Responding to November 2021, FIEO President, Dr A Sakthivel said that the monthly exports performance of USD 30.04 billion with a high double-digit growth of more than 27.16 percent, showcases the continuous resilience of India’s exports sector. The enthusiasm with which the Exim community has impressively performed during the year has further given a boost to the sector, thereby helping the economy move towards recovery following the second wave of Covid-19 earlier this year. The recent GDP numbers also showcases the positive impact of exports, which has contributed in a big way to growth of the economy as a whole, added FIEO Chief. The FIEO President said that the top sectors, which performed impressively during the month were Petroleum Products, Engineering Goods, Organic & Inorganic Chemicals, Cotton Yarn/Fabrics/Made-ups, Handloom Products etc., Electronic Goods, Marine Products, Plastic & Linoleum, Man-made Yarn/Fabs./made-ups etc., Leather & leather products and RMG of All Textiles. Out of these, many of them were labour-intensive sectors contributing majorly to the exports basket during the month, which itself is a good sign, further helping job creation in the country. However, imports yet again clocking over USD 52.94 billion during the month with a very high growth of 56.58 percent, is a point of concern and should be analysed, said Dr A Sakthivel.

WebXpress has identified a few key trends in the logistics sector which will be trendsetter in 2022. Covid-19 has shaken the roots of the well-oiled world of Logistics. Before Covid-19, most companies assumed seamless movements, stable freight rates, unlimited capacity, and minimum buffer. But an even bigger disruption is on the way as major economies enforce climate commitments and consumers force companies to comply with them. Key tech trend that would drive logistics industry in managing climate goals: * Climate Measurement / Monitoring Tools * Localized Climate Data * Optimum EV Asset Utilization Tools * Carbon Trading Apurva Mankad, CEO and Founder, WebXpress adds, “World is entering a new phase of energy challenges. There will be a gap between cutting fossil fuel dependence while ramping up green energy sources. Logistics is one of the biggest emitter and its also technically easier to solve the issue of excess emission when compared to cement production. All you need to do is convert all vehicles to EV and run all warehouse on Solar energy. Of course, the reality will be far more complex and it will vary across nations. Companies need to offset emissions in one part of the supply chain with initiatives in distant locations. Here, technology will play a crucial role to track every movement, every km and measure its impact. The coming decade belongs to Global Green Tech.”

GEODIS has entered into a five-year unit load device (ULD) supply, management and repair agreement with Unilode Aviation Solutions, the market leader in outsourced ULD management and repair services. At present, GEODIS leases one A330-300 aircraft, converted into a freighter, and flies to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, O’Hare International Airport, London Stansted Airport and Hong Kong International Airport, to increase supply chain velocity and airfreight capacity for its customers. Unilode supplies containers and pallets to GEODIS and provides its full range of ULD management solutions, including procurement, planning, logistics, repair and digitalisation. Stanislas Brun, senior vice president, Global Air Freight, GEODIS said, “As airfreight capacity offered by airlines has significantly decreased during the pandemic, we decided to lease our own freighter aircraft to ensure air cargo space availability for our customers and increase the speed of their shipments. Unilode’s ULD management services proved to be the most convenient and appropriate solution for GEODIS’ start-up airline activities as in addition to supplying the necessary stock of ULDs at all our destinations, Unilode also takes care of all ULD-related operational tasks.”

The visibility platform company for shippers and logistics service providers project44 has analysed data for supply chain, indicating that berthing delays are causing a huge build-up of export containers within port terminals and creating a big spike in container dwell times globally. “Berthing delay is defined as the time it takes a ship between its arrival at anchorage until the time it is berthed to commence cargo operations. If there is a queue of ships waiting for a berth, the ships wait at anchorage until it is their turn to berth,” explains the company. According to the latest data from project44, export containers at the Port of Los Angeles took an average of 11.85 days to be loaded on a ship between October and November 2021 while its twin Port of Long Beach took an average of 10.98 days. With export containers taking about twice as long to move through US West Coast ports as import containers, project44 analysts claim that the problem appears to be getting containers off of docks and onto ships.

Ship operators must work alongside the companies they charge with maintaining engine condition in order to ensure a smooth transition to using alternative fuels. That is the challenge laid down by Lubrizol’s Technical Manager for Marine Engine Oils, Ian Bown, as the company explores how it must adapt lubricants to protect ship engines burning alternative fuels. Shipping’s long-term environmental targets are propelling the industry’s quest for new, cleaner fuels. But while the big target – cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent compared with 2008 levels – is still 29 years away, time is short for the task at hand. Engine technologies for many of the candidate fuels have yet to reach even the pilot stage in commercial shipping, but the lifespan of vessels means that fuel choices will need to be made very soon for newbuilds that will likely still be trading by 2050. The long development cycle for cylinder oils is another challenge. “It is well recognized within the industry that while changes come quite quickly in some areas, lubricant development is sometimes not as fast,” says Bown. “That’s because we have to understand the impact of these fuels when they’re in service.”

Blue Dart announced the launch of two exciting offers ahead of the end-of-the-year festivities – ‘Merry Express’ and ‘Assured Gift’ offer. The ‘Merry Express Offer’ can be availed from December 20th, 2021 until January 15th, 2022. The offer includes an exceptional discount of 40% on all gift shipments including, but not limited to, festive sweets, gifts and apparel weighing between 10kgs to 20kgs. This offer will be applicable on Non-Doc Shipments for Domestic Priority and International shipments. Over and above this, the express logistics provider has also launched the ‘Assured Gift’ offer which can be availed until March 31st, 2022. The exciting offer is in association with Spykar and is available to all retail customers booking a domestic or international shipment at any of Blue Dart’s stores across the nation. Availing this offer would enable customers to redeem a free Spykar Gift of their choice, with only having to pay for the shipping & handling charges. Gifts include but are not limited to, stylish watches that are sure to accentuate your look and handy yet trendy trolley bags & duffle bags that are sure to make travelling even more fun. Blue Dart’s Customer Centricity has always been a key market differentiator in a highly competitive environment. This coupled with its premium capabilities – it’s fleet of Boeing 757-200 freighters, technology-based solutions, an incomparable ground network facilitating trade to over 34,000 locations across India as well as its team of industry experts, all work towards enhancing customer delight by leaps and bounds.

ProcMart has launched its first-ever VMI app. The app will streamline inventory-management processes and operations, while also making ProcMart’s systems more mobile-friendly. Users will be able to access precise data on product usage on a real-time basis, consequently forecasting future demands and planning ahead in a seamless manner, via the platform. Additionally, they will have access to a plethora of features, including an easy-to-use barcode scanner, which will allow ProcMart to affix barcode tags to any products left at the client’s location. Owing to this feature, every time someone at the client’s premises needs to use that product, all they need to do is scan the barcode to register their usage. Using this app, ProcMart will be fully aware of the warehouse inventory at all times, which will also aid in better supply and procurement-management, by allowing the right products to be sourced at the right time. Commenting on the app launch, Anish Popli, CEO & Founder, ProcMart said, ‘With the launch of our VMI app, we aim to simplify the supply-chain as well as operations by recording all transactions, on-the-go. Procurement executives currently make up for about 73% of the workforce, which not only demonstrates the need to adopt mobile commerce, but also deliver a B2B-ready, mobile-friendly solution to clients. This app will significantly reduce the time and effort spent in operations, and consequently enhance capital efficiencies for our clients. Moreover, the app will also enable better supply of products for clients, owing to the availability of real-time data analytics, at the tap of a button.’

Oracle announced that Wipro Limited has chosen Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to power its next-generation Cargo Reservations, Operations, Accounting and Management Information System (CROAMIS) Application suite. This will allow Wipro to offer CROAMIS as part of Wipro FullStride Cloud Services, to customers worldwide, aiding faster modernization of the air cargo industry amidst growing demand for rapid cargo transportation services. Wipro chose OCI for its superior performance, high availability, built-in security, and lower cost. “There has been significant change in the supply chain, particularly in key industries such as pharma and e-commerce, which need goods to be moved rapidly around the world. While this has led to air cargo gaining share, it has also created the need for this industry to fast-track its modernization through the use of cloud and other digital technologies,” said Gopi Krishnan, Vice President and Managing Partner, Domain & Consulting Services, Consumer Sector, Wipro Limited. “Now, with CROAMIS on OCI, we will further strengthen our position as the technology partner of choice for many air cargo organizations. We envision its use will help our customers to scale faster, achieve increased business efficiencies, accelerate their pace of innovation, benefit from greater security, and reduce their data storage and outbound data transfer cost.”

For the second consecutive year, Sanjam Sahi Gupta, Founder, Maritime SheEO, and Birgit M Liodden of The Ocean Opportunity Lab co-organized the world’s largest maritime diversity conference on November 25th, 2021. The conference held digitally brought together prominent maritime professionals, government officials, marine lawyers, port captains, pilots, shipowners, business entrepreneurs, seafarers and women professionals in the maritime industry from around the world to celebrate change makers, diversity, and long-term solutions. The event drew an astounding 3500 +attendees from 77 different nations. Speaking at the Maritime SheEO conference, keynote speaker Kitack Lim, IMO Secretary-General, said, “The inclusion of women in the workforce and in leadership roles is fundamental to our global economies resilience”. In his opening speech, Bjornar Selnes Skjaeran, Ministry of Fisheries and Ocean Policy Norway remarked “to ensure that the maritime industry can develop further and be part of the solution to end the climate crisis, we have to be able to recruit the best talents, the best hearts, and the brightest mind”.

Cargo Flash Infotech will be replacing Kenya Airways’ manifold of operations and management systems that were either having limited connectivity options or systems working in silos, in which information sharing is restricted due to systems’ limitations. Kenya Airways’ numerous operations and management systems are currently being substituted by Cargo Flash’s single, next-generation ‘nGen’ system that includes Cargo Reservations (RES) System, Cargo Revenue Accounting (CRA) System, Cargo Handling and Warehouse Management, ULD Management Solution, and Customer Portal. Furthermore, the new and additional systems included as a part of this single ‘nGen’ system are Mail Booking and Handling System, E-commerce (Door-to-Door) System, Target Planning System, in addition to Complaint and Claim Management System. The web-based solutions will further bolster the airline’s scope to reap a seamless, error-free and spontaneous management, accumulating several processes under one roof. “Not only will Cargo Flash’s next-generation systems automate documentation and other cargo management processes but will also streamline Kenya Airway’s operational requirements along with boosting their efficiency and increasing revenue,” added Gautam Mandal, Director – Products, Cargo Flash Infotech. “We are pleased to have joined hands with Kenya Airways and deliver such an integrated solution to tackle the crucial concerns of cargo operation and administration,” he further adds.