As part of Operation Samudra Setu II, INS Shardul, the Indian Navy ship of the Southern Naval Command, arrived in Kochi on 27th May with four ISO containers carrying 87 MT of liquid medical Oxygen from Kuwait and the UAE. Operation Samudra Setu-II was launched by the Indian Navy for shipment of medical Oxygen-filled cryogenic containers and associated medical equipment from various countries in support of the nation’s fight against COVID-19. The deployment of frontline warships including destroyers, frigates, tankers and amphibious ships of the Navy for the operation forms a significant part of the multiple lines of efforts, by the Government of India and the Indian Navy to supplement the Oxygen requirement in the country, a Defence release said. “As part of the operation, INS Shardul embarked 319 Metric Tonnes (MT) of liquid medical Oxygen from Kuwait and UAE including 11 International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) containers, two semi-trailers and 1200 Oxygen cylinders.” “The ship arrived at New Mangalore Port on May 25, where it disembarked 231.77 MT of liquid medical Oxygen comprising seven ISO containers, two semitrailers and 1200 Oxygen cylinders”, it said.

Cathay Pacific Cargo has made a further contribution to pandemic relief efforts in India with an airlift of 300,000 COVID-19 testing kits, which were a gift from the State of Oregon. The shipment departed Portland for Mumbai via Hong Kong on one of Cathay Pacific Cargo’s Boeing 747 freighters. Cathay Pacific Cargo, forwarder Expeditors and logistics company Davis Trucking partnered with the Oregon Health Authority and Department of Administrative Services, offering their services free of charge for the shipment. Cathay Pacific’s Regional General Manager, South Asia, Middle East and Africa, Mark Sutch said: “I would like to thank our team in the Americas and our local partners for organising this shipment. As one of the leading cargo providers operating into India, we stand united with citizens of the country and further our efforts in bringing essential humanitarian and medical aid to India. ”

The first export rake with reefer containers from Siliguri’s Dabgram ICD has reached Kolkata Dock System marking the opening up of direct access between Syama Prasad Mookerjee port and north Bengal. Reefer containers are refrigerated units that carry perishable items. The first rake operated by a private container train operator has brought 28 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs) of deep-frozen reefer cargo weighing over 500 tonnes on 29th May, the port authorities said. This direct rail connectivity opens up direct access of SMP, Kolkata to north Bengal and northeastern India, Port Chairman Shri. Vinit Kumar said. The port has an exclusive partnership with ICD Siliguri operated by Pristine Mega Logistics, the operator of the facility that will help boost trade opportunities in the region.

More than 6,000 oxygen concentrators, 500 oxygen cylinders, 60 cryogenic oxygen tanks, and several medical supplies and ventilators were transported into the country by A.P. Moller – Maersk through its ocean and air freight solutions for various institutions and corporates contributing to medical relief activities. Maersk has offered its ocean transportation service to institutions and organisations participating in medical relief at a nominal rate of 1 USD per container. All air freight shipments to India facilitated by Maersk are being done on a zero-profit basis. “The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us several lessons – empathy being one of the most important ones of them all. The crisis has urged us all to go beyond our business and support the society when it needs it the most. 15 of our top executives from different functions voluntarily got together in the early days of the second wave and put together ‘Project Oxygen War Room’, or POWR as they called it, to help society fight the virus”, said Vikash Agarwal, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia

“The sharp increase in demand has led to a shortage of containers across the world. Severe imbalances — such as with exports from Asia but also owing to congestion in ports and delays in hinterland transports — are causing containers to be tied up in transit for considerably longer periods of time. More boxes are currently needed overall to manage the same transport volume,” Hapag-Lloyd said in its announcement Wednesday. Just last month Hapag-Lloyd said it had ordered 150,000 TEUs of standard and refrigerated containers from a Chinese manufacturer to be delivered this year. The majority of the containers are expected to be delivered in the third quarter.

APM Terminals Pipavav (Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd) today announced the financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. The company reported a net profit of INR 654 million for Q4FY21 as against INR 472 million in Q4FY20. Revenue from operations for the quarter under consideration stood at INR 1,934 million as against INR 1,619 million in Q4FY20. EBIDTA for the quarter was at INR 1,156 million as against INR 1,004 million during the same quarter last year. EBIDTA margin stood at 60% in Q4FY21 as against 62% in Q4FY20. The container cargo business for the quarter stood at 195,236 TEUs, bulk business was at 1,028,977 MT and liquid business was 161,719 MT. 4,858 cars were handled under RoRo category for the quarter under review. For the full year ended March 2021, the company reported a net profit of INR 2,181 million. Total Income from operations for FY21 stood at INR 7,335 million. EBIDTA for FY21 was at INR 4,221 million and EBIDTA margin stood at 58%.

After revolutionising shipping for e-commerce sellers and D2C brands in India and offering its intelligent warehousing/fulfillment solution to reduce their fixed logistics costs, India’s largest logistics & shipping software for e-commerce businesses Pickrr is introducing order processing in 10+ regional languages to support sellers from tier-2 and 3 cities. The latest feature will empower the new age local business enablers, hyperlocal business aggregators, and individual hyperlocal applications to accept order details (customer name, address etc.) in their local languages. Pickrr has introduced its order processing feature in vernacular languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Bangla, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Marathi and Gujarati, without any additional cost. The platform is also working towards making its website and dashboard accessible in 100+ regional languages by the next month.

Global logistics company DP World operated International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Cochin recently added a new weekly Far East West Africa India Express service (FEW3) operated by Maersk Line. The new service with a fixed-weekly sailing will deploy 13 vessels of 4,500 to 5,500 TEUs capacity. The new service offers direct connectivity from West Africa to Cochin Port and from Cochin Port to Far East Ports. The service started with the maiden call of vessel M.V. KMARIN AZUR on 7th May 2021. Inclusion of this service will boost Cashew, Raw Cotton and Timber trade from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. With this new service customers can connect their cargo directly from Cochin to global markets instead of transhipping at Colombo Port thereby, providing overall cost advantage by reducing the transit time by 7-10 days.

DHL Express is launching a new airline in Europe and focusing its UK carrier on international operations through the addition of B777Fs. The express giant plans to launch a new cargo airline based in Austria and is in the process of filing applications with the Austrian authorities. The Austrian airline, which DHL hopes to launch later this year, will operate using Boeing 757 freighter aircraft transferred over from its DHL Air UK business. DHL said the move comes in response to growing e-commerce demand, with first quarter 2021 Time Definite International shipments (TDI) increasing by more than 25% compared with a year earlier. “To respond to this growth and to continue offering its customers fastest transit times for their cross-border deliveries, DHL Express is remodeling its East Midlands based airline, DHL Air UK,” the company explained in a press release. Tom Mackle, managing director at DHL Air UK, said: “The UK has always been a crucial gateway to the world. With an increasing demand in international time definite deliveries this is today more valid than ever.”

For European exporters looking to source shipping containers, existing shortages could deteriorate significantly in the coming weeks, according to the latest data from Container xChange, the world’s leading online platform for the leasing and trading of shipping containers. Most pricing and availability indicators now suggest carriers are continuing to favour shipping empties back to Asia as fast as possible to maximise yields on front-haul services rather than wait for less lucrative backhaul loads. “The confluence of theoretical high availability and soaring prices for boxes strongly indicates that container lines are prioritizing empty containers over export cargo from Europe,” said Dr Johannes Schlingmeier.