A Message from our CEO

Welcome to SIA Connect

Thank you for the opportunity to update you on all the developments in the SIA Global Family.

The Outlook

The outlook for the Flexitanks market is positive although it is expected to register fluctuating growth trends in the long term, while inflation and supply chain concerns are expected to continue in 2023. Shifting consumer preferences in a projected economic downturn scenario, amendments to industrial policies to align with growing environmental concerns, huge fluctuations in raw material costs triggered by prevailing geo-political tensions, and expected economic turbulences are noted as key challenges to be addressed during the short and medium term forecast

Our focus will be oriented toward targeted marketing, customer service, developing new technologies, efficient procurement/inventory, strengthening product portfolios, and leveraging capabilities to maintain growth. The economic and social challenges are noted to be highly varying between different countries/markets and we will be focused on region/country-specific strategies.

The US Market

US imports will begin to climb this month. Customers say their main concern right now is to avoid over-ordering products from factories in Asia until they get a better handle on consumer demand later this summer. That discipline would help avoid a repeat of the past two years when retailers quickly rebuilt inventories to levels that exceeded consumer demand. In addition to the level of inventories, the type of products retailers are carrying over will determine how much they order from Asian factories in the coming months.

Industry news

There was yet more consolidation in the flexitank market recently with the exit of Odyssey Logistics, their Flexitank division was headed up by one Roger Goose.

The Family

The SIA family continues to grow. We are delighted to announce the appointment of a new Danish Agent. More info to follow is due course.

The Ukraine

Last month we worked with our Ukrainian agent to assist with the shipment of sunflower oil in our flexitanks. It says a lot about the strength of the human spirit and the ingenuity of the people in the Ukraine to continue farming, producing oil and shipping in the middle of the biggest land war in 70 years.

As the famous Irish playwright Samuel Beckett wrote –

“ I Can’t go on, I must go on, I will go on.

Local plants, which are not on hold – ship significant volumes for export after the conflict started and large oil traders constantly purchase and ship out in our flexitanks. How do they do it? The map shows the red areas where the war is raging and the blue areas where is it “safe”

New Malaysian Office & Warehouse

I was in Asia again recently and I was delighted to attend the opening ceremony for our third Malaysian office and Warehouse in Pasir Gudang. The new office adds to our existing offices in Penang and KL Great work by SIA Team Asia. We had a great day and a fun road trip back to KL with a visit to Melaka on the way.

Stay Safe,

Damien

SIA Asia has officially launched our new office in Pasir Gudang on 18 February. Check out our photos of the team! Congratulations to our team here on their new offices.

SIA Europe is doing a great job and we are being contacted more and more by the bigger multinationals even out of the ISO Tank world who also see the change more and more in relation to the Non-Haz liquids not only food but also Chemicals and Feed and are respecting the Flexitank business more and more. This indicates a great positive change for the future with companies embracing flexitanks more.

Referee Robert

Robert has started a Referee course in Baseball recently, and the season has now started off!

Robert celebrated his 7th work anniversary with SIA on April 1st. Happy 7th Work Anniversary Robert! We look forward to many more years of growth together.

Happy Fur-st Birthday Marley!

Roberts Dog, Marley will celebrate her first birthday on May 21st.

Congratulations to Jane who celebrated her 2nd work anniversary on March 22nd. We look forward to celebrating many more years of working together Jane! Happy Work Anniversary.

We also extend Congratulations to Tricia Walker who recently celebrated her work anniversary, working one year at SIA Ireland. Thank you for your dedication and hard work, we look forward to celebrating more years of working with you Tricia! Happy Work Anniversary.

Everything is good in Italy. The Wine and chemical business is still going strong and we are looking for more potential customers on the market to be working with. Andrea and Leo started loading lemon juice concentrate from Palermo, however, the edible oil market is still shy at the moment.

Welcome Baby Tommaso 

Leo's Daughter (and Andrea's sister) gave birth to her first son Tommaso, Andrea and Leo are now an uncle and a grandfather. Congratulations on the new arrival!

Nonno Leo and Zio Andrea with Baby Tommaso

Andrea in Edinburgh

Lucky Andrea spent a weekend in Edinburgh with his girlfriend as a gift for his birthday. Andrea celebrated his birthday on March 2nd.

Andrea during his birthday trip to Edinburgh

Houston has increased business in the last 2 months with the addition of a new Global Freight Forwarder & a global account they have brought to us. We were successful in getting our flexitank approved, a trial test was completed and we were able to bring the customer into the SIA family from 2 of our competitors.

The logistics world seems to be better for now so the team here will enjoy the competitive rates while they can.

Alan has been able to generate some attention and business in Canada with an old customer/FF/fitter and hopefully, SIA will be able to generate some consistent monthly business from this.

Travis has done a few onsite trainings in Houston for a new business and we have some import business from China for one of our customers in Houston that our team here will handle the inland drayage and onsite discharge training coming up in May. This should be an ongoing business for a Fortune 500 company!

Travis Welch in the USA celebrated his 4th work anniversary with SIA in April. Happy Work Anniversary Travis. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to SIA Flexitanks.

Tech Tip for everyone. While we were onsite at one of our customers supervising a flexitank install, a long-time fitter introduced us to a new trick for our steel bar support cardboard tubes. We usually have 2 short ones that are worthless so this fitter showed us how to make our own using the rolled cardboard paper. Use any leftover cardboard from the roll and make a tube the thickness you need and use the tape supplied in the kit to secure the roll. Cut your tube to the size you need. Put tape where you are cutting to strengthen the tube. This works great if you need longer or shorter support tubes.

Alan recently volunteered on 2/18/2023 to work a little league baseball tournament Called Josephs Warriors. This tournament is in its 7^th year and is supporting families with children who have or are going through Cancer treatments or have passed away from cancer. Alan volunteered for a 2-hour slot and ended up staying for 4 hours! ''Thank you to Damien for allowing SIA to be a sponsor for this tournament. I will be signing up again for next year's charity.'' - Alan Miner.

Check out the link below to a video of the 2 parents who started this charity named after their son Joseph who lost his battle with liver cancer in 2016. What an amazing couple and to put a charity that has grown so large in 7 years is unbelievable. The turnout was so large they had to turn teams away because they didn’t have enough baseball fields to host everyone.

Travis recently made a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana to train one of our customer's fitting depots, Associated Terminals.

Travis re-trained them on how to install our flexitanks and cross-pump product from the rail-tank car to our flexitanks. The training session was a total success. Take a look through his photos below. 

Preparing and Lining the Shipping Container

Installing the SIA Flexitank

 While in New Orleans Travis wanted some authentic Cajun food and found a restaurant nearby where he ordered crawfish etouffee topped with fried catfish strips. 'This was one of the best that I have had in a long time.' - Travis.

Crawfish etouffee topped with fried catfish strips

After training was completed, Travis headed back to the airport to catch his flight back home. 'When the plane took off, I couldn’t help but notice a beautiful sunset just over the Mississippi River near New Orleans.'

Recently, Travis has been working on a personal project taking place at night and on the weekends. He is in the process of re-painting the interior of his home. Then, he will be re-tiling the whole house following the paint job.

'While I paint my Shih Tzu, Daisy is keeping a close eye on me to make sure that the job is done right. Her favorite place to keep an eye on me is on the sofa as seen in 2 of the photos…lol' - Travis.

Check out Travis' progression photos: 

On March 25th, Alan's family, wife Linda, Daughter Noelani, her husband Devin, Grandson Kaden & Granddaughter Brennan all volunteered their time to help raise money for another child and family that needed help. This one was called 'Rally 4 Ryker'. Ryker Garza is a Down syndrome boy who also has leukemia and has a lot of energy. He has already had some treatments for his leukemia and has many more to go so this was put together to help his parents with the overburdening costs. Check out the Facebook page link for those who want to see the photos. 'It was an amazing day! Thanks to my daughter for helping to spread the word about this event and for being the amazing daughter that she is…I am very proud of her family and my wife Linda.' - Alan.

Alan's granddaughter Brennan qualified for the Gifted & talented program at her school. We wish her many congratulations!

American Idol local “Trey from the Fe” Santa Fe TX participant visited Alan's Grandkids' school. Alan's grandson gave him his first tip in a card he made for Trey.

Alan and his wife Linda went to what is called the “Hill Country'' on March 17th for Linda's spring break to see some great friends and get some downtime. Alan's white cat found out and wanted to go too. Jagger just slept through it all.

Lastly, Alan had new Hurricane rated windows installed at his home. These were way overdue and finally got them installed. Great news, Alan! This upgrade will surely provide increased safety and peace of mind.

Installing the Hurricane windows at the Miner home

Selamat Hari lahir to Helmi who celebrated their birthday on February 13th. Happy Birthday Helmi!

Happy Birthday to David who celebrated his birthday on February 14th. Selamat Hari lahir David! 

Happy Birthday to Andrea who celebrated his birthday on March 2nd. Buon compleanno Andrea!

Happy Birthday to Leo who celebrated his birthday on March 20th. Buon compleanno Leo!

Selamat Hari lahir to Ms.Ong who celebrated her birthday on April 6th. Happy Birthday Ms.Ong!

Happy Birthday to Khairol Ikwan who celebrated their birthday on April 7th. Selamat Hari lahir Khairol Ikwan!

Selamat Hari lahir to Hafiz who celebrated their birthday on April 22nd. Happy Birthday Hafiz!

Selamat Hari lahir to Mr. Tay who will celebrate his birthday on April 23rd. We wish you a very Happy Birthday Mr.Tay!

Thank you for reading our SIA Connect!

Have a great month ahead!