aircraft charter broker Air Charter Service (ACS) announced that it had made good progress on its plans to expand in Australia, having increased its team size by half this year. Moreover, ACS said, the company’s Sydney office is preparing for further growth by moving into a much larger space. Paul Crook, chief executive in ACS’s Sydney office, reported: “Last year was our best year in terms of charter numbers and our revenue was almost double that of the previous year. “This year has proved just as strong, being on course for similar results to last,” he continued. “Off the back of 2022 we have hugely expanded the team this year, to keep up with the demand in the region. This has, however, meant that we outgrew our old office. “This new office gives us the room to fulfil our growth plans for the foreseeable future and is ideally situated in King Street, in the central business district of Sydney.” Crook describes this as “an exciting time for ACS Australia, as we look to further our success and grow our teams here in Sydney and in our other office in Brisbane”.

Adani Group’s flagship Mundra Port has set another record by handling 16.1 million tonnes of cargo in October, the highest-ever volume by any port in India, the conglomerate said in a release. It is the largest port in the country with 102 MMT of cargo handled so far this year with a good 9 per cent year-on-year growth. The port crossed the 100 MMT mark in 210 days, surpassing the record of 231 days last year. Mundra witnessed double-digit growth on a YoY basis for containers and liquids and gas, the press release issued Sunday said. Further, it achieved another milestone of handling 4.2 million twenty-foot equivalents (TEUs) of containers in just 203 days, a feat achieved in 225 days in the previous financial year. It added new cargo types such as Hydrolysis Pi Gas (HPG) to its portfolio. So far in 2023, it docked over 2,480 ships and serviced over 11,500 rakes.

Lufthansa Cargo has launched a new high-speed service for cargo shipments called, td.Zoom. This service offers the carrier’s fastest transport times, with ramp supervision during aircraft loading and unloading, dedicated ramp transfer from the warehouse to the aircraft and vice versa as well as tail-to-tail transfer on demand at its hubs in Frankfurt, Zurich and Munich, says release. “The offer also includes 24/7 personal td.Zoom Customer Service, that proactively monitors and steers every shipment and takes immediate action to prevent irregularities,” the carrier added. The service is in addition to Lufthansa Cargo’s existing priority services td.Pro and td.Flash. Chief executive Ashwin Bhat said that a shipment from Shanghai via Frankfurt to Zurich usually takes 45 hours with td.Pro and 35 hours with td.Flash but this will be reduced to 23 hours with td.Zoom. “td.Zoom is the fastest choice with top priorities, the shortest transit times and a personal td.Zoom Customer Service,” he said. “Optimal customer service means creating the right offering for every need. With td.Pro, td.Flash and td.Zoom, we now have a comprehensive choice in terms of speed of transport, allowing our customers to choose a price-performance ratio that meets their individual needs.”

Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, DIAL says, “We are actively engaged in seeking collaborations with cargo partners like CT operators, Airlines, freight forwarders & trade bodies to broaden our presence in both the domestic and int’l markets. These partnerships are aimed at expanding our network, providing more choices for our customers, and improving the efficiency of our cargo operations. He adds, “Regarding the expansion of freighters, we consistently evaluate market demand and remain open to supporting increased operations of freighters as required. Delhi Airport is the only airport in India, having 12 dedicated freighter parking bays which includes 3 simultaneous nose loading operations. We are handling ~15,000 freighter ATMs in a year which makes Delhi Airport the market leader in freighter operations across India. We added seven new freighter operators in the fiscal year FY’23. We are confident that this trajectory will continue in the future.

NSDC International, an enabler for global skilling solutions and We One, part of DP World, signed an agreement aimed at supporting the skill development and employment opportunities for the front-line workforce. The agreement was exchanged between Honourable Union Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship of India, Dharmendra Pradhan, and His Excellency, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World in the august presence of Sunjay Sudhir, the Ambassador of India to the UAE and Shri Satish Kumar Sivan, the Honourable Consul General of India to Dubai along with other officials. The signing event comes in continuation of a Memorandum of Understanding inked in May 2022 between NSDC International and Hindustan Ports (a DP World Company) to establish the Skill India International Centre in Varanasi, as a global centre of excellence for skills. In line with this, DP World collaborated with NSDCI to set up the Skill India International Centre at Varanasi which provides front-line workforce with services such as skill training, counselling, mobilisation, pre-departure orientation, foreign language training, placement and immigration and post-placement support. Speaking at the event, Honourable Union Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship of India, Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan highlighted that the agreement will create more avenues for global talent mobility, skilling and connecting Indian youth to relevant overseas employment opportunities. India is a reservoir of wide range of talent, he added. Shri Pradhan reaffirmed committed to fulfil aspirations of India’s youth and prepare them to drive economic prosperity, not only for India but also for global economies.

Bahrain-based investment firm Investcorp aims to increase its investments in India to as much as $5 billion over the next five years, from less than $1 billion today, as the investor looks to grow its private equity business and expand its real estate business in adjacent sectors such as logistics and warehousing and education infrastructure, said Mohammed Alardhi, executive chairman of Investcorp. The investment firm, which entered India in 2018 through the acquisition of IDFC Alternatives’ private equity and real estate funds, has grown its assets under management (AUM) from $180 million to approximately $800 million in 2023. “In the last five years, we got to know India very well, the team has really formed well, so the foundation is solid. And now, because of what we are seeing in India, the growth of the economy, the transformation that has happened, we believe that we can set a target of $5 billion AUM in the medium term,” said Alardhi. He added that with the planned growth in India business, the Indian portfolio will become a bigger part of its global business, growing from around 2% of its $50 billion AUM today to 5%. As Investcorp looks to expand its presence in India, it is also looking at entering more asset classes and going beyond private equity and real estate.

Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR) under the Ministry of Railways, GoI, is partnering with Japan-based “Innovation Thru Energy™” (ITE) to introduce groundbreaking IceBattery™ technology to the Indian market. CONCOR and ITE are jointly unveiling state-of-the-art temperature-controlled 20-feet & 40-feet (20FT/40FT) containers coupled with advanced DX (Digital) platforms, addressing critical issues in cold chain logistics, including environmental concerns, food wastage, the absence of a robust medical cold chain, and rising logistics costs. ITE, a leading manufacturer of green and sustainable cold chain solutions, offers cost-efficient supply chain solutions while reducing carbon emissions across train, sea, land, and air-cargo cold chains, as well as last-mile delivery. Key Features of 20F/40F IceBattery Container: Reduces energy consumption by 70~80%. Maintains temperatures between 2°C~10°C and 70~90% humidity without active power, extending perishable shelf life. While in operation 0% energy and 0% CO2 emission Save 70~0% CO2 emission, Carbon offset. Leverages the latest cold chain innovations to optimize resources, with a 12-hour charge providing 72 hours of temperature maintenance. Suitable for transporting perishable food items, non-food items, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and other healthcare products.

Lufthansa Group reported a 41 percent decline in cargo revenue at €675 million for the third quarter of 2023 compared to Q32022 on weak demand in a seasonally weak quarter. Revenue cargo tonne kms increased four percent to 2.2 billion, available tonne kms increased nine percent to 4.1 billion and load factor was down (2.7 percentage points) to 52.9. “Stabilisation of cargo yields (Q3: +39 percent vs 2019) and volumes indicates a bottoming out of the market,” says an official release. Adjusted EBIT plunged to €1 million from €331 million in Q32022. “For the fourth quarter, a slight year-on-year increase in transported volumes is expected.” For the first nine months of 2023, cargo revenue declined 38 percent to €2.2 billion and adjusted EBIT dropped 86 percent to €189 million. While capacity was up nine percent, cargo load factor declined five percentage.

Hopes of a surge in air cargo demand towards the end of the year diminished in October as the latest data showed only a slight uplift in demand. The latest figures from data provider Xeneta show that air cargo demand increased 2% in October compared with September which is described as “sub-seasonal” compared with the previous five years. General air cargo spot market rates were also up by around 2% over the two months, reaching $2.28 per kg. Compared with a year ago, demand was up 2% in October while rates were down 30%, although this is the lowest rate of decline registered this year. Rates also remain above pre-Covid 2019 levels, supported by premium and special cargoes, while general cargo rates have “nearly gone back to their pre-pandemic levels”. “This is attributed to the slight uptick in global cargo volumes as well as a slowdown of cargo capacity growth in a month in which global belly capacity returned to its pre-pandemic level, albeit this recovery is varied across major lanes,” said Xeneta in a press release.The dynamic load factor reached 59% in October, which is its second-highest level of the year, but still down two percentage points on October 2022 levels.

DP World and BoxcoWorld FZE, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with to invest USD 28 million in the construction of a cutting-edge warehouse facility in Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA), UAE to cater global needs. The agreement was signed by Abdulla Al Hashmi, COO, Parks & Zones, DP World, UAE Region and Vir Kotak, Founder, BoxcoWorld. The new facility will cater to the warehousing demands of its existing customers, providing them with a state-of-the-art facility equipped with one-window logistical solutions. The industrial bloc will offer sorting and repackaging services for imported waste paper, primarily from the USA and Europe. After the sorting and repackaging process, the waste paper will be re-exported to markets in the Indian subcontinent and Far East Asian regions. The facility is projected to have a throughput of approximately 15,000 TEUs. Additionally, a 40,000 CBM robotic racking system for Polymers will be created, which is a unique and pioneering initiative set to be the first of its kind in the GCC. The warehouse facility will serve as the ideal destination for customers to efficiently manage their import and export cargo with minimal delays when connecting to and from vessels. It will also be efficiently equipped to provide customizable on-site storage solutions tailored to the unique requirements of clients and their business needs. The facility will foster closer relationships with existing and prospective clients, enabling the company to gain a deeper understanding of specific customer needs and challenges in the import, export, and trading sectors. Speaking on the signing of the MoU, Vir Kotak, Founder, BoxcoWorld said, “I am extremely optimistic and excited about the growth prospects of the entire region. Dubai, Jebel Ali, and Jafza are …