To overcome the challenges of space availability and connectivity, Maersk has provided landside movement of cargo from Kolkata to Nhava Sheva port on a dedicated train for its customer. Offering a truly integrated container logistics solution, Maersk also provided customs clearance in addition to ocean shipping. Flexibility and reliability in supply chains have become an important aspect for importers and exporters, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic hit global trade last year. Indian exporters have been exploring possibilities of scaling up production and shipping it out of India to global markets. The underlying challenges in the post-COVID ecosystem, however, have limited the opportunities from time to time for such exporters – one of the biggest challenges being that of space availability from certain pockets within the country. Building a truly end-to-end solution for the customer, Maersk offered to move the Doha-destined cargo on a dedicated train from Kolkata to Nhava Sheva port – this was the first time that such a movement took place from the East Coast of India to the West Coast – and then connecting the cargo to the required vessel. Not only was the landside transportation taken care of, Maersk also executed export customs clearance of the cargo before loading it on to the vessel. The cargo is expected to reach its destination in Doha over the coming days. Commenting on the historic move in landside logistics in India, Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia said, “At Maersk, we believe in enabling trade by designing solutions that connect and simplify our customers’ supply chains. We have recognised the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered in the ecosystem and are innovating solutions that didn’t exist in …

Balmer Lawrie’s Temperature Controlled Warehouse (TCW) at Hyderabad, handled 2 lakh doses of Covaxin on January 21, 2021. The activities included unloading, storage, packaging, loading and despatch of Covaxin to different parts of the country as per the Government of India’s directive. Balmer Lawrie will continue to support Bharat Biotech and in turn the Government, in India’s mission to drive the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination program. Balmer Lawrie is the only storage and logistics partner of Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad. The company has been Bharat Biotech logistics partner for other vaccines like pulse polio and BCG in the last two years. Balmer Lawrie, an end-to-end Logistics Infrastructure and Services provider, is one of the most trusted PSEs offering one-stop-shop solution to the temperature-controlled supply chain requirements of the nation with state-of-the-art TCWs and Temperature Controlled Vehicles (TCV) across the country. The Company has TCVs and TCWs at Medchal (Hyderabad) with storage capacity of 3500 pallet positions, Rai (Haryana) with 3800 pallet positions and Patalganga (Navi Mumbai) with 3840 pallet positions, adhering to international standards, besides other facilities. A new TCW is being set up at Bhubaneswar. The Company also has best-in-class Container Freight Stations at Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai along with Warehouses at Kolkata and Coimbatore, Integrated Check Posts at Jogbani and Raxaul and a Multi-modal Logistics Hub at Visakhapatnam.

Based on the views of road freight executives and experts from around the world, Shell and Deloitte have put out a joint study on how to decarbonise the road freight sector. The ‘Decarbonising Road Freight: Getting into Gear’ report offers a detailed 10-year roadmap with 22 solutions aimed at addressing the economic, technical, regulatory and organisational factors influencing the sector’s ability to decarbonise. The report shows that more than 70% of study participants view hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles as the most viable long term zero-emission heavy duty truck technology, and many believe these trucks will become commercially viable in the next 5 to 10 years. “Trucks move virtually everything modern society depends on for daily life and during the current COVID-19 crisis, society has experienced just how critical road freight is in delivering essential goods,” said Huibert Vigeveno, Downstream Director, Shell, in adding, “However, road freight is currently responsible for around 9% of global CO2 emissions and with demand for road freight services set to double by 2050, urgent action must be taken now to put the sector on a pathway to net zero emissions by then. Fleet companies, truck manufacturers and energy providers have already started investing in low and zero emission solutions, but the sector requires a more robust set of policies and regulations to accelerate change.” Shell has also released a companion report named ‘Decarbonising Road Freight: Shell’s Route Ahead’ outlining Shell’s role in helping the sector decarbonise. The report outlines Shell’s climate ambition and plans to reduce the emissions intensity of its fleet of close to 3,000 contracted road haulage tankers by 10% by 2025 and by 30% by 2030, both …

Marking this milestone DB Schenker in India commemorates its 25th anniversary since its inception in 1996. Over the years, DB Schenker in India has undertaken various operations and expanded into an integrated logistics solutions provider for customers across verticals such as automotive, pharma, retail and consumer, industrial, electronics and aerospace. DB Schenker, the global leading logistics service provider, is a 100 % subsidiary of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn. DB Schenker in India offers a complete range of international air and ocean freight, contract logistics and global supply chain solutions. Strengthening its Contract Logistics operations in India, the company recently opened its largest warehousing hub in Badli, Gurgaon and in Air Freight, after connecting western India to the US & Europe via its Mumbai – Frankfurt – Atlanta weekly freighter, the company brings its second direct connectivity to the US (Chennai to Chicago via Munich) weekly thereby connecting the Automotive & Industrial verticals, other exports to Europe (Munich) and the Mid-west US (Chicago). Additionally, the adoption of digital technology has always played a critical role for Schenker India. Today it is one of the key strengths for the company as it offers digital solutions such as eSchenker and connect 4 ocean to help customers across verticals to customize their shipping services and keep real-time checks on the cargo. Further, the platforms simplify logistics management and help save time and reduce costs. Speaking on the occasion, Vishal Sharma, CEO of Cluster India & Indian Sub-Continent, DB Schenker says, “The last 25 years have been a success for DB Schenker in India and this milestone is a testament to DB Schenker’s resilient operations across India, even during tough times like the …

The Indian logistics sector has witnessed a sequential recovery in months following the severe disruption in Q1 FY2021 on account of the nation-wide lockdown. The pandemic induced disruptions had created demand-side and supply-side challenges, however, as the restrictions eased and economic activity revived, the freight availability for logistics players also improved. Although the Y-o-Y volume and revenue contraction continued even in Q2 FY2021, the recovery has been faster than expected, with volumes reverting to year-ago levels by September 2020 and improving thereafter. According to Shamsher Dewan, Vice President, ICRA Ratings, “As the economy opened up and industrial, manufacturing, construction and consumption activities picked up pace, freight availability also improved, aiding recovery in the sector. Freight rates also held up in this period. As such, although revenues continued to contract in Q2 FY2021, the pace of contraction mellowed down. As per industry estimates, freight volumes reverted back to year-ago levels by the end of Q2 FY2021, and have improved further in the third quarter, with festive-led demand and specific sectors like e-commerce leading the growth. This trend was visible in E-way bill and Fastag data, which reached pre-pandemic levels in September 2020 and posted Y-o-Y growth in October and November 2020.” The rail freight traffic has also reported similar trends, although it was able to improve on its year-ago volume levels within Q2 FY2021 itself. The volumes thereafter have also held up, expanding 12% on the base of the previous year during the third quarter so far. The seaways freight traffic, on the other hand, is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, with supply-side/infrastructure constraints limiting the volume recovery. Overall, the aggregate revenues of ICRA’s sample of logistics companies recovered sequentially in …

In-line with its commitment to provide support to the nation in the current scenario, IndiGo transported a total 5,785 kg of shipments from SII and Bharat Bio-tech – vaccine vials equating to 21.60 lacs doses – between January 12, 2021 and January 19, 2021. The shipments were moved from Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune to 16 locations across the country including, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Patna, Odisha, Raipur, Bhopal, Thiruvananthapuram, Indore, Imphal, Agartala, Chandigarh and Udaipur via 21 IndiGo flights. Ronojoy Dutta, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo said, “We are honoured to have the opportunity to contribute to the vaccination drive, by transporting the shipments across 16 locations within the country. We will continue to partake in moving the vaccines from one part of the country to another. We look forward to supporting the nation in its hour of need”.

Increff has recently launched Iris Regional Utilisation (RU) Module to manage e-commerce warehouses. Due to the meteoric rise in online sales and festive offers, the leading e-commerce brands witness the need for technologies like analytic, automation for enhanced customer experiences. This novel solution enables e-commerce brands to intelligently translate deep insights into concrete action points, thereby helping them determine the demand-wise distribution of stock across the country. In fact, by integrating IRIS RU, one of the leading ethnic brands saved ~12% on logistics, thus increasing overall margins and enhanced regional fulfillment by ~30%. Since its launch, the module has seen high adoption from e-commerce players in the fashion & apparel industry. Moreover, the regional utilisation module delivers four key additional benefits that enable brands to allocate inventory smartly which are faster deliveries for higher marketplace conversions, low rate of returns, smart inventory split across multiple warehouses and significant savings on logistics costs. “With the increased focus on digitalisation, a well-designed technology-led approach has become the need for e-commerce players to efficiently manage their inventory and warehouse, to tackle the uneven demand-supply dynamics. Increff’s Iris Regional Utilization (RU) module was strategically designed for brands to reduce additional logistic costs and deliver a smooth online delivery journey. We will continue to bring innovative technology tools for brands to help them improve customer experience and enhance their profitability, says Rajul Jain, CEO & Co-Founder, Increff.”

Marking a major milestone in air cargo digitalisation, Qatar Airways Cargo has announced that the airline will provide forwarders with real-time pricing, capacity, and eBookings via WebCargo. Forwarders globally will soon be able to conduct real-time eBookings, access live rates, and see available capacity with Qatar Airways Cargo via the service of WebCargo, a Freightos Group company, providing critical agility as supply chains contend with COVID-19’s impact and disruption. Rollout will begin with France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa and Spain on February 7, 2021. As part of the launch, Qatar Airways Cargo will be offering the most competitive rates on WebCargo by introducing a discount scheme to forwarders*, resulting in an average saving of US$ 0.06 per kg for the first 20,000 shipments booked via the platform in these countries. The cargo carrier is determined to push the development of WebCargo bookings and will also implement a number of special promotions further in the year. As of Q1 this year, more than 2,000 WebCargo forwarders and customers across over 10,000 global branches will have instant access to capacity and pricing. Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo, Qatar Airways, said, “We are pleased to partner with WebCargo to provide true agility and digital connectivity for our customers. As a leading global carrier, we rely on constant innovation and digitalisation across all our operations in order to provide our best-in-class customer service. During the past months, we have introduced several digitalisation initiatives such as online rate distribution, ad hoc rate automation, track and trace and availability via API. The future of air cargo is indeed digital and this change will definitely bring in efficiency across the supply chain.” Zvi Schrieber, Group CEO, …

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB/ BLR Airport) has continued to maintain positive momentum as 33,053 Metric Tonnes (MT) of cargo were processed in December 2020. Working in close coordination with the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Ministry of Finance and BLR Airport’s cargo partners – Air India SATS and Menzies Aviation Bobba Bengaluru – this is the highest amount of cargo ever processed at BLR Airport for the month of December since Airport operations commenced in 2008. BLR Airport is the only airport in India to reach 100 per cent of the previous year’s tonnage for four consecutive months on a y-o-y basis – between September and December 2020. International cargo grew at 7%, with a throughput of 20,288 MT in December 2020 which is the highest in the last 21 months.

While giving keynote on building future ready logistics network for the country at the IAMAI 15th India Digital Summit, Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Special Secretary, Logistics, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GOI, said, “Logistics and supply chain are omnipresent issues across the sectors but we realised their importance during COVID times. Unified laws across the different modes of transport is completed by the government however process on streamlining and backend system enabling are currently underway.” Agarwal stressed that use of technology in logistics is a very important area and perhaps, one area where lot of work needs to be done. “Different departments are already working towards systems and initiatives in this direction and moving forward the idea is to merge all these individual system and build a logistics data stand which can be used by new age companies to give market solutions”, he said.