Cathay Pacific has suspended all long-haul freighter and cargo-only passenger flights to and from Hong Kong until January 6. The Hong Kong carrier said the move was in response to recently announced more stringent quarantine requirements for Hong Kong-based cargo crews. The suspension applies to all long-haul cargo flights covering the transpacific, Europe, South West Pacific, Riyadh, and Dubai. “We sincerely apologise for the disruption caused. We will be working with customers to mitigate the disruption as much as possible,” the airline’s cargo division stated. “In addition, we are working with the relevant stakeholders on plans beyond 6 January and will communicate further on these as soon as possible.” On December 28, the carrier had warned that the new crew restrictions could affect operations through the first quarter.

Hong Kong International Airport’s (HKIA) cargo volumes in November saw a year-on-year increase of 10.1% to 478,000 tonnes as monthly passenger numbers also increased. The increase in cargo throughput was mainly attributed to the 16.1% growth in transshipments, continuing the traditional peak period for air cargo. Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) said that overall cargo to and from North America, Europe and Southeast Asia experienced the most significant increases during November. Meanwhile, the airport handled 120,000 passengers in the month, a 48.1% rise. In the first 11 months of the year, HKIA handled 4.6m tonnes of cargo, an increase of 12.9% compared to the same month last year. On a 12-month rolling basis, HKIA handled 5m tonnes of cargo, an 11.6% year-on-year increase.

Shypmax, India’s first and only AI-powered Logistics Platform as a Service (LPaaS) for cross border shipping, announces its collaboration with the Netherlands based B2C Europe, a Maersk company specializing in B2C parcel delivery services in Europe. The collaboration will enable Indian businesses to deliver their products to Europe, including the UK, based customers cost-effectively using a single-window platform. Shypmax, enables Indian companies, especially SMEs, Direct-to-customer, B2C, and E-commerce firms, from over 27,000 pin codes, to deliver any product across European markets and beyond. Shypmax automates processes related to compliance with current regulations in the European Union. As India’s first Import One-Stop-Shop (IOSS) ready facility enabling centralised declaration and payment of VAT by European customers at the point of sale, Shypmax is saving Indian companies and the European customers from the hassles of navigating through different tax systems in Europe. The services also include customised labels, pickup, packaging, and door-to-door delivery via more than 100 connected carriers across Europe and beyond by B2C Europe.

Commenting on the interim data for the first three weeks of December exhibiting over 35% growth in exports, Dr A Sakthivel, President, FIEO said that such performance is remarkable and better than anticipated by us since lot of exports have been frontloaded and shipments generally meant for December have already been exported in November or earlier. Moreover, our exporters across sectors are flushed with orders for the next fiscal pushing the growth prospects. We will also be having the additional exports coming from some of the PLI sectors in the next fiscal pushing overall exports and continuing us on the same growth path. The Mega Textile Parks and Food Parks will also have a spin off effect on the export of Food & Textile products. President, FIEO also countered the news reported in some of the dailies stating that US$ 500 Bn target may elude us. Dr Sakthivel said that since India will be adding over US$ 130 Bn or so in the current fiscal, we should aim to build on the same and thus aim much higher. Since we are likely to cross US$ 400 Bn in 2021-22, we should focus and aim for exports in the vicinity of US$ 525-530 Bn in 2022-23.

There has been an all-out fight for freight ever since the recommencement of the staggering economy amid the pandemic and a boom in online buying. Obtaining shipping containers for moving coffee has been heavy on the pockets in the best scenario while in the worst, containers have been unobtainable, only adding fuel to the prices. It is believed that in the future, roasters are more likely to start utilizing old-school shipping without containers. To solve the long plaguing shipping bottlenecks, many shippers are adjusting to this new shipping modality, despite the complexity. Handling of bags instead of containers is much harder, from the inland transportation in the origin to the reception at the destination, as only a handful of the ports are equipped to lift the bags from a vessel’s hold. A first of its kind in over 20 years, a break-bulk vessel named Eagle has found its way from Lampung in Sumatra, through the Mediterranean, and is now headed for New Orleans, transporting robusta coffee bags stacked in its hold to the U.S., garnering a lot of attention. The ship-part of a burgeoning experiment is a hope for the industry where producers, roasters, and traders are looking to leapfrog a global container shortage that’s causing an unprecedented backlog of shipments.

Indian D2C brands, which are expected to emerge as USD 100 billion addressable markets by 2025, completely owned 2021 with their exceptional growth in terms of sellers and volume of shipments. Shiprocket, a technology-focused D2C enabler, in its recently released year-ender report observed a 60% growth in the number of sellers on board its platform, crossing over 150,000 sellers, alongside the 25% surge in the new sellers on the platform. Further, the volume of shipments saw an 80% increase in 2021, with remarkable growth coming in during India’s grand festive season. The platform saw over a 15% hike in sellers and a 20% rise in the volume of shipments just in Q3 of 2021 as compared to Q2, reflecting remarkable growth. The year saw electronic items such as mobile phones/tablets, personal care products, apparel, healthcare, and groceries emerge as the top 5 categories. Furthermore, 2021 was a year of technology advancements and adoptions not only by the brands but also by the consumers. Customers were more inclined towards digital transactions than ever before, with prepaid orders comprising 70% of the total orders while COD orders hovered around 30%.

$100-billion Tata group’s Chairman N Chandrasekaran puts supply chain resilience as the company’s top strategy theme along with Digital, new energy, and health. While giving his New Year address to the group’s 800,000 employees, Chandrasekaran said businesses and society must adapt to the virus by preparing as “best we can for new outbreaks and variants. We are seeing this now with the spread of Omicron”. The bygone year has been simpler and financially stronger for the company. Chandrasekaran puts the spotlight on the group’s sustainability progress while speaking of the last years and says, “We have made good progress addressing our carbon footprint and positioning our companies to benefit from revolutionary new technologies. Our most important milestone this year culminated in our bid to win Air India. It is indeed a historic moment,”. Speaking of the way forward, he said, “Our strategy, looking ahead, has four themes: digital, new energy, supply chain resilience, and health. Our companies are already adapting to these changes, and we are witnessing a stronger performance.”

Occupier confidence has improved in the latter half of 2021 with occupiers closing large office deals, cementing the resilience of the sector and the underlying importance of offices. Occupiers remain focused on enhancing the well-being and experience of their employees as they plan to return to the office, chasing lucrative leases while realigning long-term plans. Developers are determined towards asset enhancement through requisite retrofit to remain relevant and retain tenants. “The year 2021 was a watershed moment for India’s real estate sector. Even when the going was tough, the sector not only remained resilient but also emerged stronger than expected. India’s office sector is coming out of the woods, with demand back to pre-record levels. The year 2022 will even be better, even if marred by the new Covid-19 variant. We have now learned to live with uncertainty. Gross absorption in 2022 should be about 15-20% higher than this year as occupier confidence is back in the market. In terms of global capital chasing real estate, the office will continue to remain a dominant sector, but residential and industrial & warehousing will strengthen in 2022 aided by strong business fundamentals,” said Ramesh Nair, CEO, India and Managing Director, Market Development, Asia, Colliers.

Lodha Group has signed a deal with third party logistics firm Flyjac Logistics, a subsidiary of Hitachi Transport System Group, to sell a 22.3 acres land parcel at the Palava industrial park. Real estate major Lodha Group, or Macrotech Developers said it has closed a deal with an affiliate of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) to develop 1.9 million sq ft at Palava Industrial and Logistics Park (PILP), near Mumbai. This would entail an investment of about ₹600 crore to build grade-A warehouses across 72 acre at PILP. Mumbai-based Lodha Group would be the project development manager, and will be responsible for leasing, project development, and asset management. MSREI is the private real estate investment management arm of Morgan Stanley. “Our marquee acquisitions and key partnerships for PILP have helped us establish a solid track record in the logistics sector. Through this formidable collaboration, we will leverage our development expertise along with MSREI’s industrial know-how as we continue to expand and enhance this best-in-class industrial park. These are exciting yet crucial times for us as we expect more such strategic partnerships in the near future,” said Shaishav Dharia, CEO, Townships, and Rental Assets, Lodha Group.

A new cargo airline in Bangladesh is due to commence operations next year. NXT Air has released a statement to local media confirming it has received a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB). Cox’s Bazar Airport in the south of Bangladesh will be the main operation base for the cargo carrier. The airline’s plans to initially use an ATR 72 to carry cargo. A second ATR 72 and a Boeing 738 are due to be introduced later in the year to enable the airline to operate on international routes. Cargo airlines in Bangladesh include Bismillah Airlines, Easy Fly Express, Hello Airlines and SkyAir.