Snapdeal has announced that it has added eight logistics centres to its network across manufacturing hubs, including Mathura, Noida and Mumbai, ahead of the festive season. The expansion is part of a decentralised network designed by Snapdeal, where its centres are located within commercial hubs inside a city to ensure faster pickup of packets from the sellers. The new centres are located inside the manufacturing hubs at Bahadurgarh, Yamuna Nagar (Haryana), Rajkot (Gujarat), Bhiwandi (Maharashtra), Agra, Noida, Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Mumbai. The expansion is a part of pre-Diwali increase in capacity to cater to the festive spike in volumes. These new centres will cater to manufacturers and sellers of decor and furnishing items like lights, curtains, bedsheets, kitchenware and apparel, including sarees and ethnic wear. All these items are expected to witness high festive sales volumes due to an increase in the number of Indians preferring to buy online for convenience and safety reasons

Speaking on the size of the new market, once the recovery happens in few quarters, Saurabh Kumar, CEO, Hyderabad Air Cargo, highlighted, “In the last three months we have fundamentally realised that air cargo is a very significant component. It used to be an add-on ancillary, however, today the significance of air cargo is much high. The focus is on ensuring that supply lines are efficient and adequate capacity is available and people believe that air cargo is the most reliable and fastest mode of transportation that would still be available to the economy even if a similar pandemic hits in the future. There will be better growth after we overcome the threshold recovery in the next few quarters.”

Sharing the perils associated with paper, Amar More, CEO, Kale Logistics Solutions calls paper just not a piece, it means delays, environmental damage and in some places it means corruption. He continued, “India is a big success story, we have come to sixth rank globally from 116. Our country is the world’s IT backbone and we should not be following the world; however, we should be leading the world. In our industry, the time is now and we shouldn’t be wasting this opportunity considering paper not only delays and damages but with COVID-19 it is a death threat because the virus stays on paper for three to four days. So, if we are handling more paper, we are putting our own staff and industry at more risk. Hence, we should use technology not just for paperless operations but contactless.”

To make up the shortfall and maintain global supply chains during the pandemic, Scoot has operated hundreds of cargo flights using passenger aircraft, including many where cargo was placed on passenger seats. Now, to better serve cities with smaller airports, Scoot has modified one of its A320ceo aircraft (9V-TAZ) to carry cargo in the cabin by removing all seats, doubling its cargo-carrying capacity to nearly 20 tonnes. Campbell Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, Scoot, said, “With many passenger aircraft sitting idle due to the pandemic, Scoot started operating cargo charters to carry essential supplies as an alternative revenue stream. Since then, we have been growing our cargo capacity and capabilities to remain competitive while providing more value for our customers. The modification works carried out on 9V-TAZ are our biggest undertaking to date, and we thank the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) for their support in this endeavour with their certification of the modification works.”

According to ICRA (formally known as Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India), the Indian port sector has witnessed sharp contraction during Q1 FY2021 due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and containment measures adopted by the Government. While, the Major Ports witnessed ~20 per cent decline in Q1 FY2021, the Non Major Ports declined by 24 per cent during the same period. However, in the month of July 2020, the rate of cargo decline decelerated with Major Ports witnessing Y-o-Y decline of 13% and Non Major ports witnessing sharper improvement with decline of just 4%. As per Ratings agency ICRA, the FY2021 outlook for the Port sector remains negative, although there are early signs of recovery as witnessed by trends in July, the sustainability remains to be seen. Regarding the developments, Sai Krishna, Assistant Vice President and Associate-Head, ICRA Ratings adds, “The contraction in Port cargo was driven by sharp fall in POL and coal volumes, due to decline in domestic demand and economic activity, while container segment was also impacted by subdued EXIM trade. With the easing of containment measures and improved demand for petroleum products and power, the POL and coal segment should witness recovery. However, the recovery in segments like containers may be more prolonged due to dependence on both domestic economic activity and global demand trends. ICRA reiterates its expectation that while general cargo throughput may witness ~6-8% contraction for full year 2020-21, the container segment may witness a decline of 12-15% during the same period.” The rating agency also notes that while some of the measures announced by the Ministry of Shipping (MOS), in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic to support various stakeholders, …

Considering Rudrapur as one of the largest industrial hubs of Uttrakhand and is a crucial location from supply chain & logistics perspective, Safexpress has announced the launch of its ultra-modern Logistics Park in Rudrapur. This state-of-the-art facility is strategically located on National Highway 109. The Logistics Park will serve as a nodal point for supply chain & logistics in the region. This facility is based at a strategic location and has strong connectivity with all Indian states. The Rudrapur Logistics Park enables loading & unloading of over 100 vehicles simultaneously, which ensures smooth and uninterrupted movement of goods. Operations at the Logistics Park are highly streamlined, which ensures the country’s fastest transit-time from Rudrapur to over 1,131 destinations across India.

Service industry has always been manpower heavy. On this, Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCI Express noted, “Being a part of logistics and transportation industry, we always have to be on ground to provide services. There is no way we can work from home. Hence, the next big challenge for the companies who are not going into automation will be managing their manpower during such a pandemic.”

Amit Malakar, Chief Customer Officer, Welspun One talks about the lessons to be learnt from the pandemic at CargoTalk’s fourth digital conclave. He says, “COVID-19 has taught us few things, such as, how important it is to be digital in our business, consumer’s direct connection to brand and having multiple stock points rather than one to fulfil the demand quicker, to name a few. We have realised that industry players with robust supply chains and those who were well stocked and well replenished were the ones who survived. Calling logistics industry an important contributor to our economy, he continues, “There has been a lot of talk about warehouse consolidation over the last five years and now the government is also keen and trying to reduce some cost of supply chain. The warehousing industry has also got infrastructure status. Hence, things are moving in the positive direction in this industry.”

Sharing the challenging times given by COVID-19, Naveen Rawat, Director & Co-founder, Holisol Logistics, at CargoTalk’s fourth digital conclave says, “Things have started looking better especially on the e-commerce side. For many of our customers for whom e-commerce was just a secondary channel and their primary channel was selling from their stores have now realised that e-commerce is not a filler but a very important part of their business. In the last four to six weeks the business has gone up to 50 per cent from a single digit market share of e-commerce. Rawat is sure that this change is not only a temporary measure but even as and when things go back to normal, e-commerce would still be an important kind of channel for them. The growth percentage might not stay at 50 per cent but it will not go into single digit and will definitely not go back to pre-COVID level.

Talking about the impact of COVID-19 on warehousing, John Thomas, Group Director, Realistic Realtors & Reach Promoters and Director at CIRIL (Commercial Real Estate Advisors), at CargoTalk’s fourth digital conclave says, “Warehousing industry was booming and escalating leaps and bounds before COVID-19. The virus brought disruption but for a very short time. He continues, “By the end of this year or early 2021, the industry will bounce back. It has already started and there are certain arenas where the warehousing sector remained positive during the COVID times as well depending upon the industry. Coming to the limitations the sector is facing from years, he says, “Infrastructure and mostly A-grade warehouses have always been a challenge.”