Forty Feet of Steel

How goods actually move around the world

Jonathan Tay2 episodes2 min of audio48 playsEpisodic

Episodes

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S1 · E2Sep 14, 20260:5835 plays Preview

Red Sea reroutes and the price of a sofa

When ships avoid the Red Sea and sail around Africa, a sofa from Turkey to Dubai takes a strange route. Jonathan explains the extra two weeks and who pays for them.

S1 · E1Jul 25, 20260:5613 plays Members

What a port strike does to a shoe shop

Jonathan follows a container of trainers from a factory in Vietnam to a shop in Auckland, and shows how a nine day dock strike in between turned into a three month problem.

About the show

Forty Feet of Steel is a fortnightly show about logistics and supply chains, told through the things in your house. Jonathan Tay spent fourteen years in container shipping and freight forwarding between Singapore and Rotterdam, and he explains how a sofa, a pair of trainers or a box of mangoes gets from a factory to your door, and what goes wrong on the way. Each 35 to 45 minute episode follows one product or one event, such as a port strike, a canal blockage or a sudden tariff, and traces its effect through ships, warehouses, customs brokers and the small shop at the end of the chain. Jonathan talks to forwarders, truck drivers, customs officers and exporters, many of them old colleagues. The show is for small business owners who import or export, for curious listeners who want to understand the news, and for anyone who has wondered why their delivery is three weeks late.

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