Category Archives: International

GreenBase, a joint venture between the realty major Hiranandani Group and US-based private equity firm Blackstone Group announced its plans to invest over INR 3,000 crores to develop industrial, logistics, and warehousing parks across key cities in India. The joint platform is looking to build and expand its portfolio by at least 15 million sq ft, taking it to more than 20 million sq ft in the next five years. The company is targeting a valuation of between Rs 5,500 crore and Rs 6,000 crore for its portfolio once the proposed expansion is completed. “The demand scenario for India’s logistics sector looks promising with rising consumerism and higher economic activity. We are optimistic about the growth in this segment, led by a conducive economic scenario, and our plans have been aligned to make the most of this rapid progress.” said N Shridhar, CEO of GreenBase. He adds, that the joint platform is also considering a plan to list the industrial and logistics portfolio through a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in India or even overseas. GreenBase plans on financing the proposed investment through equity worth Rs 1,000 crore and the balance with leverage. The company’s current leverage level stands at around 25-30% of its existing capital.

Cargoes Customs provides an intelligence-enabled, unified customs operating model that optimises border management and revenue collection activities. The system empowers customs agencies to facilitate trade, secure global supply chains, and increase compliance. At the same time, it minimises revenue leakage for government agencies. The platform is built to assist global customs organisations in reforming and modernising processes by streamlining digital transformation through the latest technology and tools. The Cargoes Customs platform is based on the belief that with technology as a foundation, any customs organization can vastly improve its digital capabilities and better integrate with key agencies and other countries, while also satisfying any regional agreements. The system is further enhanced by its powerful risk engine which detects revenue leakages. This technology improves visibility and traceability, and is based on WCO best practices, thereby optimising the customs clearance process. As an intelligent risk engine, it helps enforce compliance and promotes seamless collaboration between authorities, government departments and stakeholders. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO of DP World, said: “Trade is a key driver to help economies around the world to recover fairly and sustainably from the economic shock of the pandemic. At DP World, we are doing our part to make trade flow as smoothly and seamlessly as possible, and with Cargoes Customs we really help customs authorities around the world to become dramatically more efficient – now and for the long term. This new digital solution connects customs officials and traders through an easy-to-use interface and a suite of custom-built tools. We will continue to invest in our digital platforms to bring simplicity, transparency and efficiency to global trade – at customs, and beyond.”

Frankfurt Airport handled record volumes of cargo last year despite a reduction in bellyhold capacity. The German hub – which is also the largest cargo airport in Europe – handled a record 2.3m metric tons of cargo last year. This figure is up 18.7% on 2020 levels and 8.9% ahead of the pre-pandemic year 2019. The airport said that airfreight was the main driver behind this growth, while airmail continued to be affected by the lack of belly capacity on passenger aircraft. Airport operator Fraport’s chief executive, Stefan Schulte, said: “Throughout 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic continued to have a massive impact on Frankfurt Airport. Passenger traffic recovered gradually in the course of the year – even rising threefold in the April-to-December 2021 period compared to 2020 – but we are still far away from the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Cargo traffic, in contrast, saw very positive growth in 2021. Airfreight volumes in Frankfurt even reached a new annual record, despite the ongoing shortage of belly capacity on passenger flights and other challenges. This underscores our role as one of Europe’s leading cargo hubs.”

Seko Logistics has launched a new e-commerce business unit as it looks to grow cross-border e-commerce volumes. The new business unit, Seko ECommerce, will offer four core solutions: international e-commerce shipping and delivery services; e-commerce fulfilment; parcels returns and re-commerce and heavyweight e-commerce shipping and last mile delivery. The new business unit will primarily work with fashion, beauty, cosmetics, tech and lifestyle clients, which have “spearheaded their e-commerce growth for over 10 years”. Seko ECommerce will also work with other aggregators and postal operators to facilitate global international e-commerce parcel shipping. In the US, Seko will also grow its service offering for larger consumer purchases. “The new business unit will support increasingly knowledgeable etailers and merchants which are becoming even more savvy in their choice of e-commerce partners,” Seko said.

Envirotainer and Air France KLM Martinair Cargo (AFKLMP Cargo), the leading airline in pharmaceutical logistics, announced their collaboration on sustainability. Envirotainer and Air France KLM Martinair Cargo each have a strong focus on sustainability and are pursuing multiple initiatives with a view to achieving more sustainable operations. Being long-term close partners, both organisations sought to strengthen the initiatives by collaboration. Air France KLM Martinair Cargo has approved the newly introduced Envirotainer Releye® container and is in the process of implementing it in its booking system as part of its product portfolio. The Releye provides outstanding environmental performance, delivering up to 90% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to available passive solutions, based on life-cycle analysis. Envirotainer will reduce the impact of the use of its containers on the environment by investing in Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). SAF offers a cleaner alternative for conventional jet fuel. SAF is produced from sustainable feedstock, such as cooking oil, animal waste or solid waste from homes and businesses. It reduces CO2 emissions by up to 85%, when compared to conventional jet fuel. The reduction occurs throughout the entire lifecycle of producing and using sustainable aviation fuel compared to that of fossil fuel.

Expanding their cargo network, the Munich Airport announced the increase in its cargo-only services with Qatar Airways. As per the details of Qatar Airways’ new route, the flight takes off on Monday from Bengaluru, halts in Doha (Qatar’s capital), leads onto Munich and then further to Chicago. The return flight from Chicago reaches Munich every Tuesday. The first flight departed on 10 January with 100 tonnes of cargo to Germany and the US, and caters to the pharmaceutical, automotive, and other industries. Qatar Airways operates this service on behalf of DB Schenker. The international logistics provider made recent announcement about its plans to expand global flight operations in India. The double benefit of the new weekly flight operations includes marking the Qatar Airways’ leadership in air freight services in India, and the expansion of Munich’s cargo network with more significant destinations.

The Port of Singapore remained the world’s busiest transshipment port in 2021, while it registered a record high in container traffic of 37.5 million TEU(Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit). It also remained the world’s leading bunkering power with bunker sales crossing 50 million tonnes for only the second time and it commenced regular ship-to-ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering operations from March 2021. This comprised 49.99 million tonnes in conventional bunkers sales and 0.05 million tonnes in liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker sales, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). Meanwhile, the Asian port handled 599 million tonnes of cargo in total during 2021, with vessel arrivals reaching 2.81 billion gross tonnages (GT). Singapore has also been ranked the top Leading Maritime City of the World for a fifth consecutive time in the international benchmarking study by the Norwegian classification society DNV and the Norwegian consultancy, Menon Economics.

UPS has added a new freighter flight between Billund in Denmark and its European air hub in Cologne as it looks to meet growing e-commerce demand. The new daily B737F flight means that Danish businesses in the Jutland peninsula, including Vejle, Herning and Horsens will benefit from later pick-up cut off times with packages spending less time in transit. “With collection up to two hours later in place such as Vejle, companies can take advantage of reduced transit time for packages being exported internationally, and potentially increase time in production for goods,” UPS said. Michiel van Veen, managing director, UPS Nordics, added: “We are continuing to develop our European network to meet the growing e-commerce demand for the region. “The launch of the Billund flight will present opportunities for businesses of all sizes in Denmark to expand into global markets faster, thanks to a new connection to our global air network.”

Saudi Arabian Airlines is hoping to add a new freighter service between Europe and the US but has met some resistance from US carriers over the plans. In late December, the carrier applied to the US Department of Transportation for a limited exemption for seventh freedom rights to operate all-cargo flights between Liege, New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare. However, US carriers responded that they do not have seventh freedom rights to operate flights to Saudi Arabia and also questioned whether the flights are in the public interest. In response, Saudi Arabian said it would consult with the country’s government about the possibility of providing reciprocal seventh-freedom rights to US all-cargo carriers. The carrier also argued that the flights would be in the public’s interest. Saudi Arabian Airlines believes that this limited exemption is requested in order to serve the public interest by helping to alleviate the supply chain delays caused by the increased volume of air cargo between Europe and the US due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

ECS Group’s Cargo Digital Factory and Wiremind Cargo are coordinating their digital expertise under a new technology-focused and autonomous company:CargoTech. With the launch of CargoTech, ECS Group’s inhouse solution developer, Cargo Digital Factory, and the French software and data-science company, Wiremind Cargo will focus their efforts on intelligently digitalising the air cargo industry. CargoTech also supports one of the four pillars of ECS Group’s new Augmented GSA concept, comprising Commercial, Technology, Sustainability, and New Abilities. Based in Paris, France, Cargo Digital Factory and Wiremind’s newly established dedicated cargo business unit will collaborate to digitalise as many air cargo processes as possible. Existing Cargo Digital Factory products such as its APOLLO BI & Reporting System, PATHFINDER Track & Trace solution, and QUANTUM pricing support system, and Wiremind Cargo’s shipment volume evaluation & flight planning system SKYPALLET, form the basis of CargoTech’s product portfolio. The two divisions will jointly innovate and design additional digital solutions to expand the standard product portfolio, as well as tailor individual products for all actors of the cargo supply chain: airlines, GHAs, GSAs, and freight forwarders. Cedric Millet, ECS Group Chief Strategy & Digital Officer, explains. “Under the CargoTech umbrella, we will enhance and develop digital products both for the benefit of our existing ECS Group customers, as well as for all other airlines in the world. Our solutions are modular, and customers can subscribe to one or several products as required.” “Our intensified collaboration with Cargo Digital Factory will enable us to deliver more quickly on our vision of becoming a leading provider of end-to-end software solutions to the air cargo market,” Nathanaël de Tarade, board member at Wiremind and CEO of Wiremind Cargo, says. “Not …