Category Archives: International

E-booking platform Freightos WebCargo has acquired India’s Air Freight Bazaar, a regional air cargo rates and sales platform based in Chennai. “This acquisition combines WebCargo’s advanced air cargo rates, sales and e-booking platform, used by over 1,400 leading forwarders, with Air Freight Bazaar’s market share of 300 leading regional air forwarders,” said a Freightos WebCargo spokesperson. Air Freight Bazaar customers will receive access to WebCargo’s existing platform, including access to on-demand air rates, dynamic pricing, and e-booking with airlines like Lufthansa Cargo. Vinay Sethia, Co-founder, Air Freight Bazaar, said, “With WebCargo by Freightos, we can offer our customers improved technology, direct access to over 300 airlines, and e-booking. We’re also excited to represent WebCargo and Freightos in India.” Zvi Schreiber, Chief Executive Officer, Freightos, said, “Air Freight Bazaar has been a regional leader in freight digitalisation, making them a natural fit. Our initial focus in India will be on further automation for local air freight forwarders and collaborating on dynamic pricing and e-boking with regional airlines.”

India and Afghanistan have opened another air freight corridor connecting Herat to New Delhi to promote bilateral trade, bypassing Pakistan. The corridor was inaugurated just a few days after Afghanistan sent the first cargo shipment, carrying 200 kg of saffron and 1600 kg of Pistachio, to New Delhi from Herat in the first flight. India and Afghanistan established a direct air freight corridor connecting Kabul to New Delhi in June 2017 after a decision was taken in September 2016 in a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Since then, the corridor also expanded to the Kandahar-New Delhi sector. On February 24, Afghanistan started a new export route through Iran’s Chabahar port that marked the first end-to-end use of the trade route for Afghan exports. The Zaranj-Chabahar route allows Afghan goods to reach India without crossing the Pakistani territory. The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) has said that Afghanistan’s economic dependency on Pakistan has gone down following the establishment of new alternative trade and transit routes with several countries, including an air corridor with India.

In the survey which was a part of the 10th annual Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index, India, China, Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia are the countries seen as having greatest potential. India is the emerging market with the greatest potential, ahead of a slowing China, according to an annual survey of global logistics industry executives. In the Index itself, China remains atop the annual 50-country rankings and India is in second position, followed by United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Qatar, Turkey and Vietnam. China, India and Indonesia rank highest for domestic logistics; China, India and Mexico are top for international logistics; and UAE, Malaysia and Qatar have the best business fundamentals. Andy Vargoczky, SVP Sales & Marketing Asia-Pacific, Agility Global Integrated Logistics, says, “The logistics industry’s optimism is based on what India has accomplished – the Goods and Services Tax and other reforms – and on what can still be done to create economic growth and prosperity.”

At FFFAI’s ninth Executive Committee meeting in New Delhi, several issues, including the recently-announced national cargo policy, draft logistics policy, recent changes in GST, and trade opportunities between India and Iran, were discussed. Asghar Omidi, Counsellor, Economic Section, Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, emphasised on the strategic importance of Chabahar Port in Iran to script the success of the Indo-Iran trade relationship, which has already been enjoying a rich cultural as well as personal relationship of people of the two countries. He pointed out that presently, India is Iran’s sixth trade partner, with $13.10bn in trade, and with support from Indian logistics stakeholders, the bilateral trade can be increased manifold. “The India-Iran bilateral trade can easily reach $20bn in the near future,” he said. Omidi also invited Indian freight forwarders and logistics companies to visit Iran to witness infrastructure facilities, including Chabahar Port, and explore business opportunities. Facilities at Chabahar Port are being developed in association with Government of India and Indian expertise, and the first phase of the port is operational now.

To make the airline’s cargo services available to a wider global freight market and provide customers with industry-leading visibility across the shipment lifecycle, Unisys Corporation has announced that MAB Kargo Sdn Bhd (MASkargo), the cargo division of Malaysia Airlines, will further enhance the digital transformation of its business using two secure, cloud-based Unisys Digistics digital logistics solutions. Under a five-year engagement, MASkargo will join the Unisys Digi-Portal e-commerce platform to promote its inventory to a wider global community of more than 25,000 buyers – forwarders, airlines, general sales agents, and handlers across 140+ countries.

To create a national logistics e-marketplace as a one-stop shop for exporters and importers, the Centre has come up with a draft national logistics policy, set up a separate fund for start-ups in the logistics sector, and to double employment in the sector. The Ministry of Commerce & Industry has invited comments from stakeholders by February 19 on the draft policy. With regard to the e-marketplace, the draft stated, “It will involve simplification of documentation for exports/imports, and drive transparency through digitisation of processes involving customs, in regulatory, certification and, compliance services.” The idea is to provide an impetus to trade, enhance export competitiveness, improve India’s ranking in the Logistics Performance Index to anywhere between 25 and 30, reduce losses due to agri-wastage to less than five per cent, and bring down logistics costs to 10 per cent of GDP from the current levels of 13-14 per cent. The logistics wing will work with the respective ministries for identification and development of terminals/logistics parks next to specific rail sidings to optimise freight movement for key commodities. “This would result in reduction of first-mile and last-mile costs, drastically bringing down the logistics cost,” the draft stated. Key projects for driving first-mile and last-mile connectivity and to optimise the modal mix will be identified by the logistics wing, per the draft. Expedited clearances will be facilitated for infrastructure projects. Doubling employment in the logistics sector by generating 10-15 million jobs, focusing on enhancing skills in the sector, and encouraging gender diversity will also be on the anvil, the draft stated.

India has firmed up the contours of its ambitious multi-modal programme to reduce logistics costs and make the economy competitive. To pursue the further work on development of integrated multimodal transport infrastructure in the country, PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry has organised the Multimodal Transportation Conclave 2019 in the capital. Leena Nandan, IAS, Additional Secretary, Misnistry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India says, “Currently we have excellent but perishable commodities that are produced in the Northeast and there is no reason why we should not be able to take it to the rest of the country or rest of the world. We believe that the Multimodal Logistics Park at Jogigopha can serve as a connecting point for all these products.”

SpiceXpress has announced the launch of its dedicated freighter service between Guwahati and Hong Kong. To start with, SpiceXpress, the dedicated air cargo arm of SpiceJet, will operate a weekly flight between Guwahati and Hong Kong. The company has deployed its Boeing 737 freighter on the route with an approximate carrying capacity of 18 tonnes. SpiceXpress sees a huge potential for exports from North East India and plans to add connecting weekly flights each from Silchar and Imphal to Hong Kong thereby taking the total tally to three flights per week between the regions. Besides fresh fruits and vegetables, SpiceXpress also plans to start export of exotic tea and kiwi wines from Arunachal Pradesh.

As per the latest Lloyds Report, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) is the only Indian Container Port to be listed amongst the top 30 Container Ports globally. JNPT notched up five spots, to be 28th on the list, compared to its previous ranking. The good news of rising in the global ranking was shared by the Chairman at the quarterly interactive meeting with all stakeholders, organised at JNPT recently. This was the first stakeholder interactive meeting of the year 2019 and was attended by officials and representatives of Terminal Operators, CFSAI, CSLA, MANSA, INSA, AMTOI, Customs and various Shipping Lines. Another point of adulation at the meeting was, JNPT crossing the 5 million TEUs handling milestone, in 2018.

Ground handling services provider, Çelebi Aviation Holding, has won the ground handling license for Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) for 10 years through an international competitive bid process. This is the third win for Çelebi since last year, after winning the licenses for the Bengaluru and Kannur airports. The company plans to make an investment of $5-6 million at the airport. Murali Ramachandran, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Çelebi Aviation Holding Inc India, said, “The year gone by was a very important year for Çelebi as it marked the 10th anniversary of our India operations. Our partnership with RGIA is an important benchmark in our decade long journey as it sets another milestone towards our efforts of strengthening our presence and commitment in the India aviation market.”