In view of tremendous potential of cross border trade between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) Shankar Shinde, Chairman Elect, the Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in India (FFFAI) has recommended for seamless multimodal connectivity and strong logistics infrastructure in each of the above countries. Speaking at a webinar on ‘UN TIR System and its benefits of expansion to Bangladesh and other BBIN countries’, which was organised by FICCI in association with IRU Geneva, ICC Bangladesh and FFFAI, Shinde observed that accession to TIR Carnet would be immensely beneficial for the hassle-free cross border trade in this region. It would be pertinent to mention that FFFAI is one of the associates of TIR Carnet and have been working with the Government of India for International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) project, under TIR Carnet. He also emphasised on well-defined policies to be framed up by the respective governments and well-trained officers including Customs and allied agencies engaged at the border check posts. Based on the INSTC route experience, where FFFAI had launched a trial run of containers, Shinde stated that point to point vehicle movement would be the pragmatic solution instead of re-working of unloading and reloading transshipment, to save cost and reduce dwell time. Accordingly, accession to TIR would expedite the process in this regard. He, however, highlighted various other challenges as regard to cross border cargo transportation, as witnessed in INSTC route. Shinde further suggested that the governments will have to provide more impetus on private logistics companies, NVOCC or multimodal logistics operators’ participation in the BBIN project and also important would be to create a BBIN website portal with complete information for trade participation and addressing issues. …

Ethiopian Airlines completed one year of cargo only service on a passenger aircraft on March 25, 2021 with its Boeing B787-900. The first flight departed from Addis Ababa to Kinshasa carrying more than 16 tonnes of much-needed PPE and other shipments inside the cabin and the belly of the aircraft. Following the sharp decline in passenger number due to the pandemic, Ethiopian swiftly shifted focus to cargo operations and became among the very few pioneers to load cargo on passenger aircraft’s cabin. Immediately afterwards, Ethiopian demonstrated remarkable agility in its response to the increased cargo demand in the wake of the pandemic by reconfiguring 25 passenger aircraft into freighters using its own internal MRO capabilities and distributed the much-needed Personal Protective Equipment and medical supplies across the globe. A year since its first Preighter operation, Ethiopian has operated 5,645 Cargo flights on the cabin of passenger aircraft and transported more than 121,750 tons of cargo across its vast global network. The flights added an immense value to the total of 33,182 flights and 735,869 tons of cargo transported during the period from March 25, 2020 to March 25,2021. Commenting on the milestone, Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO, Ethiopian Group, said “The single Preighter flight that started on this day last year has helped our airline navigate the storm so far. We are extremely honored to have served our customers during the most difficult times. Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services has been a critical player in the global fight against the pandemic by distributing medical supplies and PPE to places with limited access to transportation. “ Since the start of its first cargo flight on passenger seat last year, Ethiopian has been increasing …

In a major push and with a vision to achieve seamless trade, new Inter Terminal Route connecting BMCT Terminal with all the other four Container Terminals of JNPT was inaugurated at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). The newly inaugurated route will reduce the container movement distance between BMCT and the other JN Port Terminals from the existing 5 kms to 2.5 kms in one direction. This route will be used exclusively for the movement of TP (Transhipment) & ITRHO (Inter Terminal Rail Handling Operation) containers between BMCT and other terminals of JN Port offering a smooth and continuous flow of ITRHO and TP containers. The Inter Terminal Route was inaugurated by Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPT in the presence of Unmesh Sharad Wagh, IRS, Deputy Chairman, JNPT and HODs, JNPT Terminal Operators and other stakeholders. Sethi said, “The inauguration of Internal Terminal Route will help in smoothening the overall trade cycle and further enhance our efficiency. It will further streamline the movement of rail containers between BMCT with all the other four Container Terminals at the port. JNPT has also taken various other initiatives under ‘Ease of Doing Business’ that has helped save significant amount of time and cost for the EXIM community.” ITRHO aims to maximise train placement, track productivity, efficiency, cost effective handling, reduce dwell time of import ICD boxes, connecting export ICD boxes to respective terminals in time and also increase rail quotient at JNPT. Trade will be benefitted, as the new route would ensure timely connection of export containers arriving by trains in mixed condition to the particular vessel in any of the terminals and also enhance the train handling time at JN Port. Overall the …

Three weeks after the launch of its commercial operations, CMA CGM AIR CARGO is opening two new regular destinations from Liege in the United States: New York (JFK) and Atlanta. The company’s airfreight division is deploying four Airbus A330-200F, with two already in activity, highlighting its commitment to offering diversified and agile solutions to customers. Liege-New York-Atlanta, CMA CGM AIR CARGO’s new regular route CMA CGM AIR CARGO’s second Airbus A330-200F will begin regular commercial operations from Liege, Belgium, to New York and Atlanta, United States. It completes the existing service between Liege and Chicago. From March 28, with two aircraft deployed between Europe and North America, CMA CGM AIR CARGO doubles the offered capacity to better serve our customers on this trade lane. New York and Atlanta, two main destinations to increase our U.S. coverage With New York (JFK) and Atlanta, we now serve two global airports in the U.S. These airports offer world-class infrastructure to propose intermodal connections in the region, including the South-East of the country.

In order to accelerate its global decarbonization program and help clients achieve their own sustainability goals, SEKO Logistics has joined the Sustainable Air Freight Alliance (SAFA). The Sustainable Air Freight Alliance (SAFA) is a buyer-supplier collaboration between shippers, freight forwarders and airlines to track and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from air freight and promote responsible freight transport. Its reporting airlines are AirBridgeCargo Airlines, American Airlines, Cargolux, Cathay Pacific, Delta Air Lines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo, Polar Air Cargo, SAS and United Airlines. SAFA’s membership also includes global shippers; H & M, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Louis Vuitton, LVMH Moet Hennessy, Mowi ASA, NIKE, and Puma. “We have a responsibility to join other global business leaders in this initiative because our industry must do more to protect our planet for future generations,” said James Gagne, President and CEO, SEKO Logistics, is adding, “This is not a cliché, it’s a reality. SAFA is a tangible opportunity for us to contribute to the positive decarbonisation work being undertaken by the aviation industry, airlines and companies like SEKO to make a positive difference. Companies which lack a sustainability strategy will see their growth threatened because clients will take their business elsewhere if their partners do not take this seriously. This is a collaborative effort in which we can do more and act faster by working together. Joining SAFA will enable us to help our clients achieve their own sustainability goals too, which is how it should be.”

GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) has announced a partnership with Singapore-based technology startup StaTwig to roll out a new technology based solution for tracking and monitoring of vaccine shipments handled at the airport’s cargo terminal. The MoU giving effect to the partnership was signed by Saurabh Kumar, CEO-GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo and Sid Chakravarthy and Nrupul Ponugoti, Co-Founders – StaTwig, at Hyderabad. Given its well-established position as the major Pharma hub of Indian air cargo and one of the primary gateways for vaccine exports from India, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo through this exclusive partnership will leverage the Next-Gen Blockchain technology to deliver enhanced Track and Trace Solution and real time monitoring of Vaccine shipments at GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo Terminal. The partnership brings together domain expertise of GMR Cargo and its time-tested relationships with vaccine exporters and Air Cargo trade with StaTwig’s Proven Blockchain platform to help this solution strengthen the supply chain of vaccine exports from India. The development assumes significance given Hyderabad’s position as one of the biggest vaccine manufacturers globally, with the region set to produce over 3.5 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine doses over the next couple of years to aid the global battle against the pandemic. Saurabh Kumar, CEO, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo says, “We are glad to announce this partnership for launch of VaccineLedger, a first-of-its-kind initiative in air cargo industry in India. This new technology product would enable us to deliver enhanced real-time visibility and status information on vaccine shipments to our customers. We are confident that the combination of GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo’s domain expertise in vaccine handling and StaTwig’s proven Blockchain technology based VaccineLedger platform will further strengthen the vaccine supply …

Zipaworld has announced investing a stake in Radiant X-Ways Logistic; the amount has not been disclosed by either of the parties. This investment comes soon after the launch and implementation of Zipaworld’s Ocean Freight digital platform. The Board of Directors of Radiant X-Ways Logistic has nominated Dr Ambrish Kumar, the founder of Zipaworld, as the Chairman of Radiant. Shares his futuristic views Kumar states, “The investment in Radiant marks another milestone for us as we aimed at encompassing and connecting more than 26000 zip codes across India, to the global gateway digitally through the Zipaworld platform.” He also added that “Radiant will help us resolve the first and last mile connectivity concerns as the user will be able to book a cargo right from their door to the destination door from one single gateway, without having to go to multiple vendors”. Zipaworld is all set to break the stereotypes of the Indian logistics sector which is highly fragmented and disintegrated. Prabhakar Pandey, Managing Director, Radiant X-Ways Logistic, expresses his enthusiasm and thoughts stating, “We are keenly contemplating Zipaworld’s holding and backing in Radiant, mainly for digitizing and automating the whole domestic circuit that forms our expertise. Our valuable clients will be highly benefitted with the automation and the technological advancement. Zipaworld is providing Radiant with a gateway to cater to the international market for our year-old clients and that too from a single window gateway”. The assurance of Dr Ambrish Kumar towards the end of last year to transport goods to and from any part of the country and offering the manufacturers and exporters a global access is turning out to be a reality much ahead of the stipulated time. …

In order to support the digitization of the global air cargo supply chain, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced the launch of the IATA Enhanced Partner Identification and Connectivity (EPIC) platform. EPIC simplifies the complex process of making digital connections across the air cargo value chain including enabling the efficient exchange of critical information such as messaging capabilities and identities. As the air cargo industry continues to digitalise, airlines, freight forwarders, ground handlers and customs authorities need to be able to securely work together digitally. This is a considerable challenge as today more than 40,000 freight forwarders exchange messages with more than 450 airlines, and 23 third party messaging service providers. In the absence of a tool for companies to exchange the information needed to make these business links, the process of digitization is essentially manual, slow and unduly complex. “EPIC is a simple idea. It makes the information needed to do business across a digitized air cargo supply chain easily accessible. And in doing so, it will accelerate efficiency gains for air cargo. The timing of this initiative is important. COVID-19 has led to exponential growth of e-commerce and shippers are demanding quality services that only a digitized supply chain can provide,” said Nick Careen, IATA Senior Vice President, Airport, Passenger, Cargo, Security. In addition to supporting business-to-business processes, the participation of customs organisations in EPIC also supports digital customs clearance processes. In particular this will help the efficient roll out of Advance Cargo Information (ACI) requirements, including Preloading Advance Cargo Information (PLACI) programs. Implementation notes: • When using EPIC, individual companies retain full control of their data with the flexibility to manage how they connect with …

In a further expansion of its global aerospace customer base, CEVA Logistics has been awarded a contract to manage in-factory logistics support for Collins Aerospace in Singapore. The two-year contract is based on solutions designed by CEVA that will be implemented at the customer’s Changi North site. Collins Aerospace – a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies – is one of the world’s largest suppliers of aerospace and defense products. It provides maintenance, repair, overhaul engineering, sales and support for its commercial and military customers across the Asia Pacific region. At the Changi North site, CEVA Logistics will provide a wide range of Contract Logistics services including inbound receiving to inventory, pick and kit, as well as outbound dispatch of overhaul aerospace parts. Picking and kitting will focus on three main areas: power and control, mechanical and interiors. These areas are responsible for electrical systems, engine control, air management systems, cargo and hoist systems, actuation and flight control, evacuation, portable water systems and lighting. All services will be provided by CEVA’s experienced aerospace employees who have diverse skills and extensive knowledge of in-factory logistics within the aerospace industry. Says Elaine Low, Regional Managing Director – Southeast Asia and Pacific, CEVA Logistics, “Our experienced team will drive service standards and greater efficiency to improve the Collins Aerospace’s operations. Our transparent working methods and wide-ranging experience across the aerospace sector have proven to be a winning solution for Collins Aerospace in Singapore. Continuous improvement is essential to the successful operation of any contract and that, alongside safety, is embedded in the CEVA Logistics culture.”

Enabling SMEs across sectors to take their B2B selling online, aaha Technologies has launched the latest version of DigiSell, a comprehensive, self-service platform which enables small and medium enterprises to create their own eCommerce store so that they can receive and process orders from B2B/B2B2B /D2C segments. With state-of-the art user controls and configurations – including dynamic B2B pricing, contracts, catalogue creation, ordering, tracking, inventory and stock management – the product is becoming a game changer for sectors as diverse as healthcare, food and agriculture, manufacturing, packaging, corporate gifting, apparel and construction, among others. Commenting on the launch of the product, Asokan Sattanathan, Founder & Chairman, aahaa Technologies said, “We are thrilled to be offering SMEs across a range of businesses the benefits of migrating their offline sales and distribution operations online. In the last year, the pandemic compelled many businesses to take various processes digital and there is no going back. DigiSell was created to enable SMEs in this mission and we remain committed to evolving in this domain.” DigiSell is an ideal solution for businesses to enhance distribution efficiency and grow their B2B sales. With its advanced technology, it has the potential to free up the sales team from managing cumbersome processes, present and promote products in the form of an e-Catalogue with client-specific dynamic pricing capabilities. It also helps businesses expand to new geographies and add new products and maintain a single system for all customer orders in both B2B and B2C sectors. Additionally, this platform empowers their clients to initiate ordering of contracted goods from anywhere, anytime, get real-time updates on deliveries and gain insights on product mix & sales trends dynamically. In terms of technology, …