Chennault International Airport in Louisiana, US, is constructing a new cargo facility that will enable it to enter the airfreight sector. The hub said it started constructing the $4m facility last month. The 10,000 sq ft building is expected to be completed in 12 to 18 months. In a statement, the hub said the project was propelled by $3m in capital outlay funding from the Louisiana Legislature, with the balance of the funding paid by the Chennault International Airport Authority. It also said it is in talks with potential ground handling partners. Currently, Chennault International Airport is recognised as “an emerging aerospace hub” and the new cargo facility is expected to “provide economic diversity and ultimately create new jobs”. Chennault executive director Kevin Melton commented: “Chennault remains a game-changer for Southwest Louisiana — and we’re excited to offer this new opportunity for more development and more jobs.”

Buyers of airfreight capacity should expect the market to get worse before it gets better, according to Bruce Chan, vice president of global logistics at investment bank Stifel. Chan said that belly capacity is not expected to return until 2023 at the earliest. And while rates are expected to ease from their current elevated levels faster than the return of capacity, space shortages in the immediate future are likely to push prices up this year. Chan said: “Does that mean rates will stay this high until 2024? Unlikely, in our view. But there are structural factors that may keep rates higher than before, including the global rise of e-commerce and the fractalisation of supply chains in search of labour, capacity, and production diversification. “And several large freight forwarders have now declared air charter to be a permanent part of their service offering—not just peak capacity infill.” However, in the immediate future “we do expect things to get worse before they get better” for those buying air cargo capacity.

The civil aviation ministry on Tuesday announced setting up of a sub-group comprising members from domestic air cargo agents body DACAAI, AAI logistics arm AAICLAS, various airlines and a joint venture airport, for suggesting ways and means to improve cargo-related infrastructure issues. A virtual conference hosted by the association on Monday on “Rebooting Aviation-DACCAI-Issues and Challenges of Domestic Air Cargo Logistics”, which was attended by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri as chief guest saw the sub groups constitution. The statement said, “With regard to the suggestion of DACAAI for improving infrastructure and other issues concerning domestic air cargo, he (the minister) instantly constituted a sub-group consisting of DACAAI, AAICLAS, airline and JV airport representatives to go into matters that were hindering the growth of domestic cargo by air,”

With the easing of lockdown restrictions and pickup in the domestic economic activity, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), one of the premier container handling ports, recorded a throughput of 441,984 TEUs in June 2021 as compared to 289,292 TEUs in June 2020. A growth of 52.78% as compared to the same period last year. In terms of rail operations, JNPT handled 88,849 TEUS of ICD traffic from 548 rakes in June 2021, and the Rail-Coefficient is 20.10%. Commenting on the performance, Shri Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPT, said, “We are proud to see the efficiency of the entire JNPT ecosystem improve, resulting in increasing numbers in container handling, overall container traffic, and throughput even during a pandemic. At JNPT, we appreciate the efforts taken by our talented and skilled workforce, esteemed and valuable Stakeholders. Our ever-aiding Trade Partners have shown in maintaining JN Port’s position as a major contributor to India’s economic growth and the nation’s fight against Covid-19 by relentlessly handling the evacuation and procurement of Medical Grade Oxygen and other Medical accessories and supply”.

Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world’s biggest container shipping companies, has suspended carrying fresh Bangladesh-bound cargoes from Singapore port, which may worsen the ongoing container crisis in Chattogram port. The company has stopped it as per the advice of the Port of Singapore just a couple of days ago, according to a document obtained by the FE. The advice reads: “The German shipping giant will not carry Bangladesh-bound cargoes up to 4 weeks.” People at the shipping circle in Dhaka and Chattogram said that many big container transportation firms were now focusing on China, Europe and USA routes for their recent economic booms coupled with higher freights. Hapag Lloyd, the world’s fifth-largest shipping firm by fleets, has a significant market share in Bangladesh as it carries nearly 9,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of imports per month.

Knight Frank India, an international property consultancy, in their latest report – ‘India Warehousing Market Report – 2021’, projects that annual warehousing transactions for top eight Indian cities (primary markets) will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% to 76.2 mn sq ft (7.08 mn sq m) by Financial Year (FY) 2026 from 31.7 mn sq ft (2.95 mn sq m) in FY 2021. As per the projections for the next 5 years (FY 2022 – FY 2026), e-commerce segment is expected to take up significant space estimated to be 98 mn sq ft (9.1 mn sq m) approximately registering an increase of 165% from the preceding period of FY 2017 – 2021. Third Party Logistics (3PL) and other Sector companies are expected to take up 56% (83 mn sq ft) and 43% (53 mn sq ft) more space respectively, over the same reference period.

PLUSS Advanced Technologies (PLUSS) in collaboration with Apollo Supply Chain (part of the Apollo International Group), has set up a 20,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility in Hyderabad, for packaging boxes for temperature sensitive vaccines, pharmaceuticals and biologics. The boxes maintain inside-temperature without electricity at desired levels for over 4 days, using ‘phase change materials’ technology. The facility has the capacity to condition boxes for transporting equivalent of 3 to 5 million vaccine doses per month, and will cater to the various vaccine and pharma manufacturers in and around Hyderabad. “With the installation of this facility, the burden of creating a cold chain logistics infrastructure for pharmaceutical companies can be reduced. It also allows optimal use of resources between companies and gels with the PLUSS goals of being ‘Plusstainable’ – the ability to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising on the requirements of the future. Shared resources always make a lot of sense, in the long run it reduces costs and expenses for everyone in the endeavour to increase access to temperature sensitive healthcare products. The boxes come pre-fitted with temperature sensors and monitoring of temperature is seamless,” said Samit Jain, CEO, PLUSS.

In a bid to make Saudi Arabia a global transportation and logistics hub, the country will invest over 500 billion riyals ($133.34 billion) in airports, sea ports, rail and other infrastructure by 2030, informed the transport minister. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced a transport and logistics drive, details of which have been partially released publicly, last Tuesday. Minister of Transport and Logistic Services Saleh bin Nasser said that the strategy included many mega projects, with over 500 billion riyals reserved for investment. About 35% of that spending will come from the government and the rest from the private sector as officials launch a new international airline, expand airports, build a broader train network and explore new technologies, said the Transport Minister Saleh Al Jasser.

The logistics sector reported a strong recovery over H2 FY2021, a sharp contrast to the steep decline in revenues and earnings reported over Q1 FY2021. The logistic sector reported a growth of ~9% sequentially in Q4 FY2021 backed by sustained recoveries across the sectors. Some of the industry players also reported historically highest quarterly revenues during Q4 FY2021. It had witnessed a sharp decline in revenues and earnings over Q1 FY2021 due to demand-supply disruptions amidst the imposition of the nationwide lockdown. Piecemeal relaxations in lockdown related restrictions and adjustment to the new normal, revived economic activity and improved freight availability helped the players. According to Mr. Srikumar Krishnamurthy, Vice President & Co-head Head, ICRA Ratings, “The sector continued a strong rebound as facilitated by recovery across industries and improving freight availability. With the demand recovery sustaining post the festive season as well over Q4 FY2021, the logistics sector pared back some of the losses of the first half and closed the fiscal with a revenue growth of ~4% for FY2021 against 4% contraction expected earlier by ICRA. Despite returning to pre-Covid levels, freight rates continued to remain firm given the rise in fuel costs. Sustained growth in E-way bill and freight volumes remained a testimony to the firming up of the sector’s performance over Q4 FY2021.”

The Logistics Division of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has unveiled plans for the ‘Freight Smart Cities’ on Friday, July 2. It also launched a website and a handbook focusing on measures to improve the urban freight system. Freight, in simple language, means goods or cargo. These may be carried or transported by a ship, train, truck, or airplane. India is rapidly moving towards urbanization, which has led to an increase in economic growth, including e-commerce business. E-commerce requires the transportation of goods for on-time delivery of products to the consumer. Indian cities are driving the economic activity of the nation, contributing more than 63% of the national GDP. This prompted the need for a first and last-mile freight movement.