DHL Express has opened its ninth facility in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Located on Theni Main Road, the 5000 sqft, the state-of-the-art facility will cater to the areas of Madurai, Virudhunagar and Sivakasi. Its strategic location allows easy access between Madurai and DHL Express’ Bengaluru gateway, benefiting customers by saving at least one to two days on overall shipment transit time. RS Subramanian, Country Manager, DHL Express India, said, “With Madurai evolving as a prominent trade hub for numerous industries, DHL’s investment will help the growth of international trade from this cluster. Our new service center reinforces our ongoing commitment towards the thriving business community in Tamil Nadu and provides significant service improvement for customers. We remain focused on being a key trade facilitator for small and medium enterprises, making it easy for them to do business globally.”  

To seek higher ease of doing business ranking, the Indian customs department has communicated to the World Bank that the average time for clearance of consignments at ports have come down sharply to 100 hours. The release time of consignments at customs ports is one of the factors which is considered by the World Bank in its yearly ‘ease of doing business’ ranking. The department has also introduced an RFID-based system for real–time tracking of containers to help logistics companies locate the position of the consignment at any given time.   The customs department has suggested to the World Bank that its representatives can do an independent assessment of the release time of the consignment at the customs port using the real–time visibility application, said an official. “The World Bank says that the release time is 267 hours, but in fact it is only 100 hours. So, we want them to do a real–time check using any container number on the ICEGATE portal,” an official stated. The new ranking is expected to be released in October.

To enable a boon for industries and trade in the state of Punjab, three mega logistics parks have been initiated in Ludhiana. This was disclosed by Sunder Sham Arora, Punjab Industry and Commerce Minister at the Punjab Logistics Conclave, held recently. The parks, which will come up near Kila Raipur village, include multi-modal logistics park by Adani group, a logistics park by Punjab Logistics Infrastructure Limited and another one by Punjab State Warehousing Corporation. Arora shares, “These parks would act as a stimulus for growth of our industry. Logistics has been added in the state industrial policy as it is the backbone of the industry; it cannot be left out.”

To create transparency and digital transformation in the courier industry, CourierHome has necessitated to bring out  ‘Blockchain technology & AI,’ for enabling disruption in the logistics industry. The aim is to create transparency of all documents and transactions across the freight landscape, ultimately, increasing the efficiency, agility and innovation of supply chains. With the implementation of the new-age technologies the entire courier process will get automated, making the process more efficient.   Sushant Kumar, Co-Founder & COO, CourierHome, commented, “Today, the application of Blockchain technology is innumerable.  The logistics industry, which is a trillion-dollar industry, is going to alter the landscape of the logistics industry with this revolutionary technology. Seeing the advantages that blockchain brings in logistics, it can prevent frauds, eliminate inaccuracies, increase data security and transparency, improve efficiency, and reduce expenditure.”

The National Institute of Design (NID) has given visual identity to India logistics in the form of a logo. The logo was unveiled recently by Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation. The logo has been designed by a team consisting of faculty members: Tarun Deep Girdher, Amit Sinha, Sudip Adhikary, NID alumna Ankita Talapatra along with T G Shaikh.  According to the concept note, the symbol represents a pair of swans — the bird known for its ability to travel long distances and being compatible in the sky, water and earth. It also represents the agility of India Logistics as the pair portrays teamwork and coordination between various stakeholders. The overlapping white wing represents transparency. The logo is set in Indian tricolour to denote a progressing nation.  

Air Freight Institute (AFI) of FIATA shall conduct a conducive platform highlighting the opportunities and challenges in the air cargo industry across the globe at the FIATA World Congress (FWC) 2018. The session will be moderated by veteran air cargo personality Snehal Parikh, Managing Director, Lemuir Group. Panel speakers shall include Vandana Aggarwal, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India; Kirsten De Bruijn, VC, Cargo Pricing and Interline-Revenue Operations, Emirates SkyCargo; Ashwin Bhat, Head Swiss WorldCargo; Andrea Gruber, Head – Special Cargo, IATA and Bill Gottlieb, Past President, FIATA. Andrea will provide insight on the information on the latest development in the framework of transport of temperature sensitive healthcare and pharmaceutical products, how the industry is responding to the CEIV Pharma Certification programme, the next key industry priorities and future developments in the airfreight industry.

Maersk Line has successfully moved the largest ever break-bulk cargo at 103 ft in length and weighing over 16 tonnes from Krishnapatnam to Tianjin, China. The break-bulk cargo consisting of windmill blade was moved on its weekly service, Chennai Express, using 13 flat racks. The delicate shipment of windmill blade, meant for wind farms, was a time bound cargo and had to be loaded on to an earliest available vessel. Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk Line (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives), said, “There was seamless co-ordination between our team, the customer and the terminal operator to overcome infrastructure challenges and help deliver this delicate and expensive cargo to China.”

The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has launched a dedicated portal to connect cargo owners and shippers with real time data on availability of vessels. The landmark e-connect measure will enable direct interaction among the vessel operators, shippers and cargo owners as currently, there is no platform to know the availability of vessels in the market. It has been designed and developed by the in-house IT department and the traffic wing of IWAI as part of its preparedness for optimal use of its ongoing capacity development on various national waterways. Named as the Forum of Cargo-Owners and Logistics-Operators (FOCAL), the link of the portal is available at: www.iwai.nic.in. Nutan Guha Biswas, Chairperson, IWAI, on the launch revealed, “The step is in line with IWAI’s commitment to promote Inland Water Transport (IWT) in India through critical interventions, both physical and by creating intellectual property.”

Adani Logistics (ALL) have signed an agreement with NYK Auto Logistics India (NALI) to form a joint venture which specialises at strengthening finished vehicles transportation service network in India. Automobile sector is witnessing rapid growth. Loading activity in this sector increased by 16 per cent in 2017-18. This growth, coupled with government of India’s focus on promoting alternative means of transportation to reduce carbon footprint, increasing demand of transporting vehicles through rail mode is gaining traction. The JV company will participate in AFTO Policy of Ministry of Railways and offer its automobile freight trains for transporting vehicles across India in more efficient manner and will contribute towards green India.

With an objective to deliberate on trade related issues and policy matters pertaining to exports from Eastern India, an interactive session was organised under the aegis of FIEO with Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry & Civil Aviation recently. Nari Kalwani, Regional Chairman, FIEO Eastern Region, stated that trade restrictive measures, volatility in currencies and liquidity challenges were rising threats to India’s exporters’ community. He stressed on the need for streamlining infrastructure and logistics issues to boost exports from Eastern Region. The issue of cargo detention at Indo-Bangladesh border due to infrastructural bottlenecks, was a matter which should be taken up through bilateral discussion between the two countries. Prabhu stated that he was glad that the number of exporters were rising in India. In the month of June 2018, there was a 20 per cent rise in exports of India as compared to the previous month. The government has taken large number of measures in few months to promote exports, amidst rising protectionism in developed countries. He also mentioned how India has taken a firm stand at international level to emphasise on the role of WTO for resolving global trade disputes.