Category Archives: International

Expanding its service portfolio, InstaFreight has added Transport Management as second service offering. After the successful pilot testing over the past 12 months with several large-scale enterprises including a shipper from the DAX30, the new service is now available to all shippers. InstaFreight remains the contractual party and with its technological expertise it enables businesses to gain operative and financial transparencies over their transport chain as well as to improve performance. In addition, direct and indirect costs are reduced by up to 25 per cent. The active management of transports occurs neutrally and at open book rates. In this new Transport Management service, a dedicated team of the Berlin-based company administers and optimises the entire transportation process of the customer. The efficient management of overland transports is carried out by InstaFreight in their self-developed Transport Management Platform. Customers can use this service with already existing transport partners, for which InstaFreight takes care of the onboarding, but equally flexible can access InstaFreight’s network of more than 25,000 carriers. “When large shippers approached us to further optimise their transportation network and costs, we extended our existing tech solution and linked it to the active management of transports, resulting in the Transport Management Service”, says Maximilian Schaefer, Co-Founder and Managing Director, InstaFreight, in adding “The combination of an in-house developed TMS and a team of experts, which manages and optimises transports actively, is unique in Europe and a revolution in the logistics industry.” The new product offering also includes a variety of digital services. Process steps that customers previously executed manually are being automated and standardized, which builds the basis for transparency and indirect cost savings. These include the contract awarding and freight …

The global pandemic has severely affected businesses around the world. The maritime industry too has experienced a major downturn. Shahab Al Jassmi, Commercial Director of Ports and Terminals – DP World, UAE Region, said, “It is important for the maritime community to come together and formulate means to eliminate threats to the business. Over the last few months, we have realised the importance of having strategic foresight. Such unprecedented situations test the calibre of all businesses. For us at DP World, UAE Region safeguarding business continuity, while protecting our employees from the risk of the virus was a top priority. Additionally, our sustained investments in digital technology and automation made operations highly resilient.” Speaking about the roadblocks in business due to the global crisis Jassmi revealed key strategies DP World, UAE Region employs to overcome these challenges. He also shed light on the significance of embracing digital models of business to enhance the supply chain. Since the onset of COVID-19, DP World, UAE Region has been committed to facilitating an uninterrupted flow of medical supplies and essential goods. To ensure trade flow amid a deteriorating market, the company also introduced key digital initiatives with a focus on prudent cost management, better productivity, asset utilisation and automation processes. Their initiatives such as Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) Customer Support, in addition to other measures like flexible monthly rental payments, deferred payments and choice of leasing warehouses on a short-term basis, have complemented the government’s strategy, boosting the maritime sector in the UAE and the Middle East region. Jassmi expressed his views at CEO Forum focusing on challenges and future opportunities for ports and shipping in the Gulf Cooperation Council

Further enhanced its pharma handling capabilities in Singapore, dnata has launched cool dollies in its operations. The company’s new, high-tech containers are specially designed to serve the pharmaceutical industry with a closed temperature-controlled system for seamless delivery of temperature-sensitive goods between cargo warehouses and aircraft. Dirk Goovaerts, dnata’s Regional CEO for Asia Pacific, said, “It has become increasingly crucial for both airlines and freight forwarders to be supported by a reliable, certified handler that can protect their pharma shipments and ensure the products remain in perfect condition until they reach the end customer. “We constantly invest in our people, facilities, equipment and processes to provide world-class services to our customers. Our latest investment in cool dollies underlines our commitment to ensuring the highest quality of supply chain management when handling temperature-sensitive cargo. We continue to enhance our operations to deliver the promises our customers make, every day.” dnata’s announcement to introduce another innovative solution to the Singapore market has been widely welcomed and supported by its partners and stakeholders, including the government and the airport operator. dnata’s new equipment allows the company to transport temperature-sensitive cargo to the highest international standards. Providing temperature-controlled storage from -18°C up to +25°C, the cool dollies mitigate risk of temperature deviations and contamination. They have a closed structure with alarms on opening and closing, as well as alerts if temperatures fluctuate above acceptable ranges. As they are fitted with solar panels, the cool dollies are both environmentally friendly and autonomous. The units are also hygienic and easy to clean, which is an important consideration for pharma cargo. The company operates a state-of-the-art 1,400m² pharma and perishable handling centre at Changi Airport, which is capable …

Carrying essential pharma supplies to the CIS countries via Uzbekistan Airways, Beehive Logistics (India) has send more than 1,36,078 kg of pharma supplies in the first week of October from Uzbekistan Airways’ Boeing 767 aircraft. The company has achieved a target of 2,54,012 kg of pharma supplies in record time in September 2020 also. Beehive Logistics also flew the first cargo flight to Tashkent on April 21, 2020 carrying more than 27,000 kg of essential supplies to the Central Asia region. Dr Naveen Rao, Group Chairman, Sentro Group, states, “The COVID-19 pandemic is a whole new world where service to humanity and supporting our partners is our prime objective. We will continue to work hard towards this goal.” Anish Khatri, GM (Uzbekistan Airways – GSA Beehive Logistics), says, “During this on-going pandemic, essential pharma supplies are very crucial for any nation to provide other medicines on time. Due to lockdowns in almost every nation from time to time, keeping stock of medicines has become even more important. We are just working hard to fulfil these gaps for CIS Countries by running regular cargo flights.” Beehive Logistics is planning to expand its services and to press more charter flights in supplying other goods also. Beehive Logistics, a part of Sentro Group representing Cargo Uzbekistan Airways as GSSA in India is operating host of cargo charter flights carrying essential pharma supplies to CIS countries.

Alitalia Airlines, who have been operating their weekly P2C flights from India since June 2020, have reached a milestone figure of successfully uplifting 53,375 kgs on a single flight from Mumbai (BOM) – Rome (FCO). An optimum mix of high density cargo along with pharmaceuticals, auto parts, spares, chemicals, garments & courier helped achieve the desired result. The ULD planning was carefully monitored for maximum utilisation of space on the newly cargo only reconfigured aircraft. Commenting on the achievement, Sakshi Gupta, Country Manager – India, Air Logistics Group, says “Alitalia enters the book of records once again with a consecutive birdie in a row, uplifting yet another milestone figure of 53 tonnes on its BOM-FCO route which comes just a day after the successful flight ex DEL which ferried 54T to Rome.” Deepak Kumar, Cargo Manager – Western India, Air Logistics Group, states, “Air cargo is a constitutive part of logistics business. We could only attain this crest through arduous dedication and commitment towards the air cargo industry. This would have not been possible without our stake holders who have underpinned and braced us through thick and thin.” Alitalia has been expanding its Cargo capacity to transport vital supplies across the globe & looks forward to increasing the import & export trade between Italy & India in times ahead.

Alitalia Airlines has successfully uplifted 53626 kilos on a single flight from Delhi (DEL) to Rome (FCO). The airline has been operating its weekly all-cargo flights (P2C) from India since June 2020.The aircraft had an optimum mix of high density cargo along with pharmaceuticals, DG cargo, auto parts & garments which helped in achieving the desired result. The ULD planning was carefully monitored for maximum utilisation of space on the newly cargo only reconfigured aircraft. Commenting on the achievement, Antonio Temporini, VP – Cargo, Alitalia, says “The milestone reflects our commitment towards customers during these challenging times. With reduced flight schedules due to COVID-19, it’s now of paramount importance to maximize every cargo space. India is a very important market for Alitalia Cargo-worldwide network and having Air Logistics Group as our partners in India, we are sure to enhance our services from all key ports in the country.” Sakshi Gupta, Country Manager, Air Logistics Group (ALG), says “The pandemic has created and set new goals and benchmarks for all stakeholders. As the supply and demand soars, air cargo has come forth to become a robust saviour for the aviation industry and finally everyone has realised that cargo is not just a filler but a very strategic and core part of the industry.” “During these pandemic times when airlines are struggling to stabilise flight operations, Alitalia Cargo with scheduled p2c weekly flights from Delhi and Mumbai are strongly supporting the cargo demand for the EU & USA with great efficiency and dedication. We shall continue to do so with all support from our business partners,” comments Annu Rai, Manager Key Accounts, Alitalia Cargo. The airline has been expanding its cargo capacity …

In response to the rapidly growing demand for cargo charters National Airlines would add three more B747-400Fs to its existing fleet of two of the aircraft. The airline had acquired three B-747-400Fs two years back and because of the declining demand for airfreight all of them had been parked in Arizona. Following maintenance checks, the first of the three aircraft was put into service in September, with another due to join in October and the third in November. Chris Alf, Chairman, National Airline, said, “We always had a plan of bringing out the parked airplanes into service right at the beginning of the year but then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. We felt the urgency to bring on these aircraft to support the demand for moving the urgent relief supplies in support of governments and global aid agencies. It was strategically important for us to bring in additional cargo capacity since there is a huge constraint because of the pandemic taking away the belly capacity on passenger operations. We are happy to offer our global customers with an additional three B747-400Fs.” Rates certainly remain higher than this time last year with prices from Hong Kong to North America up by more than 50% year on year to an average of $5.26 per kg in September, according to TAC Index data.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global air freight markets’ improvement remains slow amid insufficient capacity in August. Asia-Pacific airlines saw demand for international air cargo fall 18.3% in August 2020 compared to the same period a year earlier. After a robust initial recovery in May, month-on-month growth in seasonally-adjusted demand declined for the second consecutive month. International capacity is particularly constrained in the region, down 35%. Demand moved slightly in a positive direction month-on-month; however, levels remain depressed compared to 2019. Improvement continues at a slower pace than some of the traditional leading indicators would suggest. This is due to the capacity constraint from the loss of available belly cargo space as passenger aircraft remain parked. Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), was 12.6% below previous-year levels in August (-14% for international operations). That is a modest improvement from the 14.4% year-on-year drop recorded in July. Seasonally-adjusted demand grew by 1.1% month-on-month in August. Global capacity, measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers (ACTKs), shrank by 29.4% in August ( 31.6% for international operations) compared to the previous year. This is basically unchanged from the 31.8% year-on-year drop in July. Belly capacity for international air cargo was 67% below the levels of August 2019 owing to the withdrawal of passenger services amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This was partially offset by a 28.1% increase in dedicated freighter capacity. Daily widebody freighter utilization is close to 11 hours per day, the highest levels since these figures have been tracked in 2012. Economic activity continued to recover in August reflected, among other things, in the performance of the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) indicator of economic health in the manufacturing sector. …

FourPL, an Australian IT consulting company specialising in supply chain and procurement, has announced a partnership with FarEye to bring predictive capability to help brands orchestrate, track, optimize and deliver goods faster. “Our customers are demanding real-time visibility in their logistics operations and expect to know exactly when, where and how their goods will be delivered.” says Brett Findlay, CEO, FourPL. FarEye helps businesses to orchestrate logistics processes in a multi-enterprise & multi-stakeholder environment to ensure seamless & efficient movement of goods. The leading machine-learning based platform is empowering global enterprises to shrink delivery time by up to 27%, increase courier productivity by up to 15%, eliminate risks by up to 57%, and achieve operational excellence. “Today’s increasingly customer-centric economy requires integrated and value-added capabilities to achieve competitive advantage. FarEye helps organisations to maximise productivity and minimise risk while continuously making logistics operations efficient. We are passionate about making movement of goods a positive experience through innovation, deployment of industry best processes and constant improvement. We make organizations future-ready by differentiating their offerings & making them best in class. This enables them to drive expected behaviour and underpin broader business objectives,” says, Kushal Nahata, CEO & Co-founder, FarEye.

In a webinar on ATA & UN TIR Carnet with a focus on ‘facilitates free movement of goods across multiple international borders’, Sunil K Mall, Commissioner of Customs, Nhava Sheva, Mumbai, said, “TIR will facilitate intermodal transport and act as enabling document to cross multiple international borders without any additional checks. It will further help to improve trade between India, Central Asia & CIS countries.” While sharing his experience as the first TIR holder in India Shankar Shinde, Chairman-Elect, FFFAI, said, “Customs procedures in India should be further simplified under TIR to benefit large traders and exporters in India.” Raphael Hirt, IRU, Geneva, said, “The International Road Transport Union was very pleased to acknowledge the interest shown by Indian exporting industry towards the TIR procedure, especially the efforts made by CBIC, FICCI and FFFAI to promote this trade facilitation tool. IRU will continue to support all stakeholders involved in the implementation of TIR and its electronic version – eTIR in India. This will enable trade actors and Customs to benefit fully from the immense advantages provided by the TIR Convention which includes simplification of border crossing procedures, reduction of time and cost for the international movements of goods.” ATA Carnet is a temporary admission document, which simplifies the customs procedures and clearances in a foreign country, without paying duty or a bank guarantee for temporary import into that country. Like a passport for goods, ATA Carnet allows for the goods for which it was issued to enter any of the participating countries for up to one year. An ATA Carnet holder can avoid customs declaration and can do away with security deposit or guarantee in the country of temporary importation. …