Schenker India plans to strengthen its local footprint and become one of the largest warehousing players in the country over the next three years. The company plans to double its warehousing capacity, from the current 3.5 million sqft spread across 53 warehouse locations, and enhance efficiencies through technology deployment for faster processing and real-time updates across the value chain. “India is a priority market for DB Schenker globally, and with the growth spurt triggered by the implementation of GST, we are well-poised to increase capacity and expand aggressively to better serve our customers. The expansion of our warehousing capacity will make us one of the largest 3PL players in the next three years with a special emphasis on transforming our customers through innovative technology solutions,” said Vishal Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Schenker India, Cluster India and Indian Subcontinent.

SA Consultants & Forwarders has launched Logycode, an e-commerce start-up to make the cost-effective match between exporters and importers on the one hand and air freight carriers on the other. The idea behind the initiative is to create an e-marketplace where customers can shop and ship easily and grow their business efficiently. The platform plans to change the traditional way the customer reaches out for his logistics needs. One of the key objectives is to create a platform that provides the airfreight purchasing industry with real-time instant rates for its buyers. Ashish Asaf, MD & CEO, SA Consultants & Forwarders, says, “The idea is to encourage our industry by simplifying businesses. The present situation is that people are investing a lot of time and money. Our goal is to digitise the industry and simplify processes. This is our value-add to our customers who are doing business with us. Through this platform, we are giving the tools in our customers hand so that they can work faster.”

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) will set up its first container terminal outside India in Myanmar, at an estimated cost of $290 million (over Rs 2,000 crore). The company has signed an agreement to develop and operate a container terminal at Yangon Port in Myanmar. The terminal will have a capacity to handle 0.80 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit) of containers. The estimated cost for implementing phase-I of 0.5 million TEUs is between $220-230 million, and the phase-II expansion to 0.8 million TEUs is expected to cost between $55-60 million. The investment is in line with APSEZ’s strategy to have a footprint in Southeast Asia and expand the container terminal network. Construction for phase-I of the project will commence next month and will be completed by June 2021. The terminal will be integrated with APSEZ ports/terminals along the east and south coast of India, unlocking synergies by offering multiple entry and exit points for shipping lines.

Spoton Logistics has launched its air express cargo services. With this announcement, the company now offers a range of specialised multi-modal express cargo services to B2B customers, significantly reducing turnaround time for time-sensitive deliveries to over 25,000 pin codes across India. Abhik Mitra, Managing Director and CEO, Spoton Logistics, has said, “The air express service will play a major role in catering to the rising demand for safe and faster deliveries. We expect our new service to act as the cornerstone in increasing our market share and provide competitive advantage to our clients.” The newly-launched Air Express service will be driven by Spoton’s road express pickup and delivery infrastructure and supported by its excellent usage of engineering, data and technology which helps the company deliver greater reliability and consistency to its customers.

Reacting to the April 2019 trade data, Ganesh Kumar Gupta, President, FIEO, said, “The export data of US$26.07 billion with a growth of 0.64 per cent is not at all encouraging as almost all the labour-intensive sectors including leather and leather products, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, cotton yarns, man-made yarns, carpets, marine products, few plantations and various other sectors of exports dominated by MSMEs are into negative territory. These sectors are still facing the problem of liquidity besides various other challenges including global trade war, protectionism, fragile global conditions and constraints on the domestic front.” He said that there may be front loading of exports in the past as exporters were apprehensive of withdrawal of GSP in US and development in Iran. Only 14 out of 30 major product groups were in positive territory during April 2019 including petroleum, organic & inorganic chemicals, drugs & pharma, RMG of all textiles, electronic goods, ceramic products & glassware, handicrafts, commodities besides some plantation, agri and dairy products have shown growth during the month.

The industrial warehousing segment has witnessed rapid growth in recent years due to healthy demand from occupants in sectors such as automotive manufacturing, third party logistics services, and e-commerce. In addition, regulatory interventions such as implementation of the GST and infrastructure status being accorded to the sector are also driving demand for large integrated warehousing parks. As per an ICRA note, this has attracted foreign investors who are entering the sector through investment platforms with the mandate of investing in industrial warehousing parks across major cities of the country. Often, this is done by partnering with a local developer or in some cases a global warehousing operator. The total amount of equity commitments to such platforms is at least US$2.5 billion over the last two years. Such investment commitments can support assets under management of more than 130 million sqft as per ICRA estimates. This is almost double the size of the current estimated stock of Grade-A industrial warehousing in the country and around 10 times the operational portfolio of such platforms as on date. Shubham Jain, Vice President and Group Head – Corporate Ratings, ICRA, says, “There is increasing demand for Grade-A warehousing space because of the operational conveniences and cost benefits. The demand is concentrated in metro cities, supported by the presence of manufacturing hubs in the vicinity, access to transport networks and Exim facilities, as well as the rising urban population in the metropolitan areas for consumption-driven demand for warehousing.”

With a focus on unblocking bottlenecks and capitalising on opportunities, PHD Chamber of Commerce organised the ‘National Maritime Conclave-2019’ in New Delhi. The conclave was graced by the presence of N Sivasailam, Special Secretary (Logistics), Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, Dilip Kumar Gupta, Managing Director, Sagarmala Development Company and V Kalyana Rama, Chairman & Managing Director, CONCOR along with the industry professionals. Being a moderator of the session themed ‘Port modernisation & multi-modal transportation system’, Pawanexh Kohli, CEO, NCCD, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Government of India, said, “As an industry, we must all try to make logistics more productive. Increasing port capacity to cater to the growing traffic will automatically bring down the cost of operations and per unit cost of goods handled. The mindset, however, needs to be changed in terms of being productive for the same cost. For instance, we can increase our capacity utilisation which should be done with greater operational efficiency.” He added that the industry must speak to the government about turnarounds to help them become more productive.

To expand its reach in India, Kerry Indev Logistics has launched eight services, each catering to different B2B and B2C segments of the Indian market under the Kerry Indev Express brand. Dr S Xavier Britto, Chairman, Kerry Indev Group, says, “The Express service will enable our company to reach the doorsteps of consumers, thus completing our dream to offer truly end-to-end logistics solutions to them.” The eight pan-India last-mile delivery services launched under the Kerry Indev Express brand are Same Day Express, for guaranteed delivery within 6-8 hours in the same city or between designated cities; Early Express, for guaranteed overnight delivery across designated cities; Priority Package Express, for door-to-door delivery of valuable documents and packages across 200 cities/towns covering 3000 pin codes and expanding to 6,000 pin codes by end 2019; Priority Freight Express – Air, for next-day/committed door-to-door delivery solutions for commercial and urgent shipments to major metros and non-metros; Priority Freight Express – Surface, for a day definite door-to-door delivery solution for commercial and urgent shipments to major metros and non-metros; E-Commerce Business Express, for time-definite deliveries, international courier clearances for cross-border e-commerce services, cash on delivery, drop ship service, reverse logistics; Warehousing Solution Express, for fulfilment centre services and first & last-mile distribution services; Critical Solutions Express, for temperature-controlled distribution, passport and critical documents handling/jewellery cargo handling and clinical trial/biological sample supply chain solutions and other value added services.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has undertaken dredging of its navigational channel from 14 metres to 15 metres, allowing for larger vessels of up to 12,500 TEUs to berth at the port. Apart from increasing the depth of the channel, the dredging project also includes increasing the width from 370 m to 450 m, and increasing the channel length by two kilometres, taking it to 35.5 km. This strategic development has been made keeping in mind the global market trend of deploying larger vessels to carry more consignments at a time. Sanjay Sethi, Chairman, JNPT, says, “Our focus is reducing the transaction cost and time for the EXIM trade; dredging of the navigational channel is one of the most important initiatives towards it. Trade will benefit through optimal utilisation of capacity, saving on vessel waiting time, faster turnaround of larger vessels, and incremental regional economic development and spin-off economic benefits.”

With the passenger traffic declining by 1.1 per cent (Y-o-Y) in March 2019, the cargo traffic growth at Indian airports moderated to 6 per cent in FY2019, as against double-digit growth witnessed over the last two years. The growth slowdown was primarily driven by international cargo segment, which accounts for 62 per cent of the total cargo traffic and reported Y-o-Y growth of 2.6 per cent in FY2019 as against 15.6 per cent in FY2018. On the other hand, domestic cargo traffic has witnessed robust Y-o-Y growth of 12 per cent in FY2019, up from 8.1 per cent in FY2018.