Category Archives: International

DP World, a leading global provider of end-to-end logistics solutions, plans to develop logistics infrastructure in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. An MoU was signed between the Government of Dubai and the State Government of Jammu & Kashmir in the presence of Piyush Goyal, Honourable Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Government of India, Manoj Sinha Honourable Lieutenant Governor, Jammu & Kashmir, and Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO, DP World. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO, DP World, said: “DP World is committed to invest in the logistics infrastructure and facilities to connect Jammu & Kashmir with other domestic markets in India and India with the rest of the world. We are in the process of identifying logistics opportunities in the state with the aim to connect local traders with new markets in India as well as globally. We want to support Indian MSMEs and help them realise better margins with an efficient supply chain that reduces their cost of Logistics.”

Reliable Robotics announced a $100 million Series C funding round led by Coatue Management to support its first aircraft certification program and expedite the launch of commercial cargo operations. Coatue joins past investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Eclipse Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures and Pathbreaker Ventures to bring total fundraising over $133 million. With its airframe independent technology, Reliable’s remotely operated aircraft system is designed to expand safe, flexible and efficient air transportation service to more locations. Reliable Robotics is positioned to unlock access to thousands of underutilized regional and municipal airports in all corners of the country, greatly expanding air transportation options for cargo and eventually passengers. The company’s technology handles all phases of flight including taxi, takeoff, landing and parking, while licensed pilots remotely supervise each flight from a control center. The system has the capability to autoland on smaller airstrips in rural or remote areas without requiring expensive infrastructure to be installed and maintained.

Typhoon Kompasu has resulted in the worst container shipping traffic jam in months, stretching throughout Southeast Asia and may take weeks to unravel. Although port operations are largely back to normal in Shenzhen and Hong Kong after the tropical storm’s passing, the total container ship count off the two vital hubs had ballooned to 271 as of early Friday, the highest count recorded since Bloomberg News started tracking the data in April. At least 109 ships were meanwhile reported as anchored and waiting to enter the ports, up from 67 on Thursday. “The supply chain is very stretched, with no buffer, so any little event will cause another big problem,” James Teo, Bloomberg Intelligence, said. “There are too many choke points.” Teo expects port congestion likely to continue until at least Feb. 2022.

Container Company of Bangladesh Limited (CCBL) is going to build a rail Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Chittagong to boost the transportation of containers by trains. Local terminal operator Saif Powertec Limited will build and operate the ICD on behalf of CCBL for 20 years before handing it over to CCBL, according to a deal that will be signed on 19 October. The new ICD will have a capacity of 100,000TEU a year and will be built in more than 86,150m² of railway-owned land in the Halishahar area on the outskirts of the port city of Chittagong. Currently, there are 19 ICDs in the country which handle 1.6 million TEU a year. CCBL invited bids from the interested local and global operators in February for the construction and operation of the ICD. Fourteen companies, including four foreign players, submitted bids from where Saif Powertec has been selected.

The largest container port in the UK is taking steps to address increasing cargo congestion but may begin turning incoming ships away if the problem persists. The Port of Felixstowe, which handles nearly 40% of all containers sent to and from the UK, is facing a massive backlog of ships as the site approaches its busiest time of year: the holiday season.The average shipping container that arrives at the port is currently spending more than nine days – two times the average “dwell time” of 2020 – sitting at Felixstowe. The logjam is in part, due to a shortage of drivers to operate heavy goods vehicles, known as HGV drivers, the outlet reported. The port’s management is reportedly working to ease the traffic but could restrict access to incoming vessels if the situation continues to deteriorate.

Volocopter’s electric heavy-lift drone VoloDrone conducted its first public flight at ITS World Congress 2021. Together with the international logistics leader DB Schenker, Volocopter, the pioneer of urban air mobility (UAM), demonstrated VoloDrone’s seamless integration into the logistics supply chain with an end-to-end cargo transport demonstration. The partners showed their significant progress together since DB Schenker became a strategic investor of Volocopter in early 2020. The 3-minute test flight took off at 3:02 p.m. at homePORT Hamburg and reached a maximum altitude of 22 meters. For this delivery simulation, the electric heavy-lift utility drone was equipped with a load-box in between its landing gear. First, the demonstration teams secured a Euro-pallet sized load to the box under the VoloDrone, followed by a smooth take-off. After this, the aircraft brought the payload to a DB Schenker Cargo Bike and landed safely. Once the payload was transferred successfully, the Cargo Bike delivered its cargo to the final destination under the area’s park deck, marking the completion of the entirely electric, multimodal last-mile delivery. “This first public VoloDrone flight is a strong sign for Volocopter´s leading position in the UAM industry. We are the only UAM company offering solutions for passengers and goods that are flying fully scaled and publicly around the world,” says Florian Reuter, Volocopter CEO. “Our VoloDrone will make existing logistics processes more robust, efficient, and sustainable. DB Schenker is an invaluable partner in our endeavor to untap the massive potential of our VoloDrone’s logistics use cases.”

The global shipping crisis that is causing deepening shortages and shutdowns in Britain’s shops and factories will last for as long as nine months, as giant vessels carrying Christmas goods start to queue in the English Channel to unload in Europe’s congested ports. A body representing British ports said that it expects the congestion affecting deliveries to millions of retailers and businesses to persist potentially until next summer as the shipping industry struggles with challenges from container shortages to a lack of lorry drivers to move cargo once it reaches quaysides. One major shipping line told that the delays, which are forcing vessels to anchor in clusters in the English Channel and North Sea, will have a knock-on effect for supplies of consumer goods and manufacturing components in the coming weeks and months – with a risk that up to 20 per cent of goods ordered for peak Christmas demand will not reach retailers in time.

FedEx Express will invests more than SAR 1.5 billion in Saudi Arabia over the next 10 years to meet the country’s growing international shipping demands. This investment will reaffirm the company’s commitment to the country’s non-oil economic growth, in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals, and the ‘National Industrial Development and Logistics Program’ which seeks to increase non-oil exports to more than SAR 1 trillion (approximately US $266 billion). Under Saudi Vision 2030, the country is committed to increasing its total air cargo capacity. With many years of experience, specialized services, and advanced technology solutions, FedEx is said to support the trade requirements of the healthcare, e-commerce, technology, energy, aerospace, automotive, and petrochemical sectors. FedEx Express has been facilitating trade in Saudi Arabia since 1994, offering international solutions and connectivity through local service providers, most recently through SAB Express.

FedEx Express has launched a new B777 freighter service between Europe and Japan as demand from the Asia Pacific market continues to boom. The four-times-per-week flight will depart from Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG) Airport and fly directly to Kansai International Airport in Osaka. Additionally, one day a week, a flight will operate CDG to Singapore Changi Airport, before travelling on to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. The company said that the additional flights come after it reported a growth in e-commerce parcel volume by more than $1bn year over year out of Asia and Europe. Karen Reddington, president of FedEx Express Europe, said: “Online retail sales in APAC generated approximately $2.45trn in 2020 and with research suggesting e-commerce sales in APAC are expected to almost double by 2025, it is crucial that European businesses can easily and reliably access the growth potential this region offers.

Etihad Cargo, the cargo and logistics arm of the Etihad Aviation Group, has revamped the etihadcargo.com portal to provide customers with a heightened and intuitive online experience. The new-look website includes the introduction of quicker booking processes and streamlined flows, a personalised dashboard, recommendations, and dynamic pricing. Following customer feedback, the site also now incorporates a new dynamic map of the carrier’s global network which provides detailed information on Etihad Cargo teams and its global network outstation capabilities. Migrating to a customer-centric platform has cut the time customers take to complete a booking from more than two minutes previously to less than 45 seconds, equating to only 12 clicks, compared 23 needed before. New features such as requesting shipping quotes, booking ad-hoc prices which have been negotiated offline and booking shipments based on arrival timelines have been introduced to streamline the user experience. Customers will also have the ability to create and manage booking templates based on previous purchases. “With a fresh look and feel incorporating key features requested by customers, the site’s entire user experience has been enriched to provide improved response time and functionality across customers’ booking journeys,” explained Martin Drew, SVP Sales and Cargo at Etihad Aviation Group.