Category Archives: Shipping

Even as the world is fighting a battle with the pandemic, the impact of the Russian-Ukraine war has hit logistics and cargo like a Damocles sword. The conflict has made commercial shipping through sea routes in Russia and Ukraine suicidal. Most ports in the region are closed and commercial ships are not accepting orders from Russia or making port calls. As per a statement, Container xChange, premier container leasing and trading marketplace, stated, “Due to disruption to commercial shipping on the sea lanes, we expect container build-ups at ports to exacerbate at storage areas in the region. The closure of airspace across Russia and Europe has reduced air freight capacity.” It added, “Maritime trade with Russia and businesses could be difficult in the near future. On Monday, the UK has banned all Russian ships from entering its ports. What’s more, the EU intercepted and seized one ship. On the Asia-Europe trade, we see more demand for maritime shipments and equipment out of Asia due to modal shift.” “Russian and Belarussian ports in the Baltic, Black Sea and Sea of Azov may see a build-up of boxes if carriers refuse port calls due to the precarious situation and sanctions. The full implications of sanctions are not yet clear, but the closure of the SWIFT system to Russia will make payments from Russian partners difficult.” An official said, “Borders with the EU are closed. We expect the war to add to the stretched nature of global container supply chains, bringing more inflation and delays.”

American Airlines Cargo has announced a dedicated suite of products and priorities to make it easier for customers to book a variety of Life Sciences and Healthcare shipments – a segment that has seen a 17% volume increase over the last years across regions the airline serves. With advancements in individualized healthcare and medical innovations that lead to longer, healthier lives, fast and reliable transportation of these shipments has never been more crucial. This new offering leverages the network of the world’s largest airline and award-winning expertise to serve customers now and into the future. The Life Sciences suite offers cargo products designed for time-sensitive shipments. Whether under 100lbs, bulk or containerized, American’s Priority Parcel Service (PPS) or ExpediteFS services provide benefits including next-flight booking options, priority boarding and the shortest tender times. These two products are also customizable, as the airline offers an array of handling and monitoring capabilities based on the level of handling a shipment may need – from prioritized take-off and landing for life-saving medical shipments with MEDEVAC service, to enhanced monitoring and proactive updates with Critical PPS service. Also included in the Life Sciences suite is American’s cold-chain solution, ExpediteTC. This product offers both active and passive temperature capabilities for shipments and has earned the airline Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma) certification. Awarded by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), CEIV Pharma certification recognizes air carriers and entire air cargo supply chains that have established the tools, procedures and staffing to ensure pharmaceuticals are properly handled and maintain product integrity. American is currently CEIV Pharma certified for its operations in and out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Philadelphia …

Continental Carriers Pvt. Ltd. (CCPL) has been awarded the Best Freight Forwarder of the year 2021 by Assocham at the 13th International Conference cum Awards Civil Aviation & Cargo on February 28, 2021. The award was received by Continental Carriers’ chairman, Vipin Vohra; managing director, Vaibhav Vohra; and director, Viraj Vohra. This award recognises CCPL’s excellent performance, commitment, and professionalism in the freight forwarding industry.

As the crisis takes a turn for the worse, and the Russian military waiting at the borders threatening Ukraine finally invades, the agri supply chains get disrupted, adversely affecting many countries. Traders from the vital Black Sea region particularly Russia and Ukraine, which are also known as the crop heavyweights have denied the supply of Wheat to several countries. While Russia accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s wheat exports, Ukraine supplies 10 percent, data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations showed. Egypt, which is one of the prime importers of Wheat among the many Middle East and North African nations, has canceled a previous tender after only receiving one offer of French wheat and has now scheduled a new one. While old orders are being met, new deals are denied as traders are staying away from Russian grains and exporters are unable to agree to contracts at the moment as they fear they will not be able to fulfill them as the situation evolves. In addition to this, Ukraine and Russia are also major producers of corn, sunflower seed oil, barley, and rye, and much of Europe depends on it. The two nations jointly account for about 80 percent of the world’s sunflower oil exports and 19 percent of world corn supplies.

Gangavaram Port the deepest and the most modern port in the country has achieved multiple records in various cargo commodities. It is the deepest all-weather port in India with round-the-clock operations. The Port is having state of the art infrastructures facilities to manage various imports and export cargos having deep depth multi-purpose cargo berths to receive Cap Size, Panamax Size, and Supramax vessels. Port is having vast storage facilities including covered warehouses to manage various cargos and state-of-the-art material handling systems. GPL is consistently performing well and creating newer records for handling the various cargos. * Highest Ever Sugar Loading: The Port achieved their maiden record in Sugar cargo loading at Gangavaram Port Ltd (GPL). The port performed excellent by loading 16,020 MTs from the vessel MV Jenny M which berthed at port on 21.02.2022. * Highest ever achieved Steel Loading at GPL: Gangavaram Port Ltd (GPL) performed extremely well by loading 10,854 MT of Steel Blooms A/c RINL by using the vessel cranes on a 24-hour basis. This has surpassed the earlier record of 9,078 MT on a 24-hour basis on November-2021. This has created a National Record by any port in India. Highest Ever Loading of Iron Ore Fines: The port has achieved the highest loading of Iron Ore Fines 53,261 MT in 24 hrs to MV Crimson Knight A/c KIOCL in February 2022 which has surpassed the earlier record of 52,677 MT of the vessel MV African Spoonbill. * Highest Ever Steam Coal Discharging: The port discharged 70,000 MT of Steam coal within 24 hrs from the vessel MV. Manasota A/c. AEL in January 2022 has surpassed the earlier record of 65,059 MT from the vessel MV. …

Drip Capital, Inc., a leading cross-border digital trade finance platform, announced collaboration with CARGOES Finance By DP World, a platform that enables rapid and seamless access to working capital for emerging-market small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are one of the most integral components of the global supply chain but often face a working capital crunch to facilitate their cross-border transactions. Drip Capital offers collateral-free financing solutions for SMEs engaged in cross-border trade, thereby allowing them to manage their cash flow better and invest in business growth. The fintech firm collaborates with crucial global industry enablers across the value chain for making international trade seamless for SMEs. DP World’s CARGOES Finance Platform facilitates lender-borrower interactions and arranges an array of credit solutions from premier financial institutions worldwide. A partnership such as this will help cash-crunched SMEs avail fast and easy access to trade financing by connecting them to Drip. Elaborating on the collaboration, Pushkar Mukewar, Co-Founder and CEO of Drip Capital, said, “To be a part of DP World’s massive network and get access to a large number of SMEs is a great privilege, and we are excited to begin this journey with them. Besides this, the platform will provide Drip with vital trade data to improve its risk analysis and mitigation processes, thereby helping us procure more clients and lend more confidently. Overall, the partnership will assist us in our mission to make global trade easy and accessible to SMEs worldwide.” Sinan Ozcan, Senior Executive Officer, DP World Financial Services Limited, said: “DP World’s objective is to enable global trade. Access to trade finance is critical for the survival and growth of exporters, importers and logistics companies which are …

Sea freight rates have increased up to 800% in some routes — a 100% increase than in October last year (700%) — due to reduced available capacity on shipping lines and container shortage, based on recent feedback received by the Malaysian National Shippers’ Council (MNSC). MNSC chairman Datuk Dr Andy Seo said as an open trading nation like Malaysia, over 90% of the international trade volume is being carried through international sea transportation. He stressed that the skyrocketing sea freight rates coupled with the increasing commodity prices and labour shortages in both the manufacturing and logistics services sectors as a result of the pandemic has caused prices of imported business inputs and export costs to soar. “Shippers face difficult decisions daily on whether to ship and incur high export costs or not to ship and lose their export markets. Major shippers in Malaysia are now exporting on ‘Free on Board’ basis as they are no longer able to cover the high freight costs and now must rely on the freight services determined by the overseas buyer.” said Seo.

With an objective of understand the implications of various changes and amendments in the existing Customs Notifications and Tariff/Duty structure announced by the Union Finance Minister while presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 on February 1, the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India organised a webinar on the same. The webinar was addressed by eminent Advocate Consultant and also Mentor on Legal matter, empanelled with FFFAI, Joshua Ebenezer provided detailed analysis of the changes/amendments made in the Budget 2022 concerning Customs clearance and tariff. The webinar was also addressed by Shankar Shinde, Chairman; Dushyant Mulani, Chairman Elect; AV Vijayakumar, Immediate Past Chairman; S. Ramakrishna, Past Chairman & Advisor and other office bearers of FFFAI. The webinar was attended by approximately 200 FFFAI members from across the country. Ebenezer analysed the changes and amendments very eloquently and simply with relevant examples for better understanding of the participants. He also made caution about the ambiguities due to self-contradictions betwen different amendments, which according to him, requires further clarifications from the Customs authority. Addressing the gathering, Shankar Shinde thanked all FFFAI Office Bearers, Advisors and members for participating in the webinar. He also appreciated FFFAI members for providing inputs before the Budgeted 2022, which were discussed with the CBIC, Ministry of Finance as pre-Budget discussions. According to the FFFAI Chairman, many of them have been addressed in this Budget and FFFAI would continue the dialogue with the government for further facilitation of Customs clearance as well as foreign trade. Earlier, Dushyant Mulani conveyed that amendments in the Union Budget are always eagerly awaited by Industry. From a customs point of view, it is not only about the changes in tariff but also about …

Pacific International Lines (PIL) will impose a fine of US$30,000 per container for any misdeclaration of the cargo weight, a charge that is already effective from 15 February. Misdeclaration includes but is not limited to incorrect/partial declaration, late declaration, alteration, or omission of such declaration, according to the company’s notice. “A charge of US$30,000 per container globally will be imposed as part of PIL’s tariff upon the shipper and/or consignee making any misdeclaration of the cargo weight which in effect exceeds the maximum payload of the container used for the carriage,” said the Singapore-headquartered carrier in a statement. In addition to this charge, amongst others, the shipper and consignee will be held liable and responsible for all corrective measures, claims, fines, liabilities, losses, delays, damages or expenses arising in consequence of such misdeclaration, according to the notice. Failure to properly declare cargo weight constitutes a breach of contract which violates the applicable law, endangers lives and adversely affects the operations of the entire supply chain, according to PIL, which said, “we focus on making continual improvements to our safety practices to protect our crew, ships and cargo.”

Adani Ports & SEZ Limited (APSEZ) has outlined plans to develop a country-wide network and infrastructure, especially in the hinterland. The company which reported a 22 percent growth in cargo volume during the first nine months of the current financial year has outlined its expansion plans on the lines of ‘Maritime India Vision – 2030’. The vision document has proposed an investment of over Rs 3 lakh crore, which would generate more than 20 lakh jobs and unlock annual revenue potential for major ports worth over Rs 20,000 crore. As per policymakers, the estimated cost of development of the Indian ports alone will lead to an annual cost savings of about Rs 7,000 crore for foreign traders. The potential for mega capacity ports has been identified particularly in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, and West Bengal. “APSEZ’s evolution as a transport utility with an integrated mix of logistical capabilities is in line with the PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan and has far-reaching benefits. Providing end-to-end logistics solutions in a transparent and efficient manner creates a unique value proposition for the customers and contributes to the Company’s distinctive positioning as a trusted brand.” said Karan Adani, CEO and Whole Time Director of APSEZ “Most importantly, the presence of comprehensive supply chain solution provider strengthens the country’s supply-chain structure, enhancing trade competitiveness,” Adani added. A significant player in the Indian Maritime Sector, APSEZ handles close to 30 percent of the country’s total cargo across its 12 operating ports. The company brings a fresh approach, dumping the earlier method of port operators who primarily set their eyes on core operations while outsourcing in-land logistics to other players.