Qatar Airways Cargo has extended its cool chain industry partnerships by joining Cool Chain Association (CCA), a non-profit organisation, effective 28 July 2021. Founded in 2003, the association aims to reduce food wastage and improve the quality, efficiency and value of the temperature sensitive supply chain by facilitating and enabling vertical and horizontal collaboration, education and innovation amongst its members and stakeholders. Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo at Qatar Airways said, “Through our membership with Cool Chain Association, we look forward to collaborating with its members, and contributing to CCA’s vision of improving quality of temperature-sensitive products, increasing sustainability and reducing waste, thereby also contributing to the health of the planet, which aligns with our sustainability programme WeQare.” “CCA members are focused on developing tangible programmes and backing projects which help reduce food waste and ensure that life saving pharma consignments safely reach their destination and this has never been more relevant than now,” said Stavros Engelakakis, Chairman, CCA.

DB Schenker is continuing on its course of growth in Finland. Five terminals and more than 260 employees are now joining the network of the leading logistics provider in northern Europe, as DB Schenker in Finland has concluded an agreement to acquire the entire share capital of Vähälä Logistics Oy and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, together known as Vähälä Yhtiöt. The Finnish family-owned logistics group was founded in 1937 and offers domestic land transport services in central and northern Finland as a partner of the DB Schenker network. This cooperation dates back to 1956. “With this acquisition, we are strengthening DB Schenker’s position in Europe,” says Helmut Schweighofer, CEO of DB Schenker in Europe. “With the takeover of Vähälä Yhtiöt, a company that already operates for DB Schenker in Finland, we have the opportunity to expand the structure of DB Schenker’s land transport network in central and northern Finland.”

Leading logistics and supply chain company Jeena & Co. and German-based Hermes World have come together in a strategic and exclusive partnership, where Hermes will represent Jeena in Germany and Jeena will represent Hermes in India. Jeena has been handling the Otto business for over three decades and this association is now one step further in forging the relation spread across Sea and Air freight. Speaking on this partnership, Stephan Schiller – CEO, Hermes International said, “Jeena and the Otto Group have already been working together for more than 30 years. It therefore made sense to deepen this cooperation when setting up the Sea and Air business segment (now Supply Chain Solutions) at Hermes. Working with a local expert like Jeena gives us and our customers an advantage in the Indian market. Despite its considerable size, Jeena is a family-run company with fast decision-making processes, a sustainable strategy, and great personal relationships at all levels – everyone benefits from this corporate culture”.

LATAM Airlines has been awarded Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) a cargo handling contract extension at Barcelona Airport, Spain. Having initially appointed WFS in Barcelona in 2018, LATAM has now signed a new three-year agreement for WFS to handle cargo on board its Boeing 767 operations, carrying import and export shipments through Barcelona annually. “WFS is our partner for cargo handling services in Europe. The renewal of our contract for Barcelona is the reaffirmation that our relationship is based on WFS’ good quality service,” commented Eva Penalva, LATAM’s regional operations manager, Cargo. Humberto Castro, WFS’ managing director – Cargo, Spain, said, “It is especially satisfying when our existing customers extend their contracts with WFS because it demonstrates that our handling teams are delivering the service levels, safety and security airlines need, and this is a tribute to their hard work. We remain committed to providing the best airport handling services to support the recovery and growth of the aviation industry in Spain.”

EL AL Israel Airlines is accelerating its digital presence with real-time eBookings, access to live rates, and visible air cargo capacity through WebCargo, a Freightos Group company. With the pandemic fueling digital adoption among both carriers and forwarders, EL AL is tapping into WebCargo’s platform. EL AL Cargo will be rolling out on WebCargo across a network covering the United States, Europe, and Asia, offering freight solutions for all types of customers and freight. This engagement enables more than 2,500 WebCargo forwarders across over 10,000 global branches instant access to capacity, pricing, and booking on EL AL Cargo. “Digital adoption has always been a top priority for EL AL, and as air cargo demand continues to rise, providing our customers with instant and accurate information is essential,” said Ronen Spira, head of EL AL Cargo division.

Lufthansa Cargo is now marketing the freight capacities of the new long-haul flights of Eurowings Discover. Europe’s leading cargo airline is thus adding further frequencies directly from Frankfurt to the range of services it offers its customers. Initially, routes to the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania will expand the offer. As of today, the new Eurowings Discover flights will provide customers with two additional connections per week to Mombasa and Zanzibar. From the second of August, this will be followed by further supplementary services to Punta Cana with a weekly frequency of three flights, as well as to Windhoek on five days a week. “The integration of the freight capacities of Eurowings Discover makes the offer even more attractive for our customers,” emphasises Ashwin Bhat, chief commercial officer at Lufthansa Cargo. “The increasing frequencies ideally complement our existing connections and help our customers in times of still scarce capacities. We are also pleased to be able to make a valuable contribution to the success of the new Lufthansa Airline by marketing the new Eurowings Discover capacities.”

As the Indian growth story has progressed, the logistics industry has played a vital role in empowering other sectors. G.V. Sanjay Reddy, Vice Chairman GVK, highlights “how the logistics sector in India, which was at $160 billion in 2017, has witnessed a tremendous growth. In 2020, its market was estimated at $215 billion”. The underlying factors driving this upward trend is the increasing demand of e-commerce in the non-metro cities of India. In recent years, e-commerce has expanded aggressively to tier-2 and tier-3 cities across the country, which has further led to the growth of the logistics sector to keep up with the rising demand. In the fourth quarter of 2020, smaller cities accounted for 46 per cent share in total e-commerce volumes, marking a steep 14 per cent rise from the period just before the Covid-19 pandemic spread. A striking reason for the increased online spending per customer in these cities is driven by the development of last-mile delivery by the logistics companies and an exponential increase in the warehousing space. This trajectory is expected to continue with annual investments being made to the tune of $500 billion, with the projected CAGR for 2019-2025 standing at 10.5 per cent. Similarly, the investments made in the warehousing segment have increased by $7.12 billion between 2018 and 2020.

South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said that liner operators have been omitting calls to Busan, reportedly because Chinese shippers are more willing to pay higher freight charges. Citing data from Busan Port Authority, the ministry said that from the beginning of this year to 10 July, 6,767 container ships entered the country’s busiest container port, a decrease of about 700 (9%) compared to the same period last year. THE Alliance, comprising Hapag-Lloyd, ONE, Yang Ming and HMM, is among those skipping Busan. From 19 July to 15 August, the alliance’s MD2 Asia-Mediterranean service will not stop at Busan. To maintain schedule reliability and prioritise container allocation, liner operators have been skipping ports that are perceived to be less important, said Linerlytica analyst Tan Hua Joo, who told Container News that the situation is not unique to Busan. Chinese ports Qingdao and Tianjin have also been affected, even though Tianjin is the main port serving Beijing.

HyperPort is a sustainable high-speed cargo and freight solution which is capable of increasing capacity and efficiency while also keeping a check on the pollution and congestion at ports worldwide. The system which is developed in partnership with terminal operator Hamburg Hafen und Logistik AG, is said to be going into certification design review. At present, as part of its short term concept, the companies are developing a VR demonstrator that will be presented at the ITS World Congress in Hamburg later this year from October 11-15. Engineered to current industry standards, the new concept is a plug-n-play solution for port operators who are capable of transporting containerised cargo hundreds of kilometres away, in minutes. It will be capable of sustainably moving 2,800 containers per day at speeds of up 600 km/h (327 mph). The new system is considered to give the Airplane speed at the price of freight cost. It is potentially two or three times faster than high-speed rail and has 10 times the speed of regular rail services. Also, it is more energy efficient as the track doesn’t need to provide power to the pods continuously. Furthermore, the pods can leave every 30 seconds, and this makes it an on-demand service. Such exceptional speed makes it very well in sync with the changing consumer demand and the rising concept of same day deliveries.

IBM and Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) operator of Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR) announced a ten-year partnership under which IBM and Kyndryl will provide the finest IT solutions. The plan is to create a new ‘Airport in a Box’ platform that will support transforming the end-to-end travel experience for passengers at BLR Airport. To achieve this goal, BIAL has selected IBM global business services, IBM hybrid cloud capabilities and Kyndryl, the new, independent company that will be created following the separation of IBM’s managed infrastructure services business, to design and implement a next generation architecture with robust and dynamic delivery model. The new platform will also enable BIAL to improve employee productivity, better utilization of IT assets, reduce costs through streamlined inventory control and improved incident management. IBM and BIAL will work to ensure that the platform supports BIAL’s commitment to sustainability and the community at large. BIAL recently achieved its goal of net energy neutral status in the financial year 2020-21, consuming energy from renewable sources.