Category Archives: Warehousing

Economic activity in the logistics industry has seen an upsurge recently due to a strong consumer demand that continues to put pressure on warehousing and transportation networks. In June, the Logistics Managers’ Index (LMI) reached the second-highest level in the history of the last five-year index and was registered at 75, showing a growth of 4%. According to the LMI researchers, the quarterly three-month moving average also reached a record level this spring, indicating second-quarter growth as the fastest in the history of the index. While the inventory levels and costs continue to exempt growth in June and rose 9 points and more than 5 points, respectively. The warehousing and transportation capacity continued to contract, registering 40.7 and 34.5 respectively. “The combined lack of capacity makes it difficult to meet consumer expectations. The mismatch between supply and demand has driven logistics costs up, despite the fact that inventory is flowing quickly,” according to the report.

Knight Frank India, an international property consultancy, in their latest report – ‘India Warehousing Market Report – 2021’, projects that annual warehousing transactions for top eight Indian cities (primary markets) will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% to 76.2 mn sq ft (7.08 mn sq m) by Financial Year (FY) 2026 from 31.7 mn sq ft (2.95 mn sq m) in FY 2021. As per the projections for the next 5 years (FY 2022 – FY 2026), e-commerce segment is expected to take up significant space estimated to be 98 mn sq ft (9.1 mn sq m) approximately registering an increase of 165% from the preceding period of FY 2017 – 2021. Third Party Logistics (3PL) and other Sector companies are expected to take up 56% (83 mn sq ft) and 43% (53 mn sq ft) more space respectively, over the same reference period.

The Centre has developed an online portal to collect details about government and private warehouses, a move that will enable monitoring of storage availability on a real-time basis, a senior Food Ministry official said on Tuesday. This will also help to know real-time foodgrain stock available in any of the warehouses in the country, he said. The portal has been designed in view of the delay in timely collection of warehouse data, and lack of platform to collect private warehouse details and storage capacity, he added. According to the official, “Creation of an online portal is a step closer to achieve the objective of National Food Security Act (NFSA) in a transparent manner.”

Developer of Grade A industrial real estate and logistics parks IndoSpace on June 23 announced the launch of two parks, Vallam II and Oragadam III in Tamil Nadu, with a combined area of 118 acres, the company said. Both parks will cater to companies from the automotive and electronics sectors. Original equipment manufacturers like Yamaha, Hyundai, Royal Enfield, Nissan, Daimler and Foxconn are amongst the most prominent industrial entities in these regions, it said. The parks will boost IndoSpace’s footprint across strategically significant regions and are a step towards its long-term goal of creating 120 million square feet of modern logistics infrastructure across India.

As the country is reeling under acute oxygen shortage amid rising number of Covid-19 cases, Stellar Value Chain Solutions has set aside 1.5 million square feet of warehousing space and transportation services to beef up the supply of the life-saving element to hospitals on cost-free basis. The lion’s share of the warehousing space will come up in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore and in other metro/mini metro cities. Stellar Value Chain Solutions will also provide its fleet of refrigerated trucks for transporting Covid-19 vaccines besides facilitating storage of oxygen cylinders, oxygen equipment and oxygen concentrators forgoing the entire cost. The company has warehousing space across the country and robust express, less-than-truckload and temperature-controlled transportation infrastructure, which the company has decided to press into service for the nation. “In this moment of crisis, we stand by the country and volunteer our warehouses and transportation services for the fight against Covid-19. Saving the lives of our fellow citizens is the utmost priority for us at the moment. Even as the healthcare system is doing its best to fight the pandemic, corporates like us have to do our bit for the nation in such an unprecedented crisis. A number of large corporates are coming forward to reconfigure their manufacturing processes to produce more medical oxygen. We are coming forward to provide free of cost storage and transportation of all Covid related requirements such as Vaccines, Oxygen Cylinders, Oxygen concentrators, Mattresses, Beds and Other Medical Equipments” said Anshuman Singh, Chairman and MD, Stellar Value Chain Solutions.

According to the Research & Market’s report on warehousing market in India 2021, “The warehousing market in India was valued at Rs 1,050 billion in 2020. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~14.86% between 2021 and 2025, to reach a value of Rs 2,028.86 billion by 2025. The usage of the warehousing system in India has gained significant prominence over the past few years. In India, the warehousing and cold storage space occupation increased by ~77% from 2019 to 2020. At present, warehousing in India is mostly concentrated in tier-I cities, such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Hyderabad. However, with the rising demand for e-commerce activities and doorstep delivery services in the tier-II and tier-III cities, the warehousing sector in India is expected to grow potentially in the coming years.” The growth in the India warehousing market is triggered by the robust expansion in the country’s pharmaceutical, e-commerce, and manufacturing sectors. The rapid growth in the market can also be attributed to the government’s policy support and increasing institutional investments. Other factors, including technological advancements, such as warehousing automation and robotic mechanization are expected to revolutionize the market. However, the unavailability of feasible lands, high land acquisition prices and the lack of an adequate warehouse infrastructure in the country are factors hindering the growth of the market. Some of the major players operating in the market include Snowman Logistics, Gati, DHL Express, and Mahindra Logistics.

Flipkart has announced a strategic and commercial partnership with the Adani Group to strengthen Flipkart’s supply chain infrastructure and further enhance its ability to serve its rapidly growing base of customers. In addition, Flipkart will set up its third data centre at Adaniconnex, Chennai based facility, leveraging AdaniConneX’s world-class expertise and industry-leading data centre technology solutions. Adaniconnex is a new Joint Venture formed between EdgeConneX and Adani Enterprises. As part of this partnership, Adani Logistics will construct a massive 534,000 sq. ft. fulfilment centre in its upcoming logistics hub in Mumbai that will be leased to Flipkart to address the growing demand for e-commerce in Western India and support market access of several thousands of sellers and MSMEs in the region. Leveraging state-of-the-art technologies, the centre is expected to be operational in Q3 2022 and will have the capacity to house 10 million units of sellers’ inventory at any point. In addition to strengthening Flipkart’s supply chain infrastructure to support MSMEs and sellers, the facility will enhance local employment and create ~2,500 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs. The other prong of the partnership will see Flipkart developing its third data centre at the AdaniConnecX facility as a part of one of the largest private cloud deployments in the country, thereby further strengthening its growing marketplace e-commerce business in India. The data centre has been designed to meet the highest standards in reliability, security, and sustainability, which will capitalise on the Adani Group’s capability as the largest solar player in the country to generate and source green power. The AdaniConneX data centre is a brand-new facility enabling Flipkart to design the data centre to its growing infrastructure needs with …

Following the increased demand for healthcare shipments during the pandemic, Bolloré Logistics is reinforcing its healthcare product processing facilities with an 800 m2 extension of a pharmaceutical unit with a temperature of 15 degree Celsius to 25 degree Celsius. With the new unit, Bolloré Logistics now boasts a surface area of 2,200 m2 at its Roissy CDG Hub, divided into three temperature-controlled areas of 2 degree Celsius to 8 degree Celsius, 15 degree Celsius to 25 degree Celsius, and -20 degree Celsius. These facilities are reserved exclusively for processing healthcare product shipments in a secure environment managed by teams trained in Good Distribution Practices (GDPs). Three dedicated dock doors ensure the seamless and temperature-controlled flow of goods for total mastery of the cold chain during operations. The new cell also has a racked area with a 550-pallet capacity as well as a mass storage area. The new facility increases Bolloré Logistics’ capacity to manage cross-docking operations and respond to the specific requirements of each product category, including vaccines and nuclear-medicine products. “This investment demonstrates our determination to support the health sector in its logistics challenges. Our facilities and solutions are specially designed to respond to requirements on regulations and operational excellence and are adapted to each category of goods transported,” said Pascal Le Guevel, Director of the Bolloré Logistics Roissy CDG Hub. Bolloré Logistics implements solutions that ensure the safety and integrity of products, including power connections for active containers, monitored unit temperatures, temperature mapping and staff training. The warehouse responds to all the requirements of European GDPs for pharmaceutical products. “With this environment, we are able to deliver complete and needs-adapted solutions to all our customers, from the preparation …

SafeStorage has unveiled facility 40,000 square footage warehouse facility with state-of-the-art features in Bhiwandi. The company is growing at a steady pace and has crossed the 7 lakh square feet mark in its business. Sharing his thoughts on the Mumbai launch, Ramesh Madisetty, CEO & Co-Founder, SafeStorage, said, “Our research shows that Mumbai is a promising market for self-storage & warehouse companies and we hope to capitalise on the demand. It is our mission to be recognised as India’s top end-to-end storing facility and we are building on our capabilities each day to reach that goal. Seeing the response we have received from our patrons in current markets, we are also planning on entering Kolkata market in the coming months. By end of 2021, we aim to be present across nine cities in India.” The software used at SafeStorage, such as the automated quotation and booking process, work order management and customer portal is customised by the in-house tech team. There has been a huge up haul in the technology used by SafeStorage. The web application has been upgraded from Code Ignitor to Laravel Framework. The SafeStorage app has been updated from Native to google flutter. Madisetty adds, “We have made out user interface much more intuitive and customer friendly. Our new website & app is devised to help customers navigate through it quite easily. The entire booking, estimation, & slot securing process can be completed online on the SafeStorage website by a customer. SafeStorage tracks all the items received through a mobile app. Our warehouse consultants then update the inventory list with finer details such as weight, shape, size, image etc. and upload the stacked images on a customer …

LogiNext has announced a milestone partnership with Alibaba backed Daraz. This partnership involved rolling out the LogiNext Mile platform over which Daraz has optimised and automated millions of orders over the past four years resulting in Asia’s largest e-commerce carrier network. Through this partnership, Daraz got access to LogiNext’s Mile platform for its logistics marketplace recently launched for a potential end customer base of more than one billion to empower local logistics businesses and establish their businesses with Daraz. LogiNext’s platform automates order capturing, scheduling, delivery associate compliance, handling peak event sales and the end to end customer experience for these smaller businesses supported by Daraz in its countries. For LogiNext, a pioneer in the field of logistics automation in North America, working with Daraz was a way to make inroads in Asia via a forward-looking high-tech e-commerce environment that Daraz fosters. Together, the partnership has improved Daraz Logistics marketplace’s last mile deliveries by tracking and accessing billions of location data points to deliver a superior customer experience to millions of end customers. “LogiNext’s Mile platform has been leveraged by several premier e-commerce giants across the globe. This partnership with Daraz has helped us solve some very real on-the-ground logistical issues native to APAC and it has given a framework for upcoming and existing e-commerce giants to usher in the new face of last-mile deliveries built on the basis of a world-class customer experience,” says Mradul Khandelwal, Vice President of Business Development at LogiNext. “At Daraz, we are always looking to innovate and bring the best technologies available globally for improved customer experience which in return yields to higher business performance. This partnership has proven to be fruitful for Logistics …