any ships back through the Red Sea. In a market update last week, Maersk’s regional president for North America, Charles van der Steene, bluntly said, “No one knows for how long the situation will last.” Overall traffic traversing the Red Sea and Suez Canal is still low. For the week of February 18th, traffic was 61% below normal levels. Yet, there are some signs of stabilization. Commercial shipping traffic rose across vessel types through the Bab el_Mandeb Straight by 7%. Though, the uptick was due primarily by ships entering the regional market.
Although drone and missile attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis continue to persist, carrier pricing has somewhat plateaued. However, rates are still high.
Threat of Strike Looms Large over East and Gulf Coast Ports
There is increase skittishness surrounding the future of East and Gulf Coast ports.
The labor contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) expires at the end of September. The ILA represents some 70,000 dockworkers, while the USMX represents employers at 36 coastal ports, including three of the U.S.’s five busiest ports: the Port of New York and New Jersey, the Port of Savannah, Georgia, and the Port of Houston.
Contract negotiations between the ILA and the USMX began in February 2023 but quickly floundered on the issue of wage increases. Developments since then have not been promising.
Even with the uncertainty behind the negotiations, experts still believe that the West Coast ports’ market share will continue to erode. Because of the 11 month uncertainty with the West Coast labor contract in 2022-2023, much of the volume shift from the west to east coast remained permanent. Experts believe that shift will likely remain intact.
Poly Sleeves Market Shortage
VGuard® B76N10
We have noticed an increase in requests and demand for the B76N10, our 1 mil
white polyethylene sleeve. This suggests that there may be a shortage of product
on the market. We would like to reassure our current customers that we have
enough safety stock on hand to satisfy their demand.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to your Vanguard Safety
representative or call us at 866-848-2736.
Capacity Still Tight Post Chinese New Year
Factories are fully operational after the Chinese New Year holiday. However, capacity is still tight, especially on vinyl disposable gloves.
Vanguard Safety is monitoring both overseas capacity as well as domestic supply chain disruptions. We are purchasing safety stock in order to support our customers.