Category Archives: Rail/Road

With a view to improve the ease of doing business at grass root level enabling reduction in dwell time in EXIM trade and to discuss strategic and operational issues currently faced by customs broking industry. The office bearers of the Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India (FFFAI) headed by its Chairman, AV Vijaykumar met with Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Shipping and various other ministry officials in New Delhi. The association presented the issues of customs brokers and freight forwarders before the minister for reduction in transaction cost and dwell time by improving infrastructure at various ports and Inland Container Depots (ICDs); increasing connectivity with ICDs and gateway ports and enhancing costal cargo movement.

Due to the trade diversion effects of Washington’s tariff war with China, India gained about $755 million in additional exports, mainly of chemicals, metals and ore, to the US, in the first half of 2019 , says a study called ‘Trade and trade diversion effects of United States tariffs on China’ by UNCTAD, the UN trade and investment body. It shows that the ongoing US-China trade war has resulted in a sharp decline in bilateral trade, higher prices for consumers and trade diversion effects and increased imports from countries not directly involved in the trade war. The US tariffs on China resulted in India gaining $ 755 million in additional exports to the US by selling more chemicals (US$ 243 million), metals and ore (US$181 million), electrical machinery (US$ 83 million) and various machinery (US$ 68 million), as well as increased exports in areas such as agri-food, furniture, office machinery, precision instruments, textiles and apparel, and transport equipment, UNCTAD said.

K. T. Rama Rao, Minister of MA&UA, Industries and IT&C in Telangana KCR’s Cabinet, inaugurated the state’s first-ever logistics park. Developed by Ancon Group in partnership with HMDA, this is the first-of-its-kind integrated logistics park developed in PPP mode.Spread over 22 acres, the logistics park at Mangalpalle has 2.5 lakh square feet of grade A warehouse space.It has facilities such as parking for 250 trucks, warehousing, automobile service centres, fuel stations, provision for cold storage, a primary health centre, dormitories and restaurants. “Eight more logistics parks will come up along 162-km long ORR, which has 19 interjunctions,” Rao announced.

DP World plans to make Container Multimodal Terminals (CMTL), its Hyderabad Private Freight Terminal (PFT), as a multi-modal distribution hub for South India cargo. The company has already established private freight terminals and rail-road linkages connecting the city with other trading hubs across the country. The global trade enabler will leverage its rail-road transport connectivity and warehouses. The announcement was made during the conference themed ‘India’s Logistics Sector on the Path of Transformation’ in Hyderabad. The company said Hyderabad will act as the catalyst to drive more trade in the state of Telangana. CMTL houses a Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) at Thimmapur (near Hyderabad in Telangana state) with proximity to National Highway 7. The MMLP is equipped with a railway siding and over 250,000 sq ft. of warehousing to cater to the needs of both domestic and EXIM trade.

Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India in collaboration with Shreeji Translogistics have started bonded trucking service from Kolkata, Indore Airport, Vizag and Goa to Celebi Terminal Delhi IGI Airport from October 1, 2019 to provide their customers a possibility to move air cargo in an efficient, safe, process-driven and cost-effective manner. Celebi Bonded road feeder service is successfully running from Kanpur, Ludhiana, Indore SEZ 1&2, Ahmedabad and Noida SEZ which has given tremendous opportunities to freight forwarders and airlines to solicit business from stations that are offline. These bonded services will facilitate Celebi’s airline customers to offer services to a city to which they do not fly and help CHA/freight forwarders to custom clear, handle duty drawback and shipment documents at origin, while avoiding multiple handling and damage to cargo.

Welcoming the much-needed booster for the exports sector, Sharad Kumar Saraf, President, FIEO said, “Slew of new measures announced for the exports sector in the form of incentives & refund of taxes, export finance, export facilitation, free trade agreements, engineering and handicrafts will not only go a long way in enhancing the growth prospects of the sector in the short-term but will also give it a much needed boost in the medium-term and long-term and will stimulate the overall economy.” FIEO Chief said that the new scheme of Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) with revenue burden of up to Rs 50,000 crore for the government, will completely replace all Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) from January 1, 2020 with the expectation that the new scheme will more than adequately incentivize the exporters than the existing schemes put together. “The new scheme looks attractive as it will neutralise all duties and levies suffered by the export products. Giving three months lead time till December 31 to the existing MEIS will remove the uncertainty creeping in the minds of the exporters and will greatly help to finalise their export orders,” he adds.

With an aim to support various segments of the industry and to give a boost to economy, P. S. Mishra, Member (Traffic), Railway Board, announced certain freight incentives to give a boost to the economy. The details on the freight rate related measures announced are as under: 1. Levy of Busy Season Charge Deferred: • BSC, which is levied @ 15 per cent from October 1 – June 30, has been deferred till further advice (except for iron ore and POL). • Coal & coke and container traffic are already exempt. 2. Waiver of supplementary charges on mini and two-point rakes: • The five per cent supplementary charges applicable on loading on mini and two-point rakes is being waived off. • This is likely to boost loading of smaller cargo sizes and help cement, steel, food grains and fertilizers loading. 3. Round-trip charging on container traffic: • As per haulage charge rating of container traffic, 0-50 km is the minimum distance slab for charging. • It is seen that container traffic in this ultra-short lead (0-50 km) is very low at present. • Therefore, round-trip charging of container trip has been introduced for less than 50 km on each way. • Under this scheme, haulage charge for 0-100 km slab will be charged for total to and from movement, instead of charging for 0-50 km slab each way. • Impact- this comes out to be about 35 per cent cheaper per TEU for the complete round-trip • It is expected to especially give a fillip to ex-im traffic between ports and ICDs. 3. Discount on movement of empty containers and empty flat wagons • A discount of 25 per cent …

Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Hardeep Singh Puri, Railways and Minister of State for Commerce & Industry have launched common digital platform for Issuance of electronic Certificates of Origin (CoO) in the capital. The platform will be a single access point for all exporters, for all FTAs/PTAs and for all agencies concerned. CoO will be issued electronically which can be in paperless format if agreed to by the partner countries. Authorities of partner countries will be able to verify the authenticity of certificates from the website. Further, it provides administrative access to Department of Commerce for reporting and monitoring purposes. Exporters may register on this platform and apply for CoOs to any of the designated agencies. Export Inspection Council of India (EIC) and its agencies are already on-boarded. Other agencies are in the process of registering on the platform. The on-boarding process is only for the purposes for payment integration so that the application fees may flow to the respective agencies.

The Prime Minister inaugurated the state-of-the-art terminal through a two -way digital communication system at an event in Ranchi, Jharkhand. This is the second of the three multi modal terminals being constructed on river Ganga under Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). The new secretariat building in the state capital will come up at an estimated cost of Rs 1238.92 crore. The cargo terminal, which was inaugurated online by the prime minister from here, has been built by Inland Waterways Authority of India on River Ganga at Sahibganj. It will have a cargo storing capacity of 30 lakh tonne per year, a stockyard and parking and berthing space for two vessels. It will also have offices of 32 departments.

CMA CGM Logistics Park Dadri has started planning and running dedicated block train services, with all-export containers booked by its CFS, from ICD Dadri to Mundra in association with CONCOR Dadri. Capt. V. M. Bawa, CEO, CMA CGM Logistics Park Dadri, informs, “The services would be on regular/weekly basis and this initiative will benefit the export trade at ICD Dadri in offering direct train services to Mundra with average transit time of approx. 72 hours.” The first dedicated block train service, comprising 45 FEUs to Mundra, was flagged off on the night of September 2, 2019 from ICD Dadri by Capt. Bawa in the presence of CONCOR staff and the Station Superintendent of Dadri station. The second dedicated block train from ICD Dadri departed soon after, on September 4 for Mundra with another 45 FEUs booked by the CFS.