Category Archives: International

Abu Dhabi received the first global shipment of AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, long-acting antibody medication, after gaining Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention. The long-acting antibody medication is designed to prevent severe infection and death amongst immunocompromised patients. This medication will be in addition to the existing COVID19 medications that are already available within Abu Dhabi and the UAE to ensure the continuity of world-class care in the country. Under the leadership of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH), the first doses of Evusheld have arrived in Abu Dhabi on December 20th following a collaboration of key partners including Rafed, the UAE’S Primary Group Purchasing Organization and the procurement arm of the UAE, along with Etihad Cargo, the national cargo carrier of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in addition to AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, and Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC). The breakthrough medication will be stored at Rafed’s Distribution Centre, the region’s largest cold-chain storage facility, and then distributed from there to various destinations.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and CHAMP Cargosystems have extended their partnership for next five years. By extending their partnership with CHAMP, Cargospot will remain the IT keystone of JAL’s cargo business, enabling the airline to take advantage of the solution as it continues to evolve for the benefit of CHAMP’s large and growing customer community. The carrier has been using CHAMP’s acclaimed Cargospot solution to manage its day-to-day cargo business processes since 2014. Since then, JAL has partnered with CHAMP in a series of ground-breaking digital transformational projects built around the Cargospot ecosystem, including the launch of a cargo business platform that enables a fully digitalized end-to-end process across the airline’s domestic operation and a unique API-based solution that allows the airline’s customers to compare and book against multiple air-to-air and ground transportation options.

APM Terminals, Pipavav in collaboration with Pipavav Railway Corporation Limited (PRCL), is now going offer double stack rail service to Jodhpur via Sanand on a hub & spoke model, which will further provide access to other ICDs in India. The service is managed by PRCL, the joint venture between Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd. and Indian Railways, the first such service by PRCL. Customer centricity is at the core of all our initiatives. The rail connection to Jodhpur via Sanand on hub and spoke model will give an edge to our customers in connecting to their markets/ICDs quickly. We extend all our support to the PRCL to make this connection big success.” Jakob Friis Sorenson, APM Terminals Pipavav The hub & spoke arrangement via Sanand will ensure timely evacuation from the port in lesser dwell time there by swift movement of the cargoe for the customers. The initiative is likely to help the trade to connect with their markets quickly and competitively.

Jeena & Company recently acquired the internationally coveted Good Distribution Practices (GDP) certification, from ISOQAR, a part of ISO, the global standardisation leader. The GDP certification authorises the regulatory protocols for distribution of pharmaceutical and healthcare products, as per stringent distribution standards. The company was granted the GDP certificate after an independent assessment of the quality measures in place by the competent authorities. The company has successfully fulfilled all the conditions and requirements of GDP compliance by following quality standards pertaining to the storage facilities and vehicles and equipment used for distribution so as to ensure packaging integrity and stability of the pharmaceutical products. Speaking about the certification, Cyrus Katagra, Partner, Jeena & Co., said, “As a logistic leader with focused interest in pharma and healthcare, we are aware of the responsibility and the role that an effective pharma supply chain has in the fight against the global pandemic. We are committed to ensure implementation of a consistent quality management system throughout the entire supply chain with every ASE (Actual Standard Error) performed on time, whether it is the delivery of the raw materials, manufacturing of the products or the shipment of the products to the customers. Further, with the certification, we aim to strengthen our global presence in the EU, as it is now in compliance with the stringent safety and hygiene requirements for non-refrigerated transportation of medicines for human use. The EU legislation mandates GDP compliance for wholesale of medicines anywhere in the EU and we hope to strengthen its supply chain across the world with the newly acquired GDP certification.”

Singapore Airlines (SIA) signs a Letter of Intent with Airbus to purchase seven A350F freighter aircraft. The new aircraft will replace the airline’s existing Boeing 747-400F. The agreement includes a swap with 15 A320neo and two A350-900 passenger aircraft that are in the SIA Group order book. This allows SIA to manage its capital expenditure, while continuing with the essential freighter renewal programme. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025, when SIA will become the first airline to operate this new generation widebody freighter aircraft. Goh Choon Phong, chief executive officer, Singapore Airlines said, “This agreement with Airbus reinforces SIA’s position as a leading global air cargo carrier while advancing our sustainability goals. It also ensures that we are prudent with our capital expenditure, and adjusts our passenger aircraft order book to give us the flexibility needed to navigate uncertainties in the recovery trajectory. The A350Fs will replace our seven 747-400F freighters, with the options providing the ability to adapt our requirements to future demand in the cargo market.”

Shypmax, India’s first and only AI-powered Logistics Platform as a Service (LPaaS) for cross border shipping, has secured an exclusive partnership with the Netherlands based B2C Europe, a Maersk company specializing in B2C parcel delivery services in Europe. The collaboration will enable Indian businesses to deliver their products to Europe, including the UK, based customers cost-effectively using a single-window platform. From Shypmax, Indian companies, especially SMEs, Direct-to-customer, B2C, and E-commerce firms, from over 27,000 pin codes, can deliver any product across European markets and beyond. Shypmax automates processes related to compliance with current regulations in the European Union. As India’s first Import One-Stop-Shop (IOSS) ready facility enabling centralised declaration and payment of VAT by European customers at the point of sale, Shypmax is saving Indian companies and the European customers from the hassles of navigating through different tax systems in Europe. The services also include customised labels, pickup, packaging, and door-to-door delivery via more than 100 connected carriers across Europe and beyond by B2C Europe.

“Indian merchandise export to touch an all-time high of $400 billion during the current financial year, driven by sharp uptick in shipments” said Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. As per a preliminary trade data, India’s merchandise exports in April-November 2021 were at $262.46 billion, an increase of 50.71 per cent over $174.15 billion in the same period of the previous financial year. “Our exports have consistently crossed $30 billion for the last eight months. We are now at about $262 billion of exports versus $290 billion in the 12 months of last year. So, by the ninth month, we would have crossed last year’s export, and we hope to do a record export of $400 billion,” Goyal said. While speaking at CII Partnership Summit 2021, Goyal also mentioned that a growth is also been observed in India’s imports, thus opening a plethora of opportunities for other countries to expand business and international trade with India. Imports during April-November 2021, grew by 75.39 per cent to $384.44 billion.

Air Belgium is looking to expand in the air cargo market through the addition of B747-8 freighter aircraft operations.The airline’s expansion in the cargo market shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, Air Belgium already operates four A330-200 freighter aircraft on behalf of French shipping and logistics firm CMA CGM. Also, the airline is headed up Niky Terzakis who until 2014 was managing director/chief executive of express carrier TNT Airways. At this stage details of the airline’s plans for cargo operations are thin on the ground – it is not known how many B747F freighters the airline plans to operate or where it will base them.

Responding to November 2021, FIEO President, Dr A Sakthivel said that the monthly exports performance of USD 30.04 billion with a high double-digit growth of more than 27.16 percent, showcases the continuous resilience of India’s exports sector. The enthusiasm with which the Exim community has impressively performed during the year has further given a boost to the sector, thereby helping the economy move towards recovery following the second wave of Covid-19 earlier this year. The recent GDP numbers also showcases the positive impact of exports, which has contributed in a big way to growth of the economy as a whole, added FIEO Chief. The FIEO President said that the top sectors, which performed impressively during the month were Petroleum Products, Engineering Goods, Organic & Inorganic Chemicals, Cotton Yarn/Fabrics/Made-ups, Handloom Products etc., Electronic Goods, Marine Products, Plastic & Linoleum, Man-made Yarn/Fabs./made-ups etc., Leather & leather products and RMG of All Textiles. Out of these, many of them were labour-intensive sectors contributing majorly to the exports basket during the month, which itself is a good sign, further helping job creation in the country. However, imports yet again clocking over USD 52.94 billion during the month with a very high growth of 56.58 percent, is a point of concern and should be analysed, said Dr A Sakthivel.

GEODIS has entered into a five-year unit load device (ULD) supply, management and repair agreement with Unilode Aviation Solutions, the market leader in outsourced ULD management and repair services. At present, GEODIS leases one A330-300 aircraft, converted into a freighter, and flies to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, O’Hare International Airport, London Stansted Airport and Hong Kong International Airport, to increase supply chain velocity and airfreight capacity for its customers. Unilode supplies containers and pallets to GEODIS and provides its full range of ULD management solutions, including procurement, planning, logistics, repair and digitalisation. Stanislas Brun, senior vice president, Global Air Freight, GEODIS said, “As airfreight capacity offered by airlines has significantly decreased during the pandemic, we decided to lease our own freighter aircraft to ensure air cargo space availability for our customers and increase the speed of their shipments. Unilode’s ULD management services proved to be the most convenient and appropriate solution for GEODIS’ start-up airline activities as in addition to supplying the necessary stock of ULDs at all our destinations, Unilode also takes care of all ULD-related operational tasks.”