Category Archives: International

Tasman Cargo Airlines has launched a new freighter service between Changi Airport and Australia, becoming the first freighter operator based in the country to offer services to the Singapore hub. The five-times-per-week services utilisises a B767-300 freighter and operates on a loop of Melbourne-Darwin-Singapore (bi-directional). The flight is chartered by DHL Express and will carry cross-border e-commerce volumes from across the express firm’s global and Southwest Pacific network. Sean Wall, executive vice president, network operations & aviation, DHL Express Asia Pacific, said: “Australia is growing as an important market for DHL as local businesses continue to adapt, innovate and adopt e-commerce practices for their business needs. “To cope with rising shipment volume and ensure we continue to provide timely deliveries to our customers, we have swiftly responded by adding flights connecting Australia to the rest of the world.”

Menzies Aviation’s cargo operations in Sydney have received the Center of Excellence of Independent Validators for Pharmaceutical Logistics accreditation (“CEIV Pharma”) from IATA. Menzies Cargo Sydney is the first handling agent in the Oceania region to achieve CEIV Pharma accreditation, the company said. The company added that its Sydney operation had been working towards the certification for more than two years. Alistair Reid, executive vice president, Oceania at Menzies Aviation said: “It has been a very thorough and rewarding process for our team in Sydney who have spent almost two years working to understand the criteria, develop processes, invest in infrastructure and train the staff which resulted in us being able to be assessed and validated for the CEIV Pharma accreditation.”

project44, the leading supply chain visibility solutions provider, has closed a Series E investment of $202 million led by funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs) and Emergence Capital, valuing the company at $1.2 billion. To date, project44 has raised $442.5 million to improve supply chain trust and predictability. Goldman Sachs has a deep history of supporting the global expansion of growth-stage technology companies and guiding them through multiple stages of growth. This financing will accelerate the company’s expanded multimodal carrier network, make significant inroads into Asian markets, expand artificial intelligence (AI) and data science capabilities, accelerate new product innovation, and bolster sales and marketing reach globally. “We’re grateful for the confidence Goldman Sachs and our existing investors have placed in our team as we continue to solve some of the most critical supply chain execution challenges across the globe,” said Jett McCandless, CEO and founder of project44.

Lufthansa Cargo which is in the midst of fleet renewal has ordered another production Boeing 777F, a 103 tonne capacity freighter aircraft, to increase its capacity. The freighter will be delivered by the end of the year and when delivered will be the airline’s eleventh of the model, the airline informed. The aircraft announced by the airline in March is to be stationed at Frankfurt after its arrival in autumn 2021. While the airline is adding freighters and securing its cargo capacity, on the passenger front it has announced non-stop flights between Germany and India, making the travel more seamless. Adds Dorothea Von Boxberg, CEO, Lufthansa Cargo, “We are very pleased that we will be able to offer our customers additional freighter capacity in the future. Another brand-new Boeing 777F aircraft is being added to Lufthansa Cargo‘s highly efficient freighter fleet. Delivery of the aircraft is expected before the end of this year. A total of fifteen full-freighters will then be in service for Lufthansa Cargo’s customers. The Corona crisis has impressively underlined how important these aircraft are for global supply.”

Responding to the trade data for May, 2021, Sharad Kumar Saraf, President, FIEO said that the continuing impressive growth in exports reiterate our assessment that order booking position of our exporters is not only extremely good but also the gradual opening up of major global markets and improvement of situation in the country is expected to push exports growth further. President FIEO said that growing by about 8% even on the base of May 2019 reflects a positive trend for the sector. FIEO Chief added that such a growth during the month has been mainly on account of growth in Petroleum products, Engineering goods and Gems & Jewellery, the major contributors to the country’s export basket, which have shown impressive performance compared to May, 2020. He also said that 19 out of 30 major product groups of exports have either shown a very impressive high positive growth starting with 3-digit defying all the odds when there is still a bit of scepticism persisting in the global economy on the expectation of a third wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

Federal Bank launched an exclusive NR savings account scheme for Seafarer segment. This scheme is specially curated and crafted for the mariners and offers best in class services clubbed with state-of-the-art digital banking platforms that allows the mariners to execute banking transactions seamlessly, irrespective of the geo coordinates and time zone differences. The scheme is available in both NRE SB and NRO SB variants. The facilities offered in the scheme are preferential exchange rate for monthly inward remittances, premium debit card with domestic airport lounge access, linked zero balance NRO account and bespoke financial planning and customized wealth management products and services. Officially launching the account scheme, Shalini Warrier, Executive Director of the Bank remarked “Federal Bank has always been a pioneer in the Non Resident customer segment. With a market share of over 6.6% in this business, along with a market share in excess of 17% in personal inward remittances to India, the Bank lives by the mantra of “Digital at the fore, human at the core”.

DHL Global Forwarding is joining United Airlines sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) programme as it continues to ramp up its green strategy. The world’s largest airfreight forwarder said that as part of United’s Eco-Skies Alliance programme it will contribute towards the purchase of 3.4m gallons of SAF this year. The reductions in carbon footprint are then allocated by DHL to its customers. DHL Global Forwarding, Freight chief executive Tim Scharwath said: “Through this partnership we will be able to show how a market mechanism for SAF can help airlines, freight forwarders, and shippers work together to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon, ultimately zero carbon emissions transport sector.” The forwarder also plans to launch a ‘book and claim’ system to enable customers to ramp up their use of SAF and be allocated SAF certificates to validate the corresponding reduction in their carbon footprint. Christoph Wolff, head of shaping the future of mobility, World Economic Forum, said: “The ‘book and claim’ mechanism is an essential element of SAF certificates. We need frontrunners like Demand Signal group participants United Airlines and DHL Global Forwarding to put concepts into practice so that it can be validated and turned into a formal standard.”

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 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.