The fourth edition of CargoTalk digital conclave is all set to be held tomorrow, Tuesday, July 7 to discuss the big boon which is expected to come in the warehousing sector. Speakers will include Pawan Kumar Agarwal, IAS, Special Secretary (Logistics), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, John Thomas, Group Director, Realistic Realtors & Reach Promoters and Director at CIRIL (Commercial Real Estate Advisors), Naveen Rawat, Director & Co-founder, Holisol Logistics and Amit Malakar, Chief Customer Officer, Welspun One. The session between 11:15 am to 12:15 pm will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on warehousing sector; how COVID-19 has changed the consumer behaviour and if warehousing industry is ready to meet the surge in demand.

The fourth edition of CargoTalk digital conclave is all set to be held tomorrow, Tuesday, August 25 with a focus on the significance of going contactless in logistics industry. Speakers will include Cyrus Katgara, President, Air Cargo Forum India, V Raju, Senior Vice President CL – Chemical, Pharma & Food Sector, Avvashya CCI Logistics (All Cargo Group), Satish Lakkaraju, Chief Commercial Officer, Agility Global Integrated Logistics. The session between 10:00 am to 11:00 am will cover subjects such as factors which are still stopping the logistics industry to move to data and automate and if small freight forwarders are financially secured to automate, etc.

Explaining the importance of digitising the processes, Parvinder Singh, Managing Director, Hans Infomatic,says, ”Many companies still have problems coming to grips with the concept, but there is no way for them to avoid digitisation. It is important for companies to understand that digitisation will only be successful if the cloud and IoT solutions are secure and facilitate privacy of their corporate and customer data. So be it securing data, file management system, HR management, employees performances or booking orders & fulfilling them and all major financial transactions including invoicing and receipt generation, everything is going to be digital and handled from remote areas. Hans Infomatic is committed to helping organisations stay connected; and facilitating remote access to information while being productive during such challenging times.”

American Airlines has appointed Air Logistics Group as its Cargo General Sales Agent (GSA) for its operations in India. The new GSA representation will bring added benefits to American’s Cargo customers as the airline continues to expand its cargo capacity and frequency between the two nations. American Airlines Cargo has served the Indian market with a GSA for more than two decades. The United States and India are two of the world’s largest exporters and importers of goods and freight. “India is an important market for American’s cargo operations,” said Tim Isik, Director Cargo Sales – Europe, Middle East and Africa, in adding, “As we prepare to launch our new Seattle to Bengaluru service in 2021, we are delighted to be strengthening our position in India through this exclusive partnership with Air Logistics Group.”

Addressing challenges of speedy delivery and cost efficiencies of services, Delhivery and Volvo have come together to test and deploy an articulated Volvo FM 4×2 solution for express operations. In line with the governments ambition of reducing the logistics cost of the country Volvo will work towards better solutions that will render faster turn-around time, higher up-time of the trucks, safer and comfortable trucks that will enable the driver deliver increased productivity. These custom built solutions will enhance the efficiency of the express cargo movement through trailers of higher capacities of around 93 cum, maintaining an average running of over 20 hours a day and 3,00,000 km in a year. These tractor-trailers will revolutionise the industry by delivering efficiency and productivity which is more than double compared to the current range of tractors in India. The logistics industry needs trucks that will set benchmarks in vehicle uptime, reliability, load carrying capacity and running km per year, to meet the demands of the e-commerce business. With the changing ground realities, the logistics industry is gearing up for new opportunities, which will revolutionize the long haul transport industry.

After receiving an overwhelming response in its three digital conclaves, CargoTalk is back with its fourth conclave on August 25, 2020 from 10 am to 12:15 pm. With an aim to focus on the significance of going contactless in logistics industry and how warehousing industry withstanding the e-commerce boom, the virtual summit will have eminent speakers from Ministry and trade. The summit will be divided into two one-hour sessions. Speakers will include Pawan Kumar Agarwal, IAS, Special Secretary (Logistics), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, Cyrus Katgara, President, Air Cargo Forum India, V Raju, Senior Vice President CL – Chemical, Pharma & Food Sector, Avvashya CCI Logistcs (All Cargo Group), Satish Lakkaraju, Chief Commercial Officer, Agility Global Integrated Logistics, John Thomas, Group Director, Realistic Realtors & Reach Promoters and Director at CIRIL (Commercial Real Estate Advisors) and Amit Malakar, Chief Customer Officer, Welspun One.

DP World’s subsidiary Unifeeder announced the acquisition of Transworld Feeders FZCO, Avana Logistek, including its subsidiary Avana Global FZCO, and Transworld Feeders which is the containerised Indian coastal and EXIM feeder shipping operations of Shreyas Shipping and Logistics Limited, excluding vessels and bulk operations. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO, DP World, said, “We are delighted to announce these bolt-on acquisitions which give us complete coverage in fast-growing markets between East Africa, Gulf, and the wider Indian Subcontinent. These new activities are in line with our strategy and complement our recent acquisitions of Feedertech and Perma Shipping. We now have the capability to offer superior connectivity between Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, the Middle East, and East Africa, and this greater scale and comprehensive network presence will allow us to reduce inefficiencies in the supply chains to the benefit of all our customers. “Transworld Feeders and Avana are both strong and well-known brands that handle approximately 1.2mn TEU per annum and operate in fast-growing markets. Our Unifeeder ISC platform will continue to operate an asset-light, independent common-user platform, as we continue to build the Unifeeder brand, which is best known for efficient connectivity, flexibility, and reliability. Unifeeder now has full-scale capability to offer feedering and regional trade connectivity in Northern Europe, Mediterranean, Northern Africa, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Asia,” he adds.

Explaining the size of the market, Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCI Express, stated, “First, we must understand that Indian logistics is about 14 per cent of the GDP which is US$ 340 billion and as per the NITI Aayog this is supposed to double in the next five years. Even if it does not double, it will come up to approx. US$ 550 billion which is a substantial chunk of emerging business and 60 per cent of that will always remain road. So, if you look at 60 per cent of US$ 500 billion, it equals US$ 300 billion, as per the data by NITI Aayog, which will be road transportation in India. Here comes the important factor that 95 per cent of US$ 300 billion is going to be unorganised. The challenge is that the GST which is not being collected by the unorganised segment will always be a threat to the economy. The government has to find ways and figure out how they can counter that.”

ZYPP Electric Mobility has declared that the start-up has successful delivered of more than 5 lakh shipments for its customers in the last 4 months since the outbreak of COVID-19. ZYPP has partnered with top e-commerce and e-grocery companies like Amazon, Big Basket, Future Group, Flipkart, Spencers, and many more hyperlocal merchants and helped them deliver essentials to their end customers’ homes. The start-up doubled down on last mile delivery services during COVID-19 eyeing to accommodate the void created due to surged demands in the essentials delivery category with tie-ups with top e-commerce and e-grocery majors. Akash Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, ZYPP Electric Mobility said, “eGrocery is growing at 30 per cent CAGR in India and this is pre-Covid growth. Now post Covid-19, last mile delivery is touching a new inflexion point and we as Zypp Electric are able to provide upto 20 per cent savings to our customers on every delivery which is huge savings at scale in the logistics eco-system. Zypp Electric is here to disrupt the last mile ecosystem and would try and target 100 per cent of last-mile logistics to go electric by 2025 which is what Delhi EV policy also suggests. Zypp has worked aggressively in last 12 months to build the fleet, the infra, the tech, has a network of trained riders and also all key partners already working with us. Hence, Covid-19 has acted as the moment of demonetization for last mile deliveries.” Adding further, KB Nagaraju, Chief Customer Experience Officer, bigbasket, said, “bigbasket is committed to providing best possible services to customers and ensuring that deliveries are done in an environmentally sustainable yet timely manner. It is towards this end that we …

The turnover of the automotive component industry stood at Rs 3.49 lakh crore (US$ 49.2 billion) for the fiscal year 2019-20, registering de-growth of 11.7 per cent over the previous year,” informs Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA). Commenting on the performance of the auto component industry in India, Vinnie Mehta, Director General, ACMA said, “The overall vehicle industry witnessed a severe downturn in 2019-20 that saw its sales slump by 18 per cent. Auto Component aftermarket at Rs 69,381 crore (US$ 9.8 billion) remained stable while sales to OEMs in the domestic market at Rs 2.87 lakh crore (US$ 40.5 billion) declined 17 per cent. Both imports and exports declined by 11.4 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively; imports stood at Rs 1.09 lakh crore (US$ 15.4 billion), while exports at Rs 1.02 lakh crore (US$ 14.5 billion)”. Sharing his insights on the performance of the auto component industry in the year gone by, Deepak Jain, President, ACMA said, “The automotive industry faced a prolonged slowdown in FY 2019-20 with vehicle sales in all segments plummeting significantly. Subdued vehicle demand, investments made for transition from BSIV to BSVI, liquidity crunch, lack of clarity on policy for electrification of vehicles and slow-down in key export markets, among others, had an adverse impact on the performance of the components sector in India as also on its expansion plans.”