Toner bomb restrictions may squeeze sea freight
The discovery of two Al-Qaeda bombs based on toner cartridges raises security spectre over heads of the print channel
Grounded: Restrictions on importing toner cartridges could hit channel firms
Restrictions on the transportation of toner by air may be squeeze inventory if more suppliers are forced to rely on sea freight. The changes come after two printer bombs were found at Dubai and East Midlands airports last week.
James Kight, managing director at VAR Printerland, said the effect on the channel should be small, but he did not rule out the possibility of inventory problems if suppliers that use air cargo turn to sea freight.
“We are stocking up,” he said. “I am just not taking any risks with it, although our major vendor Oki assembles in the UK. It might affect exports to other countries.”
Kight said that although the authorities were probably right to introduce further restrictions, restricting toner imports alone seemed unlikely to prevent future attacks.
“I hope it is not just a knee-jerk reaction, although we do need to have the security,” he said.
The UK government is reviewing air freight security as a result of the incidents and has announced that toner cartridges are prohibited from air cargo into, via or from the UK with immediate effect, unless they originate from a regular shipper with Department of Transport-approved security arrangements.
Alex Ward, commercial director at Midwich, agreed with Kight. Bombs could be planted inside a wide range of electronic equipment, so it was hard to see how a restriction that only applied to toner cartridges would be effective.
Most inventory through distribution is ordered a long way in advance and in large volumes from established suppliers, so the risk from increased restrictions on the supply chain for non-mission-critical items should prove minimal.
“I don’t think it will change anything,” Ward said. “However, people shipping non-authorised product or in smaller volumes are going to be concerned and so they should be, even though their product is mostly legitimate.”
Carrying toner cartridges of 500g or heavier in hand luggage has been banned as well. Also, all unaccompanied air freight via Somalia and Yemen has been prohibited. The new measures are for one month, with a long-term regime under consideration.
Cambridge risk and compliance screening provider Datanomic has issued a statement saying that the incidents prove that industry must take more care. Logistics and third-party supply chain providers should brace for even more scrutiny, auditing and potential changes to the existing “trusted shipper” system as a result.
Simon Pearson, vice president of risk and compliance screening at Datanomic, said: “We should be careful that such plots don’t result in knee-jerk reactions that overlay massive additional burdens on compliance and shipping teams, but certain risk factors should trigger deeper levels of investigation by the carrier.”
Screening of shipments and their originators may need to go beyond what is required by law, according to Pearson.
“Supply chain and logistics companies will not only be facing increased pressure to implement risk profiling, but also demonstrate that they have the necessary procedures and systems in place. Likewise, as terrorist threats continue to evolve, we believe this will spread to other industries,” he said.
Cameron Mitchell, managing director at reseller Printware, said there still seemed to be a lack of clarity around the response to the toner-bomb incidents.
“However, our understanding is that recognised carriers will continue to operate with some freedom,” he said. “While safety is paramount we need to be careful we don’t take a sledge hammer to crack a nut and become too draconian in resolving this problem. I’m sure we won’t see panic-buying of consumables!”
It is believed that both bombs hailed from an Al-Qaeda group in Yemen and were en route to Chicago. They were reportedly only discovered after a tip-off from a member of Al-Qaeda itself.
A print toner cartridge containing explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) was found at East Midlands Airport on a cargo plane that had arrived from Dubai. A second bomb, again concealing PETN within a toner cartridge, was then found on another cargo plane in Dubai.
It has been reported that the devices were based on HP kit. The vendor has issued the following statement through its PR firm: “HP is fully co-operating with the authorities, and has no further comment at this time.”
It is understood that several planes, both cargo and passenger, had transported the bombs before their eventual discovery.