Compare risks faced by ocean and Air shipments?

Ocean shipping provides larger shipments, is cheaper, but is also very dangerous. There

are many risks that are faced by shipments made on the ocean. One of the biggest risks faced by

ocean shipments is the weather. The weather is very unpredictable and being on the open water

you never know what might be coming your way. You can be faced with hurricanes, tropical

cyclones, typhoons, etc. These storms have very aggressive winds, rain and cause hazards waves

which can lead to consequential harm to the cargo or may even sink the cargo vessels. [ CITATION

Ben15 \l 1033 ] Another risk faced would be the fear of piracy. Piracy is the action of boarding

any kind of vessel with the intention of performing theft with violence by pirates. [ CITATION Mar1

\l 1033 ] For example I have a friend who works with a supply chain company in New York City

and one of their shipments that was being shipped by ocean from China was robbed by Pirates.

The Pirates stole merchandise and then they set the ship on fire. Not only did they lose the

merchandise but the ship also sank. The cargo being damaged or lost is another risk faced by

ocean shipment. Cargo can be damaged in many different ways such as cargo movement, wave

damage, or water damage. Cargo can be lost at sea due to lash bars failing which cause the

containers to collapse or even the cargo catching fire.[ CITATION Dav17 \l 1033 ]

Unlike ocean shipping, shipments made by air are not as dangerous but still have its risks.

In air shipment one of the risks are the cargo handling. You have no idea how the cargo will be

handled before it is loading or after it is loaded. But from personal experience the times that I

have been on an airplane my luggage bags came back to me all broken and that’s just luggage

now imagine cargo. Cargo movement is also another risk due to rough air currents. Since goods

that are high in value are usually shipped by air theft is another risk. At times goods may be
packaged inadequate will result in the goods being damaged. Goods shipped through air may be

transported between different locations that vary in temperature from tropical to warm-weather

to cold weather. This is considered to be a risk because the goods might not be able to withstand

so many climate changes.[ CITATION Dav17 \l 1033 ]

Works Cited
Maritime Connector. (n.d.). Retrieved from Modern Piracy: http://maritime-connector.com/wiki/piracy/

O'Brien, B. (2015, 2 13). Trade Ready. Retrieved from Three hazards of shipping by sea and how to aviod
them: http://www.tradeready.ca/2015/trade-takeaways/three-hazards-shipping-by-sea-avoid/

Pierre, D. (2017). International Logistics The Management of International Trade Operations. In D.

Pierre, International Logistics The Management of International Trade Operations. Cicero Books.