Category Archives: International

As container pricing and related supply chain challenges rise amid wild demand swings and capacity imbalances, Indian and Bangladeshi shippers and freight forwarders – in co-ordination with government logistics leaders – have begun switching to breakbulk and other unconventional modes. Mumbai-based Allcargo Logistics, parent company of less-than-container-load (LCL) consolidation heavyweight ECU Worldwide, is among many freight forwarders offering customers such alternatives. According to Shalin Shah, VP of business development at Indian digital freight forwarder Freightwalla, “commodities like rice and sugar, often shipped on liner routes, have lately found their way onto bulkers. Though this change has happened only for a few commodities, it has brought some relief to a few traders who were struggling to find space at a reasonable cost,” he said. “But we believe this is a temporary phenomenon.”

With holiday season approaching and a shift from ocean transport to air happening, the cost of air shipments has been on a steady rise. As per the Baltic Exchange Airfreight Index (BAI), last week’s prices on freight services from Hong Kong to North America had reached USD 11.22 per kg, almost 23% higher than that in the starting of October and highest ever on the BAI. Similarly, fright travelling from Hong Kong to Europe is USD 7.80 per kg which is also relatively inflated. On the other hand, the Freightos Air Freight Index revealed the airfreight rates from Asia/China to West Coast of US reached USD 14.22 per kg and those for East Coast of US reached USD 12.76 per kg. In its weekly market wrap up, Freightos said that with the holidays nearing and ocean delays pushing some shipments to air, peak season air cargo rates have continued to climb

Freighter airline MENA Cargo has partnered with Awery Aviation Software to streamline operations on its scheduled and charter services across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The Bahrain-headquartered MENA Cargo will use Awery’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) product, as well as its CargoBooking tool. Awery ERP is a web-based, customisable platform, which MENA Cargo will initially use for flight and crew operations and charter sales management. The CargoBooking tool delivers instant quotes, manages bookings, and has full Application Programming Interface (API) integration. Awery and MENA signed the deal at the Dubai Air Show in the UAE last week, and MENA will be rolling out Awery solutions over coming months. Said Peter Hewett, general manager at MENA Cargo: “In creating a lean and efficient cargo airline with SMART technology at its core, it makes sense for us to collaborate with leading global suppliers of customisable aviation software. We believe that this partnership with Awery, who have the same mindset in business adaptability, will enable the realisation of our strategy to quickly scale, while remaining flexible in our operations and agile in our approach.”

Cathay Pacific Cargo rolled out its latest digital innovation, Click & Ship, an online booking platform that offers registered customers “an intuitive, always-on booking interface”. Said Tom Owen, director cargo: “Our customers have been telling us that they want a quicker and more efficient way to book shipments at any time. “We listened. We’re rolling out Click & Ship progressively across our network and we aim to make real-time flight schedules, space availability, allotments, and updated rate information available on cathaypacificcargo.com and ezycargo.com for all Cathay Pacific Cargo customers over the next year.” Users will be able to book through an easy, three-step process whenever they like, said a Cathay Pacific Cargo spokesperson – with most bookings “confirmed on the spot”. It also gives visibility of pricing and space availability to defined routes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The global roll-out is being led by the South West Pacific region, where customers have been trialling the technology ahead of a wider introduction.

dnata has signed a concession agreement with The Government of Zanzibar, along with Emirates Leisure Retail and SEGAP, a joint venture between airport infrastructure and operations specialists Egis, and private equity fund manager AIIM. dnata will oversee the operations of Zanzibar Abeid Amani Karume International Airport’s (ZNZ) newly-built international terminal (T3), with SEGAP supporting the Zanzibar Airports Authority (ZAA) in a management capacity. Emirates Leisure Retail will partner with MMI as master concessionaire for all food and beverage, duty-free and commercial outlets at T3. dnata’s expansion into Zanzibar represents an investment of over US$ 7 million and will create up to 400 direct local jobs with the company. dnata will provide its globally renowned, quality ground and passenger handling services to airline customers at ZNZ, ensuring safe and timely operations of flights and an excellent travel experience for passengers. dnata expects to handle over 4,000 flights annually at the airport.

GEODIS, a global transport and logistics services provider announced a new sorting center in Schoten, as well as a new office within the airport of Liege. The first will facilitate the expansion of one of its largest international e-commerce customers into the Belgian market. The second is intended to reinforce GEODIS’ e-commerce footprint in Europe. In Schoten, the new 6300 m2 sorting center will host between 100 to 150 express trucks per day. In order to process up to 20,000 parcels daily (140,000 per week) and ensure the fastest possible delivery times, the facility will operate 24/7. “For our customers, this means access to more than 250 million consumers in less than a day by road, also via barge connections from Liege to Antwerp, Rotterdam and on to the Rhine; as well as through air and rail connectivity with China from Zhengzhou, Yiwu and Chengdu,” says Mark van den Assem, managing director of GEODIS for Benelux.

B&H Worldwide, the specialist aerospace logistics provider has won two Green Apple Awards at a ceremony in London. The first for its Carbon Reduction project – which was achieved in 2020 but the awards were postponed for 12 months due to the pandemic – and the second for adoption of electronic air waybills (eAWBs) for all airlines it works with. The Green Apple Organisation is an independent, non-profit, non-political group that has been rewarding and promoting environmental best practice since 1994. Its annual awards recognise those businesses that make a positive contribution to the environment through carbon friendly initiatives. In the Distribution and Logistics category B&H Worldwide was rewarded for its efforts over two separate years to reduce its environmental impact across its global business. The challenge was to reduce its overall carbon footprint through changing working practices in all its international stations and then educating team members, customers, and suppliers about why and how it was making changes. It now operates a measurable, monitored environment and sustainability policy so that all stakeholders can see the year-on-year carbon reductions which have been made including changing the company’s IT infrastructure, installing LED lighting, introducing in-workplace recycling centres, transport routings and changing working practices. Measurable results have included a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions at its London Heathrow head office since 2018 and an 82% reduction in paper usage by switching to a paperless purchase ledger.

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) announced that its group company in Thailand, Bangkok Cold Storage Service (BCS) and K Line Container Service Thailand (KCST) will establish new warehouses in Bang Na district near Bangkok. Currently, BCS is operating two freezing and refrigerating warehouses in two locations, where are Thepharak district and Bang Na district, and KCST is operating ten dry warehouses in three locations where are Bang Na district, Amata City Chonburi district and Bangpra district. Both BCS and KCST have been operating warehouse businesses for more than 30 years in Thailand. K Line said that this decision has been taken to support the expanding distribution demand in Thailand and the diverse needs of its customers.

Yara has debuted its long-awaited Yara Birkeland, the world’s first electric and autonomous container ship for emission-free shipping. The ship departed for its maiden voyage Friday in the Oslo fjord. “We are proud to be able to showcase the world’s first fully electric and self-propelled container ship. It will cut 1,000 tonnes of CO2 and replace 40,000 trips by diesel-powered trucks a year, said Svein Tore Holsether, CEO of Yara. Yara has been working with maritime technology company Kongsberg on the development of the vessel since 2017 – a pioneering project leading the maritime shipping industry’s journey towards autonomous operations and zero-emission shipping. The project was nearly derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed the planned delivery of the vessel by over a year.

Airfreight rates on the transpacific trade lane continue to surge since the start of November as peak season demand kicks off and modal shift from ocean continues. The latest figures from the Baltic Exchange Airfreight Index (BAI) show that prices on services from Hong Kong to North America reached $11.22 per kg – the highest on (BAI) record and up from $9.12 per kg at the start of October. To Europe, prices from Hong Kong are at 7.80 per kg – also a high for the index. Meanwhile, the Freightos Air Freight Index shows that prices from Asia/China to the US west coast last week reached $14.22 per kg and to the east coast are at $12.76 per kg.