Category Archives: International

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has announced a €28m lease and development investment with New Zealand’s Auckland Airport to establish a new ambient warehousing complex dedicated to multinational manufacturer Techtronic Industries (TTI). The 19,200 sq m complex is located directly at Auckland Airport and will begin operations in July. Hellmann will handle full-service contract logistics services for its long-standing customer TTI. The facility will offer storage for up to 29,000 pallets at up to ten pallet levels high. Chris McCagney, managing director Hellmann New Zealand said: “The new warehouse is designed to build in flexibility and scale to adapt and grow as TTI’s requirements of tomorrow develop. For example, the complex will have no columns and enhanced floor specifications which allows for future investments in innovative robotic-based material handling and automation solutions.”

AirBridgeCargo Airlines has awarded a three-year cargo handling contract to Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) in Atlanta. WFS said the carrier is its “launch customer” at its new cargo terminal at Atlanta International Airport. Under the terms of the agreement, the handler will process around 9,500 tonnes of cargo each year from AirBridgeCargo’s Boeing 747-400ERF freighter flights. WFS opened its cargo terminal at Atlanta Airport in May this year under a 20-year lease agreement. The facility is located in the hub’s new Cargo Building C, the first new cargo terminal to open at the airport since the 1980s. Mike Simpson, executive vice president Americas at WFS, commented: “AirBridgeCargo is an important and growing customer of WFS globally. Through multiple contracts in the US and Europe, we are consistently proving our ability to deliver the service excellence ABC demands for its customers, as well as our expertise in supporting the airline’s portfolio of special cargoes services, including for pharmaceuticals and oversized shipments.

German shipping group Hapag-Lloyd has announced the successful conversion of the 15,000 TEU-capacity Brussels Express to run on liquefied natural gas. In completing the conversion, the ship becomes the first “large” containership to make the switch to LNG propulsion, the company says. “The fact that a retrofitting of this scale had never been done before meant that we faced numerous challenges – from the planning to the implementation. We have broken new ground with the conversion, and we will now be testing it very precisely in real-world operation,” says Richard von Berlepsch, Managing Director Fleet Management at Hapag-Lloyd. “Fossil LNG is currently the most promising fuel on the path towards zero emissions. The medium-term goal is to have CO2-neutral shipping operations using synthetic natural gas (SNG).”

Ports in southern China impacted by Covid-19 lockdowns that are further disrupting the global box trade have seen a significant slump in container availability in the last two weeks, according to the latest data from Container xChange. Pearl River Delta port productivity has slumped in recent weeks with container lines citing positive Covid-19 cases for slowing productivity. Yantian and Shekou ports, near Shenzhen, and Nansha port, part of the Guangzhou box hub, have been most affected. All three have seen significant drops in container availability in the last two weeks, according to Container xChange, the world’s leading online platform for the leasing and trading of shipping containers. “Far few empty boxes are arriving back to southern China as container lines skip calls and many shippers will likely face long delays or higher prices for equipment if they can’t avoid using the affected ports,” said Dr Johannes Schlingmeiner. Yantian saw a 19% drop in incoming containers between Week 17 and last week (Week 22). Nansha’s drop in incoming containers over the same period was 16.4%, while at Shekou the plunge was 29.6%.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has entered into a strategic partnership with Hyderabad-based Rockwell Industries, specialising in commercial cold chain appliance manufacturing, to provide vaccine freezers for storing Sputnik V, the Russian-made Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine, across India. The deal has been closed to supply at least 750 Covid-19 vaccine freezers to various hospitals and institutions across the country; 500 of these being specifically for Sputnik V. Dr Reddy’s earlier tied up with the Russian Direct Investment Fund that markets Sputnik V globally, to distribute first 250 million doses of the vaccine. On May 14, Dr Reddy’s announced a limited pilot soft launch of the Sputnik V vaccine in India, ahead of the commercial launch later in June to test, among other things, cold chain facilities for storage.

Airbus SE is poised to begin taking orders for a freighter version of its A350 wide-body as soon as next month, in a challenge to Boeing Co.’s dominance in the market for dedicated cargo aircraft. The European planemaker has been speaking to more than a dozen potential customers and will seek board authorization to market the new plane in the coming weeks, provided it can line up enough commitments, according to people familiar with the matter. The program could officially launch by year-end, said the people, who sought anonymity discussing confidential matters. Going after a segment where Boeing has long held sway would mark a major strategic push for Airbus. Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury told Bloomberg News in April that he’s keen to challenge his U.S. rival and that the A350, a modern, lightweight plane with carbon-fiber wings and hull, would be “a strong candidate” for a freighter.

Cargo.one and Saudia Cargo say their recent partnership comes in light of rising demand for digital services. In mid-April, Saudia Cargo announced plans to add its capacity to the online booking portal as it continues with its digitalisation drive. The rollout is planned for June. Teddy Zebitz, chief cargo officer, Saudia Cargo said, “Overall, digitalisation is playing a vital role in the ecosystem. Everything from shipper to terminal to end user. Today digital solutions offer wide range of tools covering the needs of fast pace life and answer to rising expectation from our customers and partners. Our focus in utilising digitisation is to optimise our operation, provide seamless customer experience and strengthen the relation and help connect all global key players across the supply chain and have better alignment to optimize throughput and available capacity.”

Emirates SkyCargo has announced extension of its fully automated cool room with 94 airline pallet positions at its EU GDP certified dedicated pharma facility at Dubai International Airport, a move which will further strengthen the carrier’s temperature sensitive pharma and vaccine handling capabilities in Dubai. This extension of cool room will provide an additional 2600 square metres of temperature-controlled environment (2-25 degrees Celsius) for the storage and handling of pharma products including vaccines at Emirates SkyCargo’s purpose-built GDP certified facility. The new extension is capable of holding an estimated 60-90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines at one time. Ever since the outbreak of the pandemic, the airline is playing a leading role in the international distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. It has transported over 75 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on more than 250 flights to over 60 destinations since late 2020.

IATA has reported in its latest market analysis that air cargo volumes in April this year continued to outpace pre-Covid (2019) levels. The association said this was largely due to the strong performance of carriers based in North America, the Middle East and Africa. Global air cargo demand in April 2021, measured in cargo-tonne kms (CTKs), was reported as 12% higher than in April 2019 (used instead of last year for comparison purposes due to impact of Covid). It added: “This solid cargo growth performance this month was primarily driven by North American airlines, but all the regions outside Latin America contributed positively to the growth outcome.” Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, commented: “Air cargo continues to be the good news story for the air transport sector. Some regions are outperforming the global trend, most notably carriers in North America, the Middle East and Africa. Strong air cargo performance, however, is not universal. The recovery for carriers in the Latin American region, for example, is stalled.”

PMO figures covered in latest report by the official IRNA news agency showed that Iran’s ports capacity would reach 280 million tons per year with the completion of a handful projects this year. The report said total port handling capacity in Iran was around 180 million tons in the summer of 2013 when the current administrative government took office for a first four-year term. It said container capacity at ports, which is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), will have doubled by mid-summer this year compared to eight years ago to reach a total of 8.5 million TEU. It said passenger handling at ports will have reached a target of 25 million people per year this year, up from 14 million in August 2013. The expansion of capacity in Iranian ports comes despite massive restrictions facing the country in the past three years because of US sanctions.