Jaideep Raha, Co-Chairman, Logistics Task Force (Eastern Region), CII, shares the reasons of the negative impact on logistics industry. He tells, “It is due to withdrawal of flights to and from China to India and to other countries. Imports of raw materials particularly for leather export industries have been affected due shortages of fitting and ancillary items for handbags and other products including tanning chemicals. This has slowed down the exports. There has been price escalation of the fitting materials and thus exporters are finding it difficult to execute the orders as per the price quoted to their overseas buyers.”

According to S Ramakrishna, President, DCBA and Immediate Past Chairman, FFFAI, “We have already witnessed nearly 40 per cent decline in air cargo traffic (both export and import) to and from China owing to the outburst of Coronavirus in that country. Impact on sea cargo is yet to be assessed. Majorly impacted segments are chemicals, electric & electronic items, fertilizers etc, which top the Exim trade basket between the two countries. However, this incidence could also gain for the exporter to enter new markets and on the imports alternate source could be developed.”

Talking about how bad the situation for Indian logistics industry is, Sunil Arora, President, ACAAI, says, “China is a place where production happens on an hourly-basis, for example, if iPhone productions goes down by one hour that affects their capacity and volume on annual basis. Factories have been off for approx. one month now and it’s going to continue for may be next five to six months, and this is a concern. Hopefully, the coronavirus epidemic ends soon, even then the impact on production and thereafter supply chain will take almost five to six months to come back to normalcy. Moreover, if everything opens, we will see an upsurge which will again have an impact on imports and exports. Freight forwarding is one industry that is attached to all industries scenario. Hence, if we see the consequential impact across the industry, sectors dependent on imports or exports from China will bear the worst impact.”

The Centre is in the process of introducing measures to counteract the crisis caused by Coronavirus outbreak, informs, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Finance, Government of India. Addressing around 200 industry representatives and trade associations, sector-wise, the minister said, “Supply constraint is more pronounced in the pharmaceutical, chemical and electronics industries. While the pharma industry has sought lifting of ban on exports of certain items, the manufacturing sectors has demanded flexibility in paperwork and bank payments.”

The Port of Antwerp and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the JNPT-Antwerp Port Training & Consultancy Foundation as the ‘Port & Logistics Training Centre of Excellence’. This will enable the Centre to offer industry relevant courses with practical implications in the future. The MoU was signed by Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPT, and Kristof Waterschoot, Managing Director, APEC. The first course on ‘Handling of Dangerous Goods’ was conducted at the Centre last week by Kurt Van Passen, an expert of the Port of Antwerp, together with Babette Desfossez, Belgium Customs Attaché. The facility will now be a Centre of Excellence for the maritime sector in India, for Indian and international port and logistics professionals, it was highlighted. Sethi stressed that the JNPT-APEC Training Centre has been hugely beneficial and that the Centre of Excellence will be enhanced in scale and scope to play a nodal role for all kinds of training and intellectual exchange, with a wide range of programmes. The Centre has the potential to become a very significant institution which all stakeholders can become part of, he added.

Logistics leasing activity in India has reached a high of 33 million square feet, increasing by more than 30 percent on an annual basis, according to the report released by CBRE. Bengaluru, NCR and Mumbai accounted for about 60 per cent of the overall space take-up during the year. In line with the annual trend, the second half of 2019 also recorded historic leasing activity, with about 18 million square feet of space take-up; an increase of about 20 percent compared to H1 2019. Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO – India, South East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE said, “To become a USD 5 trillion economy, the government aims at enacting several structural reforms to improve physical connectivity.”

As per the nomenclature changed in Customs Brokers Licensing Regulations – 2013, Ahmedabad Custom House Agents’ Association (ACHAA) will now be known as Ahmedabad Custom Brokers’ Association (ACBA). The new name and registration have been also granted under the Societies Registration Act, 1660 and under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. The announcement of new name has been made by Devang Joshi – the then President ACHAA, during the Annual General Meeting of the association. Parag Baraiya, the then Hon. Secretary, ACHAA, announced the first new managing committee formed under ACBA as: Samir Shah, Chairman Kartik Pancholi, President Devendra Thakker, Vice President Darshan Mashroo, Hon. Secretary Chinmay Kothari, Hon. Jt. Secretary Viral Zaveri, Treasurer Rakesh Oza, Managing Committee Member The new managing committee has taken the charge of association immediately after the AGM and the first meeting of ACBA.

With an interest to strengthen pharma supply chain in the country, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) has entered into an agreement with Agility. “As the operator of India’s first Pharma Zone offering an unbroken cold chain from truck-dock to the airside, Hyderabad Airport has been a strong proponent of collaboration with the industry leaders to help strengthen the pharma supply chain in the country,” said SGK Kishore, CEO, GHIAL. With the new partnership, GHIAL hopes to strengthen the supply chain system in India and pharma cargo sector.

APM Terminals Pipavav has begun operation of ‘drive-through container scanner’. The scanning system adheres to the guidelines issued by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and specifications issued by Directorate of Logistics (DOL). The new drive through container scanning facility is an important trade facilitation measure which besides improving the maritime safety and security would help enhance the overall efficiency and integrity of the logistics chain. The Eagle P60 scanning machine will reduce the dwell time, improve productivity, facilitate faster turnaround of the consignment thereby reducing the transaction cost and enhancing the overall Port’s performance.

ESR, the Warburg Pincus-backed company, is planning to develop a 300,000 square metre (3.2 million square foot) logistics park on the site in Haryana state. The company acquired the land parcel, which is adjacent to the 223,000 square metre Keystone Knowledge Park science and technology hub. “ESR India is committed to building institutional grade logistics infrastructure to facilitate the development and modernisation of the nation’s supply chain. ESR Sohna will be well-positioned to cater to the needs of the expanding e-commerce industry with state-of-the-art infrastructure to aid advanced supply chain and logistics processes,” says, Abhijit Malkani and Jai Mirpuri, Country Heads of ESR India, in a joint statement. Located in the city of Sohna, 55 kilometres south of Indira Gandhi International Airport, the proposed high-spec park will support last-mile delivery for the business hubs of New Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad.