American Airlines Cargo is now offering customers full access to its US network through Freightos’ WebCargo and 7L Freight platforms. The carrier, which operates more than 5,000 daily departures from the US, says it now provides a larger network for flights in and out of the US on WebCargo than any other carrier.
DHL green tech is music to the ears for Music of the Spheres
DHL has teamed up with Coldplay as the official logistics partner Music Of The Spheres world tour – with a remit to minimise its carbon and reduce CO2 emissions by more than 50%.
DHL’s GoGreen Plus Service offers including use of advanced biofuels for ocean and air freight along with an extensive fleet of electric vehicles and trucks fueled with Bio-LNG liquified natural gas made from organic waste.
T rest of the supply chain is made climate neutral by full lifecycle emission compensation.
As for the shows themselves, every one will be powered by a mix of renewable energy (such as wind and solar energy) and certified renewable biodiesel. The band even harness fan energy through state-of-the-art kinetic floors and power bikes.
The band has also pledged to plant a tree for every ticket sold and to draw down significantly more CO2 than the tour produces through investment in a diverse range of carbon offsetting initiatives.
DHL and Coldplay’s shared hope is that the Music Of The Spheres Tour will provide lessons and best practices for other artists to build on and push the live music industry towards an ultra-low-carbon and sustainable future.
Kale to speed freight through Canadian gateway
Vancouver International is to adopt Kale’s Airport Cargo Community System. A proof of concept will take place ahead of full implementation of the solution, which aims to streamline cargo flows and address truck congestion, which continue to affect many North American airports as cargo volumes swell.
Kale’s system will enable advance shipment notifications to be sent from shippers, agents, and truckers to cargo handlers and airlines at the airport, bringing real-time updates on estimated arrival times, as well as details of cargo on board.
Advance truck slot booking capabilities will enable trucking companies and ground handlers to coordinate landside freight movements.
Kale’s mobile app allows slots to be booked dynamically and adjusted automatically, in line with peaks and troughs in truck arrivals at the airport.
Earlier this year, Kale successfully piloted the truck slot and dock management module of its Airport Cargo Community System with Worldwide Flight Services at New York JFK, reducing truck waiting times by up to 66% for exports and 48% for imports.
Transatlantic leads the way as airfreight rates droop
Extra summer airline capacity put downward pressure on freight rates, especially on the North Atlantic which has seen a 30% decline over the past three months, said CLIVE Data Services, part of Xeneta.
Global air cargo volumes fell again in June, down 8% year-on-year, added the industry analyst.
Demand in the general airfreight market in June was also down 7% compared to 2019 and follows the 8% drop in volumes reported by CLIVE for May 2022.
Available cargo capacity in June rose 6% over the same month of 2021 but remained -11% down on the 2019 level. CLIVE’s ‘dynamic load factor’ for the month was 59%, 9% lower than in 2021 and 2% adrift of June 2019.
However, general airfreight rates in June were 129% higher than in 2019 and 13% higher than in 2021. Although this continues the decline seen on a global level in recent months, the drop slowed relative to May.
Xeneta chief airfreight officer and CLIVE founder, Niall van de Wouw, said: “In our analysis of air cargo market performance in May, we said the North Atlantic market could provide ‘a test case for the direction of other markets once they also return to their pre-Covid levels.’ This is still true, and we may see the consequences sooner than we anticipated a month ago. General North Atlantic airfreight rates dropped by around 30% between the first week of April to the last week of June.
“This brings these rates very close to the 2020 levels. If we just look at the Spot market, the rates are already lower in the last two weeks of June 2022 compared to 2020 by around 5% and the market has yet to bottom out. This will be causing some interesting soul-searching for airlines and forwarders.”
He added that will flights from Asia to the US and Europe remain relatively full, there could be a knock-on effect from the softening air cargo market? Carriers could deploy their freighters to other markets in Asia Pacific, Africa, or South America.
Niall van de Wouw added: “It will also be interesting to see the reaction of forwarders that have secured air cargo capacity directly with airlines or through charter brokers or ACMI providers because, in a softening market, more options are available. They were willing to pay a price for reliability and their own control, but they may now be considering how much cheaper it could now be to use commercial airline capacity. And, has the ‘cost of living’ crisis even started to kick-in yet?”
Rising cases of Covid will be another market concern, he said, as is the continuing struggle to tackle the people drain in the aviation and logistics industries. He pointed to reports of restrictions on freighter operations at Frankfurt Airport due to labour shortages as well as the recent study by IRU, the international road transport, which shows 2.6 million truck driver vacancies went unfilled in 2021 and forecasts a worsening situation in 2022.
Relatively low wages and poor working conditions for some workers on the frontline of supply chains, van de Wouw said, means “we won’t see this struggle disappear anytime soon.”
Cargo iQ launches air trucking pilot
The Cargo iQ airfreight organisation has initiated a pilot study to enhance visibility in airfreight trucking with Emirates Airlines, logistics operator Jan de Rijk and software company CargoHub.
It will test new Cargo iQ road feeder services specifications, ensuring that message standards work in practice.
CargoHub is providing the collaborative decision making platform, which provides information on truck movements to handling agents and airlines and provides capacity and cargo availability information to trucking companies.
The partners are currently performing various air cargo shipment scenarios with live shipments, while a second pilot will include additional participants.
Cargo iQ executive director, Lothar Moehle, said: “Ultimately, the RFS specification will be integrated into the Cargo iQ Master Operating Plan and the potential IT service solutions will be standardized to fit the Cargo iQ requirements, allowing members to choose one of the potential providers.”
US forwarder buys Ukraine’s Concord-Trans
US-based Logistics Plus has acquired Ukrainian-based freight forwarding and logistics company Concord-Trans.
Located in Kyiv, with a second office in Odesa, the purchase includes nearly a dozen in-country logistics professionals specializing in road, sea, and air freight transportation, customs clearance capabilities, and project cargo management.
Logistics Plus chief operating officer Yuriy Ostapyak, who is a Ukraine-born US citizen, said: “Logistics Plus remains committed to supporting Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people whose lives have been ripped apart by this war.
“The activities needed to rebuild Ukraine after the war will be significant. The acquisition of Concord-Trans gives Logistics Plus the additional in-country expertise needed to play a major role in providing the logistics solutions needed to support the long-term rebuilding efforts.”
Oleksandr Korzun, general manager of the Ukrainian company, added: “We are very pleased to join the Logistics Plus team. It is especially nice to do this at such a difficult time for our country. I am very grateful to Logistics Plus for the outstretched hand of help to our company and Ukraine as a whole. I hope that together we will do a lot of good for both the company and Ukraine.”
Before the acquisition of Concord-Trans, Logistics Plus already had a significant presence in Ukraine, with an office with nearly 50 people in Ivano-Frankivsk in the west of the country. Earlier this year, Logistics Plus established lpukrainerelief.com, which has raised over $660,000 to help Ukrainian refugees. The company has also been working with local organizations to warehouse and transport multiple containers of relief goods to the region.
DHL invests in UK e-commerce and electrification
DHL is to open a new 25,000sq m hub near Coventry Airport as part of a £482m (US580m) investment in its DHL Parcel UK operation.
It will also invest over £190m in ten new collection and delivery depots across the UK, and expansion of 20 existing sites to reduce the distance to customers, enabling further roll-out of electric vehicles and improving speed of service.
The new hub at Segro Park south of the airport will have a capacity for over 500,000 items per day and will offer secure bonded storage and Customs capabilities, a 48-door cross dock facility and automatic sorting of mixed sized and weight items.
New freighter helps Emirates keep abreast of cargo boom
Emirates SkyCargo has taken delivery of a further Boeing 777-F, allowing it to maintain its fleet total of the type at 11 after returning another leased aircraft.
The Mideast carrier says its global markets are booming and it has recently increased weekly freighter flights to China by four, adding more than 400 tonnes of capacity.
It also plans to increase frequencies to Hanoi and Sydney and increase capacity to Nairobi with a multi-stop route from Dubai to Eldoret in Kenya, Nairobi, Maastricht, Netherlands and Zaragoza, Spain before returning to Dubai.
Emirates also plans to convert 10 passenger 777s into freighters, boosting its fleet to 21 by the end of 2026.
Austrian forwarder opens Mexico office
Austrian-owned forwarder Cargo-partner has opened a new branch office in Mexico City offering air, sea and road transport services, including door-to-door solutions to and from the US, along with import and export customs clearance. In addition, the company plans to set up a local emergency desk providing round-the-clock availability for highly time-critical shipments.
The company had already established its first representation in Mexico in September 2021 with an Agents’ Liaison and Key Account Support Office in Puebla, serving one of its key customers from the automotive industry. With the new office in Mexico City, cargo-partner now extends local support to all its customers in the country.
Cargo-partner adds that it willo cooperate closely with its network of agents and partners across South America to further develop its services to and from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama and other countries in the region.
Rhenus opens dedicated life sciences centre
Rhenus Air & Ocean UK has launched a life sciences and healthcare department at a newly refurbished site in Ashford, Middlesex, close to London’s Heathrow airport.
The warehouse, the first of its kind in Europe for Rhenus Group is a one-stop-shop for all import and export logistics, offering a white glove service for temperature-controlled storage and distribution from end to end.
Led by industry experts Marie-Louise Watkins, head of life sciences and healthcare for North-West Europe, and Jayne Fox, UK life sciences and healthcare manager, it will serve a broad spectrum of customers in the life sciences and healthcare industries.
Watkins explains: “This is a brand-new venture for Rhenus in the UK that will deliver service excellence to our customers. With the patient at the forefront of our minds, our focus is on quality and compliance, providing our customers with industry expertise and solutions to ensure the safe and secure handling of pharmaceutical and medical products.”
She continues: “As we are a global company with more than 920 offices worldwide, including our wholly owned charter service company, we can assist our customers to de-risk their supply chains and unlock the potential of new customers and markets globally.”
Frank Roderkerk, CEO North-West Europe, adds: “Rhenus has a well-established track record in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, and the opening of this new department marks the next stage. Led by a stellar team, with the appointments of Marie-Louise and Jayne, we can say with confidence we have fast-tracked a world-leading offer for our customers in this complex, rapidly evolving sector.”