Developer of Grade A industrial real estate and logistics parks IndoSpace on June 23 announced the launch of two parks, Vallam II and Oragadam III in Tamil Nadu, with a combined area of 118 acres, the company said. Both parks will cater to companies from the automotive and electronics sectors. Original equipment manufacturers like Yamaha, Hyundai, Royal Enfield, Nissan, Daimler and Foxconn are amongst the most prominent industrial entities in these regions, it said. The parks will boost IndoSpace’s footprint across strategically significant regions and are a step towards its long-term goal of creating 120 million square feet of modern logistics infrastructure across India.

Air cargo booking platform Webcargo has launched a new tool that allows forwarders to offer customers online booking on their own website. WebCargo Vista provides forwarders with a branded sales portal that is connected directly to their rate management systems and that can then be offered customers an online booking option. The company explained that research it had recently conducted showed that only 25%of top freight forwarders currently offer accessible online booking to their customers. “WebCargo Vista is unique in its combination of multimodal rate management with a leading pricing, booking and management platform, enabling over 90% of customer bookings to be conducted without a phone call or email,” it said.

Freight forwarder Crane Worldwide Logistics will in July launch charter flights between China and the US to combat ongoing issues in ocean shipping and tight capacity in air cargo. The service will launch on July 2 using B747-400 freighter capacity between Shanghai and Rickenbacker International Airport, leaving on Fridays and arriving on Saturdays. Crane’s chief sales officer Tim Zubradt explained that it had selected Rickenbacker due to the close proximity to the company’s Columbus warehouse and a one-day truck drive to major cities such as Chicago, New York and Washington. He also pointed out that there was congestion at many major US hubs, with Rickenbacker serving as an alternative US hub for incoming cargo. The service is launched as the ocean shipping industry continues to struggle with delays and reliability issues.

Qatar Airways Cargo announces the approval of Envirotainer’s latest innovation – The Releye® RLP container. With the newest addition to its range of temperature-controlled containers, the airline now offers 16 temperature-controlled container leasing options for life science and health care products to maintain a secure and seamless cool chain. It has been already offering customers Envirotainer’s RAP and RKN active pharma containers since 2014. Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo at Qatar Airways said, “We are committed to provide our customers the best solutions. A seamless cool chain is paramount to maintain the efficacy of pharmaceuticals and we are pleased to offer our customers a technologically advanced container – Releye® RLP with live monitoring and intelligent cargo protection to transport their critical life science and health care shipments at the required temperature across our global network. Such an innovation is the need of the hour, especially in these uncertain times of the pandemic.”

DSV Panalpina is poised to become the world’s largest freight forwarder in terms of air and ocean revenues provided that its proposed takeover of Agility GIL is completed, reveals a new analysis from Transport Intelligence (Ti). “With the deal set to be completed in the second half of 2021, the stage is set for changes at the top of the ranking”, reveals Ti’s recently published Global Freight Forwarding Market 2021 With a revenue of €9.9bn, DSV Panalpina is ranked third as per the analysis. Kuehne + Nagel (KN) is the current market leader, with combined revenues of €11.5bn, followed by DHL Global Forwarding, with €10.9bn. Agility is ranked 12th with revenues of €2.8bn. “GIL’s €2.8bn revenues would see DSV Panalpina displace both KN and DHL GF”, the report said.

The urban air mobility pioneer Volocopter and global logistics service provider DB Schenker are developing solutions for the fast and emission-free transport of goods. Today, Volocopter’s heavy-lift drone was presented to German federal politicians for the first time. At the National Aviation Conference (Nationale Luftfahrtkonferenz) at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, numerous politicians and representatives from the aviation industry visited the VoloDrone. The aircraft is autonomously and electrically operated and can transport up to 200 kilograms of cargo with a range of up to 40 kilometers. Jochen Thewes, CEO of DB Schenker: “Our customers demand clean, fast and innovative solutions for their supply chains. When the infrastructure for conventional means of transport is overburdened or non-existent, cargo drones offer an opportunity to rethink logistics routes. The possible applications in logistics are limitless. Through our partnership with Volocopter, this vision is gradually becoming reality. Drone transport is becoming increasingly tangible. The National Aviation Conference in Berlin offers us a very good opportunity to give German politicians a live impression of this.”

The Union Cabinet on June 16, 2021, approved the Inland Vessel Bill 2021 that will streamline and regulate inland vessels running in the country, said Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister Ports, Shipping and Waterways. The Inland Vessels Bill 2021 will replace Inland Vessels Act, 1917. During a press conference, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that the Inland Vessel Bill, 2021 will promote economical and safe transportation as well as trade through inland waterways. The Bill will make provisions for safe navigation, protection of cargo, and prevent pollution caused during the use of inland vessels, he added. The Inland Water Transport (IWT) in the country is a fuel-efficient and environment-friendly mode of moving around 55 million tonnes of cargo. However, the IWT in India is highly underutilized as compared to developed countries.

Cathay Pacific Cargo has added to its extensive cool-chain options for customers by being the first Asian air-cargo carrier to offer the Envirotainer Releye® RLP for carriage on its aircraft fleet. The Envirotainer Releye® RLP is available across four ports in South Asia, including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Dhaka and Colombo. The Envirotainer Releye® RLP is an LD11-sized unit with a unique air flow technology for maximum temperature stability, and has been designed to meet shippers’ requests for greater load flexibility. The RLP-size container fits three Euro pallets (or two-US pallets) and fills a strategic gap between the larger RAP and smaller RKN-size containers to enable mixing and matching of pallet sizes based on shipment volume. The unit uses rechargeable batteries to power its electric heating and compressor cooling system, which can be controlled from an external panel. A single battery charge will power the system for more than 170 hours. The Releye® RLP also offers fully integrated live monitoring.

DHL Global Forwarding maintained its position as the leading airfreight forwarder last year despite volumes dropping, while Kuehne+Nagel (K+N) looks set to nab the top spot in the coming years and DSV Panalpina continues its rapid rise up. The latest annual market figures from consultant Armstrong & Associates highlight the level of volatility registered in the air cargo market last year, with dramatic variances in performance. The overall decline in volumes for the top 25 players reflects the Covid-19 outbreak that saw much of the world’s airlines ground their fleets as passenger travel ground to a halt and lockdowns constrained consumer spending. For market leader DHL Global Forwarding, like many of its peers, 2020 was a tough year in terms of air volumes as a result of the pandemic, although it was a different story for revenues and profits. The Bonn-headquartered company saw its airfreight volumes decline by 12.1% year on year to 1.7m tonnes.

Air Cargo Club of Bombay (ACCB) successfully organised the Covid-19 vaccination drive for the Cargo Fraternity on June 19th. The vaccination drive was held at Bal Mukund Hall, Andheri, Mumbai. The response to the vaccination drive was overwhelming, as the fraternity people along with their family members actively participated. Total number of person vaccinated were around 765. The ACCB authority thanked the entire team of Surana hospitals, v-care and ACCB committee members and the entire cargo industry for their active participation.