Ecom Express has announced a strategic investment worth of US$ 11 million in Bangladesh’s largest third-party e-commerce logistics (3PL) firm Paperfly. Through this investment, Ecom Express is entering Bangladesh marking its maiden venture outside India. After having covered the length and breadth of the country reaching over 1.2 billion people daily, Ecom Express is now looking at expanding into adjacent countries, starting with Bangladesh. T.A. Krishnan, CEO and Co-Founder, Ecom Express, says, “We see a lot of growth opportunities in adjacent markets and the current investment is one of the many things in the pipeline. We looked at multiple aspects before identifying Bangladesh for our first international venture. The market draws parallel with India in terms of growth and demography and we want to leverage our experience and domain expertise to enable high scalability growth and build a strategic backbone of e-commerce logistics in Bangladesh. Paperfly is quite similar to Ecom Express in its operations and we admire what the company has accomplished in the Bangladesh market. We look forward to enabling Paperfly to unlock new avenues for an enhanced third-party logistics and home delivery in the country.” The investments will be used by Paperfly towards transformation of logistics through intelligence driven automations and data sciences that would enable the company to meet the fast-growing demand for quality e-commerce logistics services in Bangladesh. It will further accelerate the company’s implementation of advanced supply chain and logistics processes, agile solutions in delivery and warehouse management, and other operational facets in the logistics and supply chain. With more than 167 million inhabitants and over 90 million internet users, the e-commerce industry in Bangladesh is emerging and has become one of the fastest …

In order to manage its fulfilment operations for the Western region, FM Logistic India has been awarded a contract from Pepperfry. FM Logistic India will carry out warehousing operations at one of Pepperfry’s largest warehouses located in Bhiwandi which is spread across an area of 2,85, 000 sq. ft. The 3PL service provider will not only manage storage but also undertake a rigorous process of quality control as per prescribed guidelines and fulfil Pepperfry’s omni-channel orders. These goods will then be delivered to Pepperfry’s Studios for display and distribution centres across India, using Pepperfry’s last-mile delivery network. “Pepperfry is one of the most recognised furniture brands in India,” says Ashish Shah, Co-founder & COO, Pepperfry. “What started as a pure play online furniture store in 2012 has evolved as India’s leading furniture and home décor marketplace, both online and offline. The partnership with FM Logistic India will further help us serve our customers better thanks to a faster, most cost-effective supply chain and a continuous improvement orientation that FM Logistics brings to the table.” “We are committed to helping our customers develop their e-commerce and omni-channel strategies. A fast supply chain is critical for brands to strengthen their identity and relationship with end customers. Therefore, we are delighted to help Pepperfry manage their fulfilment operations for the Western region,” says Alexandre Amine Soufiani, MD, FM Logistic India. The Indian furniture market is segmented on the basis of: Material – Wood, Metal, and Plastic and Other Furniture Type – Home Furniture, Office Furniture, Contract Furniture, and Other Furniture Distribution Channel – Supermarkets and Hypermarkets, Specialty Stores, Online, and Other Distribution Channels The furniture industry in India, which currently stands at $17 …

Delhi Cargo Service Center handled the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine from Pune. The first consignment of the Covishield vaccine reached Delhi from Pune, four days ahead of the launch of the nationwide vaccination drive. The first truck carrying the shipment of COVID-19 vaccine entered on January 12, 2021 into the facility of Delhi Cargo service Center from the airside rolls. The company has created a green channel for COVID-19 vaccine to come in from airside to the DCSC domestic cargo terminal. The team at DCSC completed the task of unloading and re-loading of the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine in 10 minutes and one second.

GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) handled the first consignment of Covid 19 vaccines shipment arrived at the Cargo terminal by the Spicejet freighter from Pune. The vaccine consignment consisting of 31 boxes of 1 MT of Covishield vaccine were offloaded from the aircraft parked in the adjoining dedicated cargo apron and swiftly taken to the vaccine storage and handling areas in the GHAC Terminal. The Covishield vaccine consignment was handled as per the special protocol ensuring cool-chain integrity. A dedicated Vaccine Task Force that has been formed, with a nodal person, to ensure a seamless and high priority movement of Covid 19 vaccines handled the shipment at the Hyderabad International Airport. The Task Force ensured the quick movement of the vaccine through the domestic inbound section to the reefer truck bound for Consignee (State Govt. Dept.). Out of 41 mini-hubs planned across the country by the Govt of India, Hyderabad has been notified as one of the designated distribution points for South India. “The GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo has been relentlessly working for timely and smooth supply of essentials and other relief material during the Covid times to various destinations. The first consignment of the Covid 19 vaccine was today received at the Hyderabad International Airport. GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) has a major role cut out in the entire value chain of vaccine shipments and is well equipped with the necessary infrastructure to handle 100’s of MT of vaccine cargo per day. The terminal offers one of India’s largest fleet of the modern temp-controlled Cool Containers viz. Cool Dolly, Envirotainer, VaQtec, etc. The handling of the Covid 19 vaccine consignment has been a collaborative effort of all stakeholders involved, …

SpiceXpress has announced the launch of SpiceTag, a real-time tracking service for its partners and cargo agents which is set to elevate cargo shipment experience like never before. SpiceTag aims to revolutionise door-to-door cargo thereby making it utmost convenient for its partners enabling them to ship their cargo with speed and complete transparency. It is applicable for all domestic cargo, both door-to-door and airport-to-airport services. The cargo carrier has designed a transparent tracking system by providing end-to-end scanning, which enables customers to get live status updates. Automated notifications, shipment status reports, digital invoice downloading solutions are some of the other unique features of this service. Ajay Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, SpiceJet said, “SpiceXpress has the capability to deliver all kinds of cargo in a seamless and efficient manner both within and outside India. In the times of social distancing, technology and digitisation have extremely critical role to play in ensuring seamless execution of operations with utmost safety. SpiceTag is an idea emerging out of the same insight which helps in seamlessly transporting cargo with minimum human contact. With SpiceTag, we aim to further enhance our services by offering our partners the facility to track shipments on a real time basis.” In order to avail SpiceTag, our partners and agents will have to create an account on SpiceXpress which will allow them to make online booking of their cargo shipment through www.spicexpress.com. While the entire process is contactless, it also allows customers to make online payment through a payment gateway thereby offering a hassle-free experience.

Driven by a robust growth in e-commerce and manufacturing sectors as well as rising demand in emerging tier I and tier II cities, the industrial and warehousing space absorption is expected to grow by 83 per cent to 47.7 mn sq. ft. in 2021, as per the report released by Savills India, a global property consultancy firm. The 3PL and e-commerce sectors continued to drive warehousing demand accounting for 60 per cent of the total absorption in 2020, followed by manufacturing sector at 24 per cent. The growing numbers of firms in these sectors and the huge Indian consumption market have whipped up the investment prospects of India’s warehouse sector. In 2020, the industrial and warehousing market witnessed investments in excess of US$1 billion. Among the major cities in India, NCR led with the highest absorption in 2020 at 25 per cent followed by Pune at 15 per cent. Mumbai and Chennai saw absorption at 13 per cent each while Kolkata stood at 12 per cent. The Tier II cities such as Ludhiana, Lucknow, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Nagpur and Patna witnessed around 3 mn sq. ft. in 2020. These cities are likely to gain momentum in 2021 with e-commerce and 3PL firms capitalising on consumption-driven growth and pushing the demand for warehousing space. On the supply side, Savills India expects a 113 per cent increase in supply to 47.9 mn sq. ft. in 2021. Despite construction activities getting affected due to the lockdown, the top-8 cities of India witnessed a fresh supply of 22.4 mn sq. ft. last year. NCR accounted for 22 per cent of the total supply witnessed in 2020 followed by Chennai (20 per cent), and …

MASKargo celebrated the success of its first charter flight of 2021 transporting approximately 20 tonnes of Covid-19 test kits from Seoul to Jakarta. The carrier utilised an Airbus A330-200 freighter for the flight, which operated between Incheon International in South Korea and Soekarno-Hatta International in Indonesia with a two-hour transit at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The ad hoc deployment of the charter service was due to the urgent need to ensure timely delivery of the items, the carrier informs. Ibrahim Mohamed Salleh, Chief Executive, MasKargo says: “With the adequate infrastructure to ensure the safe handling, transportation, and distribution of the temperature-sensitive goods, MASkargo maintained the aircraft temperature at between 15˚C to 25˚C throughout the eleven-hour flight. This mission has proven beyond doubt, MASkargo’s capability and solid track record of carrying time and temperature-sensitive products within its network and beyond.”

Recording the last 20 months highest container volume handled in a month, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), handled 459,920 TEUs in the month of December 2020. The container traffic increased by 9.90 per cent over the same month of last year and the overall traffic grew by 10.04 per cent to 6.37 million tonnes from the 5.79 million tonnes handled in December 2019. Also, in rail operations the port handled a record 556 rakes in December 2020. The average monthly terminal handling time of trains improved to 4:42 hours in December from 6:18 hours in September. The average monthly turn-around time of trains (from placement to removal of trains) also reduced to 9:35 hours in December from 13:34 hours in September. In the calendar year 2020, the total container traffic handled by port is 4.47 million TEUs, with APM Terminals Mumbai (GTI) handling 1.69 million TEUs, DP World NSIGT – 0.77 million TEUs, DP World NSICT – 0.64 million TEUs , JNPCT – 0.56 million TEUs and BMCT handled 0.81 million TEUs. Overall traffic handled in the CY 2020 was 62.32 million tonnes including Liquid and other cargo. Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPT says, “CY 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us but we can look back with a certain degree of satisfaction on what we did to keep JNPT up and running and help maintain the supply of essential goods and trade flows critical for the country. I am thankful to all our stakeholders and employees for lending a helping hand as the team effort helped us sail through the pandemic and credit is also due to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways for the …

With an aim to provide distribution and storage of the Covid-19 vaccine, Moderna and Kuehne+Nagel has announced that they have agreed an international supply chain arrangement. The announcement follows the granting of conditional marketing authorisation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for Covid-19 Vaccine Moderna. Kuehne+Nagel will support the worldwide distribution of vaccine doses from Moderna’s international supply chain, based in Europe. This includes distribution to markets in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, and parts of the Americas. “We are proud to be partnering with Kuehne+Nagel from Europe to support the distribution of vaccines to global citizens. Following the recent approvals, this is another step closer to resolving the pandemic and an exciting time for both our companies and everyone involved,” says, Dan Staner, Vice President Head of EMEA region, Moderna Inc. The arrangement includes distribution and warehousing of the vaccine from Kuehne+Nagel’s pharma hub in Europe. Kuehne+Nagel will use its network of more than 230 operations worldwide to distribute the vaccine via road and air. In Europe alone, the company operates its own fleet of over 200 dedicated pharmaceutical transport vehicles. At all stages of transport and storage, product integrity at the required temperature of -20°C will be maintained. Robert Coyle, Senior Vice President, Pharma & Healthcare, Kuehne + Nagel Management AG, comments: “With today’s announcement, we take on the responsibility to distribute Covid-19 Vaccine Moderna around the world. We have invested in our pharma & healthcare network and our global team of experts for decades – we are ready now, for when it matters the most.” Kuehne+Nagel’s clinical trial logistics subsidiary, QuickSTAT, has been an integral part of Moderna’s vaccine supply chain as well, having supported Phase …

In a bid to commence coastal shipping services, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will collaborate with Inland Waterways Authority (IWAI). The coastal shipping activities will be undertaken by its wholly-owned subsidiary – Inland & Coastal Shipping. “We will announce a collaboration with IWAI very soon. We are commencing coastal shipping operations,” says HK Joshi, SCI, Chairman and Managing Director. Inland & Coastal Shipping, a Kolkata-headquartered company, is likely to start its operation on national waterway-1, the stretch from Varanasi to Haldia on Ganga river. Coastal shipping accounts for only two per cent of the country’s freight movement. SCI has interests in various segments of the shipping trade, and its fleet includes bulk carriers, crude oil tankers, container vessels and passenger-cum-cargo ships. At a time when exporters are facing a shortage of containers, Joshi emphasised the importance of making the country self-reliant in terms of its availability.