please solve it Important:- subject is global sourcing

- You've just been hired by 3PL giant HatcherCo based out of Halifax Nova Scotia. Your boss has just sent you an email that he received from a potential client who is looking at bringing in 2.3 Million tonnes of Iron Ore for use at the local steel plant. Please consider the questions he has asked and write up a report answering these questions so that we have a starting point when you and your boss meet with the potential client next week. So my name is Bibo Baggins and I'm looking to procure about 2.3 million tonnes of iron ore a year for a steel plant l'm operating out of the South Shore. The steel plant is fairly secluded but the storage area for the iron ore is right in the middle of town so no problem accessing it. In general we have no peak season so we'll use up the inventory over the entire year evenly. Now l've been talking to a few brokers and they've made a few suggestions as to which countries I may want to source from. But they've also put this "just in time inventory" bug in my ear and to be honest I don't see the point. Please explain to me why I should consider this just in time inventory as opposed to just dropping it all off af once? And now that I think of it I heard a guy talking about intellectual property protection. Is this IPR something I should concern myself with? So the brokers are telling me I should be looking at Saudi Arabia, South Africa or India. They also sent me the current exchange rates for each of their currencies which I've attached below. Oh and they talked about being able to enter into "fonward contracts" in India so that l'm guaranteed to pay 10% more than the stated spot price of the currency today. Why would I want to sign a contract and pay more than the going rate today over 5 years? Oh and I forgot to mention that the Saudi Arabian iron ore is a lower grade and can't be directly fed into our smelter. It has to have a secondary procedure performed which I'm told will increase its purchase price cost by about 10% 2 extra days at port. The demurrage rate imel. Each vessel will hold 65,000 tonnes. Question/ So listen, if you could set me up with a costing of each of my options in us do lars that would be awesome. As well aboul answer the questions I posed in bold. And mention any other things ye Thought Exercise \#4