Category Archives: Supply Chain

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air cargo markets showing slower growth in January 2022. Supply chain disruptions and capacity constraints, as well as a deterioration in economic conditions for the sector dampened demand. Demand growth of 2.7% in January was below expectation, following the 9.3% recorded in December. This likely reflects a shift towards the more normal growth rate of 4.9% expected for this year. Looking ahead, however, we can expect cargo markets to be impacted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Sanction-related shifts in manufacturing and economic activity, rising oil prices and geopolitical uncertainty are converging. Capacity is expected to come under greater pressure and rates are likely to rise. To what extent, however, it is still too early to predict,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General

Global air cargo markets are already feeling the effects from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to IATA, however, the in-depth impact of the same is still to be assessed. Making the assessment based on its latest cargo demand data, IATA reveals that January has been a soft patch for the industry with a global growth of 2.7%, the lowest rise in cargo tonne kilometres (CTKs) since December 2020. Citing the factors responsible for the impact, IATA says that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 on passenger and cargo-only networks in January, notably reduced bellyhold cargo capacity as services were cancelled, plus weaker economic drivers have led to the soft patch of the industry. The airline association further suggested, that due to the pre-Ukraine conflict, the air cargo market was likely shifting “towards a more normal growth rate of 4.9% expected for this year”, following much higher increases throughout 2021. War in eastern Europe has introduced several uncertainties into that market and was already having a negative impact from late February, the airline body states. Consequences seen so far will ”further reduce available capacity and increase already elevated air cargo rates”, IATA says, adding that it is too soon to predict the extent of those developments. However, the increasing cost of crude oil, is likely to be “unprofitable for airlines and air cargo more expensive for businesses”. Although Russia accounts for only 0.6% of global air freight carried, the airspace restrictions will significantly reduce the cargo services to and from Russia, IATA notes. Nevertheless, “several key operators” in the sector are based in Russia and Ukraine, it states. The airspace restricton is also hampering with the Europe and Asia trade, although alternative routings …

As Russia continues its military assault on Ukraine, the Western economies and their allies have retaliated by imposing harsh sanctions on the Russian economy, practically paralysing it. The shipping industry would be particularly affected, as delays and shipping prices are projected to rise as a result of interruptions in the global supply chain. Approximately 15 maritime ports in Ukraine were closed when the war broke out. Cargo loading and unloading has ended. Around 140 ships berthed in Ukrainian ports at the time have remained in the ports ever since. So yet, none of the ports or the ships berthed in them have been attacked. Two ships were attacked while in anchorage leading traders to avoid Black Sea routes for their ships. The ship, which contains electricity, food, and the ability to create water, is always the safest place for sailors in the event of an accident. According to Sanjay Prashar, managing director of VR Maritime Services, while bunkers in ports have been discovered for safely lodging seafarers, ship crews have not moved out of their ships. One of the company’s ships has become trapped in a port in Ukraine. Indian crews are on board some of the stalled ships at Ukrainian ports.

B2B logistics tech platform Oorjaa has raised around Rs 9 Crores in a Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The round also saw participation from a clutch of HNIs who have invested in personal capacity and through Vinners angel investing platform. The funds will be used to focus on the product and tech development, expanding into new geographies and on working capital requirements. Oorjaa was founded by Sandeep Patil, Prashant Mohite and Yogesh Parab, each with uniquely diverse and complimentary skill sets in late 2019. Oorjaa offers highly effective technology driven logistics solutions aided with transformative technology solutions on auto-routing, network optimization, data analytics, trip management and highly efficient operating processes run by the most skilled and trained manpower. Their biggest strength is having proprietary tools for optimizing logistics operations, diversely skilled founders with decades of experience in building products and businesses. They have bootstrapped to an impressive two-digit ARR with founders’ capital and investment of just Rs. 40 Lakhs. Since its launch in November 2019, Oorjaa has expanded to 15+ cities, 30+ Hub locations, conducting 4000+ orders per day with 200+ Vehicles (inclusive of EV Cargo Vehicles, promoting sustainability). Their B2B clientele include some of the most well-known large e-commerce, food-tech & e-groceries companies.

Cainiao Network (Cainiao), the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, announced the partnership with Qatar Airways Cargo to launch a weekly charter flight from Hong Kong (HKG), China, to São Paulo (GRU), Brazil, and serve one of Cainiao’s fastest-growing e-commerce destinations in Latin America. On 5 March, the first Cainiao chartered Boeing 777 freighter departed Hong Kong Airport (HKG) at 6.45 p.m. UTC, headed for Guarulhos Airport (GRU), São Paulo, Brazil, with a tech stop at Qatar Airways Cargo’s hub in Doha, Qatar. The cargo on board included online retail products such as beauty and fashion goods, jewellery, watches, appliances, toys, and sports equipment. Operating once a week, the Boeing 777 freighter provides 100 tonnes of cargo capacity. “Cainiao’s mission is to deliver globally within 72 hours; a goal that can be achieved with the right logistics partners. In just over a year, Cainiao has established a comprehensive operation in Latin America, and we see that e-commerce retail in Brazil, in particular, is growing at a phenomenal rate. With Qatar Airways Cargo, we are in a good position to support that growth, and look forward to a long and fruitful partnership,” says William Xiong, Cainiao’s Chief Strategist and General Manager for Export Logistics. Cainiao has experienced a three-figure growth rate in its Latin American business over the past year and has driven a focused air cargo network expansion in recent months to secure smooth supply chain performance. “There is no doubt that e-commerce is not only here to stay but is also one of the fastest-growing commodities within logistics, today. It demands versatility, speed, accuracy, and a reliable, global network,” Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo of Qatar Airways Cargo, explains. “We …

Jet Freight, one of India’s leading freight forwarders, appoints logistics veteran, Joy John, as its Director for Air and Sea Freight effective March 1, 2022. Joy will be responsible for Pan India Sales and Operations of Jet Freight Logistics Ltd. Joy brings over 30 years of comprehensive experience in airfreight management, freight forwarding, cross-border operations, sales support, business development, and team management skills from his previous roles. He is renowned as a keen planner, strategist, and implementer with demonstrated abilities in accelerating business growth in line with the board’s business plans. As a veteran in the logistics sector, Joy is an effective communicator with excellent relationship-building and interpersonal skills. He is distinguished as a leader with proficiency in analytical and problem-solving competencies. Jet Freight is considered among India’s most renowned freight forwarders, with global operations controlled from offices in India and Dubai. Jet Freight has over 10 regional offices across the country and continues to spread its logistic efforts for superior last-mile delivery solutions. Jet Freight is a technology-enabled company and is on the road to becoming a top choice for freight forwarding and supplying logistics distribution services to its clients. Jet Freight plan to extend seamless and environment-friendly deliveries for their customers. According to Richard Theknath, Chairman and Managing Director, Jet Freight, “We are happy to have Joy John on board with Jet Freight as Director Air-Sea Freight. Given his vast experience in the freight forwarding industry, we are confident that he will take Jet Freight to greater heights and are keen to leverage his leadership skills in enhancing our sales and operations. His competitive selling strategies to improve brand and service awareness will help us enhance our existing …

The Indian logistics sector emerged as one of the strongest support systems for the economy ravaged by a global pandemic. The rise can be attributed to several factors, including appropriate policy amendments and infrastructure support by the government for improving transport and storage facilities, with a focus on reducing the logistic cost. In addition to this, the sector has also be driven largely by fast paced tech adoption, the meteoric rise ecommerce led last mile deliveries, a more robust food and pharma supply chain and AI driven operations. In addition to tech adoption, global trends in adopting Greener business practices are also pushing for adoption of environmentally responsible solutions in logistics and supply chain. This would mean that the next wave of disruption for Indian logistics is set be the evolution of ‘Sustainable’ Supply Chains which are not only environmentally conscious but also efficient in terms of cost, time, fuel and productivity. Hector Patel, Executive Director, and Board Member. Jeena & Co. lists some key points of transformation that will help build sustainable supply chains for India: 1. Tech Adoption 2. Optimised storage Capacity 3. Agile solutions 4. Greener Transportation

The spectacular growth exhibited by the retail, ecommerce, grocery firms and third-party logistics providers have spurred up the demand for last mile deliveries, forcing top warehousing developers to ramp up their expansions in the tier-II locations and within metros. Aiming to have a better reach to the consumer, operators and investors such as ESR, LOGOS, Blackstone-led Horizon Industrial Parks, and Welspun One Logistics Parks (WOLP) are actively eyeing land acquisitions in smaller cities and vying for first mover advantage in setting up multilevel in-city logistics hubs. With focus on tier-II cities, ESR is currently in advanced discussions to acquire 3-4 land parcels. The company kicked off its urban logistics plan with the acquisition of 8.2 acres of land in Alipur, Delhi, to establish a distribution centre spread across 300,000 sq ft to cater to e-commerce, grocery, pharmacy, cloud kitchen, and other companies. “2021 was a mixed bag, with lot of leasing in e-commerce but slowdown in industrial. In the last six months light manufacturing and industrial sectors have revived. We are looking at significant expansion this year, incl-uding in tier-II markets, which have become important because of e-commerce penetration. Our strategy would be to build more plug-and-play (warehousing) facilities, which help customers to go live in three months,” said, Abhijit Malkani, chief executive officer (CEO), ESR India. Warehousing has been a sweet spot for the real estate industry during the pandemic largely because of the e-commerce boom. According to JLL India, the cumulative warehousing supply in the top 8 cities was 287 million sq ft in 2021-end and is expected to touch 500 million sq ft by 2025.

Pickrr has announced the launch of another value-added service, Pickrr Predict. The flagship product feature will provide predictive analysis to sellers as soon as an order is placed on Pickrr, which helps mitigate the significant risk proportion attached to cash-on-delivery orders. According to an industry estimate, there is only a 75% probability of the order getting delivered. There can be multiple factors behind COD orders not getting received, such as fraudulent orders, incorrect addresses, unavailability of cash, late deliveries, restricted zones, etc. This results in the sellers’ considerable monetary loss because of the failed delivery and the inventory’s RTO process. In a bid to neutralize the additional losses of the sellers, Pickrr Predict has been integrated with Pickrr’s all-in-one dashboard. The feature uses collective data and evaluates the order over 30 parameters, including past online transactions of the customer, return history, high-stress delivery zones, etc., to calculate the risk percentage and intimate the high-risk orders before proceeding with order dispatch. With the help of this intelligent analysis, sellers can determine further processes to cancel, confirm, or edit details for any order. Speaking on introducing the new VAS feature, Gaurav Mangla, CEO and Co-Founder, Pickrr, said, “Failed Cash-on-Delivery has become a significant challenge for businesses. As an industry leader, we strive to provide solutions for the problems that can make a larger difference within the logistic ecosystem. Pickrr Predict is already resolving the shipping woes for over 5000 sellers currently using this disruptive service. He also added, “We are confident that this marquee product feature will help countless sellers generate valuable savings and steer clear of losses.” Pickrr has constantly delivered a seamless logistics experience to D2C and eCommerce sellers through …

After two years of disruption, the logistics sector is riding on a growth wave as COVID-19 wanes, with the giant logistics provider DTDC leading this wave with a special focus on healthcare. The national player is taking the logistics game a notch higher and upgrading their infrastructure, launching several warehouses for positive growth and expansion. After the pandemic struck and several lockdowns, the demand for doorstep delivery of medicine and vaccines has soared. In order to meet this demand and facilitate people with speedy services that meet their life-saving medical requirements, DTDC is now on a mission to reach every large city and the remotest of villages in the country. Rolling this mission into action, DTDC has begun with the Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh. They have opened a new warehouse with state-of-the-art facilities and high-end technology-enabled. Partnering with e-commerce giants, the logistics provider is all set to provide enhanced deliveries across categories across the urban and rural segments of the state. “To further enhance our services and streamline operations to serve our customers better, we are building major logistic hubs across the country to facilitate business growth and deliver value to customers across the length and breadth of the country,” says Subhasish Chakraborty, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of DTDC. “We are happy with the way the people of the country have supported us in the last 32 years. We started from Karnataka but are all over India today. With the trio element of service, support, and advanced infrastructure, we are sure to take care of everyone’s needs in the coming future. Moreover, we also run a foundation called SSCF (Shri Subhasish Chakraborty Foundation), where orphanages and the aged …