Temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical specialist Envirotainer has opened three new testing chambers at its site in Rosersberg, near Stockholm. The company now offers six chambers including four medium-sized, one large that handles temperatures from -40°C to +60°C, and one small chamber for freezing conditions down to -70°C.
In addition to climate testing, Envirotainer has invested in an EMC chamber to verify that its containers continue to meet stringent electromagnetic compatibility standards. The company can currently certify emissions for its containers below one gigahertz, which speeds up the approval process and benefits customers with faster delivery of compliant solutions. Future plans include investment to enhance testing capabilities up to 6 GHz and potentially assess how radiation affects packaging solutions.
Digital insurance platform Breeze has completed its integration with the WebCargo by Freightos air cargo platform. Forwarders now have instant access to an insurance quote when they place a booking, removing the need to source insurance separately. It also reduces policy costs and booking times. Initially, Breeze’s integrated insurance offering in WebCargo will be available to forwarders in the US and UK.
Lufthansa Cargo has appointed Anand Kulkarni to the new position of head of global markets. He will lead and manage the sales regions and the digital sales department in regions including Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Europe, Middle East, Africa, South Asia & CIS, Americas and Asia Pacific.
Kulkarni was previously head of global expansion at General Logistics and prior to that spent 15 years with DHL in various management positions in Asia Pacific and EMEA. He was also part of DHL’s Global Aviation Strategy project which led to the creation of cargo carrier AeroLogic.
He holds a Master’s degree in Finance from the London Business School, UK, and a Master’s degree in Transportation Engineering from the University of Connecticut.
Air Charter Service helped move eight-month-old greater kudu, Linus, from a North American zoo to his new home in a conservation area in Chile. The greater kudu is a large woodland antelope, typically found throughout eastern and southern Africa, and male adults have distinctive spiral antlers that can grow as long as 1.8 metres. ACS Americas president Richard Thompson commented: “The zoo is a non-profit organisation, and so, in the past, had always used commercial services for any animal transport, but Linus’s crate was too tall for this, so they contacted ACS for a solution. We had to have careful consideration of Linus’s comfort and wellbeing and it was decided that two different aircraft, with a stopover in Miami, would be the best option.
“We sourced a Boeing 767 in Memphis with availability for the charter to Miami, and so arranged for Linus to be transported by road to Memphis Airport with the veterinarian and our customer, who were to travel with Linus all the way to his new home in Chile.” On arrival in Miami, ACS arranged for Linus to be transported to a USDA-approved facility for an overnight stay, ensuring his comfort and compliance with quarantine regulations. The following morning, he was chauffeured back to Miami airport and boarded a Boeing 747 bound for Santiago in Chile.
Canadian carrier WestJet has launched Campus’Air to provide students and university staff cost-effective shipping for personal effects. Qualifying students and employees of select Canadian universities will receive a 50% discount on published domestic freight rates via the WestJet Cargo contact center. Most shipments will arrive within 24 hours, subject to flight availability and connections.
The initiative currently applies to domestic shipments only, but WestJet Cargo is encouraging students whose universities are not currently featured to reach out for possible future inclusion.
Air Partner’s Cargo Division, flew more aid cargo operation to Gaza in early June. The 49 ton consignment moved on a single A330-200F charter flight from Dubai to Al Arish, Egypt and delivered overland due to the ongoing conflict.
As with previous flights, operating from international airports allowed for any permit and traffic right issues to be organized prior to the mission and Air Partner coordinated with a local agency and freight forwarder in the UAE. It said that the only challenge was that the shipment contained medicine, necessitating temperature control on board to keep the contents between +15 to +25C.
Air cargo is heading for a hot fourth quarter of rate increases after a sixth straight month of double-digit growth in June, says analyst Xeneta in its latest report. It warns that shippers and forwarders ill-prepared for this year’s peak season may find themselves “at the mercy of the market”.
Demand in June, measured in chargeable weight, was up 13% year-on-year, continuing the upward trend seen throughout the first half of 2024. In contrast, supply grew at its slowest pace in 2024, edging up only 3%. As a result, the global air cargo dynamic load factor – Xeneta’s measurement of capacity utilisation based on volume and weight of cargo flown alongside available capacity – increased by 4% pts year-on-year.
While June’s data, alongside previous months of annual growth, must be balanced against a weak comparison month in 2023, market players are now busy working out how to navigate the financial challenges and opportunities expected to present themselves at the end of 2024.
Chief airfreight officer at Xeneta, Niall van de Wouw, said: “June’s growth in demand was not surprising and we would expect to see a continuation of double-digit year-on-year growth in July and August because of low demand in the same months last year. The global machine is humming along nicely at this level – but this is likely the calm before the storm in terms of air freight rates.
“I’ve heard already that certain airlines and forwarders are thinking of implementing a peak season surcharge by the end of August. There’s a consensus it will be a hot fourth quarter for air cargo in many Asian markets. We expect lower demand growth year-on-year in the second half of 2024 because of such a strong Q4 2023 comparison, but if you haven’t arranged your Q4 capacity by now, you could be in for quite a ride. Shippers will pay more throughout Q4, the question is how much more?” he added.
As for demand versus supply in the last quarter of 2024, van de Wouw said: ‘The rules of the game are becoming clear” and contain strict compliance conditions. Shippers and forwarders with capacity agreements in markets that are ‘tight’ already, based on fixed volumes and a peak surcharge, will have reduced risk, while those dependent of the spot market can expect to pay “a hefty premium”.
Niall van de Wouw continued: “In 2023, the market did not anticipate the demand we saw. This year, it does. Shippers with capacity agreements in place will be better prepared, but if they go above the agreed upon threshold, they will face paying market rates. On the short-term spot market, this could mean 50% increases in rates above what we see now, once the market really heats up.
“Asset holders will be strategizing; how much capacity they are going to keep behind to sell at a premium when this happens. If you were in an airline’s shoes, you’d make sure you had a good chunk of capacity to sell at the premium likely to be paid on the short-term market,” van de Wouw stated.
The e-commerce boom, disruption to ocean freight in the Red Sea, and general improvements in global manufacturers’ activities were the three main pillars driving up global air cargo spot rates in June. These registered their largest increase of the year so far, climbing 17% year-on-year to US$2.62 per kg.
Measured month-on-month, the air cargo spot rate edged up 2% in June, as the 4% month-on-month growth of cargo demand continued to outpace capacity supply.
Zooming into the corridor level, Southeast Asia to Europe and the US markets saw the largest cargo spot rate increases in June, growing 14% versus May to $3.65 per kg and $5.32 per kg respectively. Northeast Asia to Europe and the US also experienced modest spot rate increases, up 5% to $4.26 per kg and 4% to $4.00 per kg.
Conversely, outbound China markets stalled as China to Europe and the US rates both dipped -1% to $4.09 per kg and $4.80 per kg respectively. The Europe to US spot rate fell -4% to $1.69 per kg due to the boost of belly capacity from summer passenger flights.
Looking ahead, much uncertainty remains. The latest manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index reported manufacturing production grew at a slower pace in June, with its subindex of new export orders showing the first decline in three months. This coincides with still-soft retail sales volumes in the US and Europe, despite cooling inflation.
Given the market turbulence and the potential for an air cargo rate boom in Q4, shippers are once again adjusting their preferred contract lengths.
In the second quarter of 2024, contracts lasting more than six months topped the list, with an increasing share of 28%. Shippers are shifting towards contracts of six months or more to avoid the anticipated extreme freight rate fluctuations during the upcoming year-end peak season.
The decrease in three-month contracts suggests unease among shippers about renegotiating rates just before the year-end peak season.
Freight forwarders appear to share the same view, also procuring less space in the spot market. In the second quarter of 2024, the proportion of volume procured in the spot market accounted for 42% of the total, showing a -3% pts reduction versus a year ago.
“As we head into the second half of the year, it might be now or never to consider longer-term contracts. With a mix of ocean shipping chaos, an upturn in manufacturing activities, and fear-of-missing-out, a delicate balance of short and long-term contracts is on everyone’s mind. Only time will tell, but whatever happens, you’re going to be paying a lot more to ship goods from Asia Pacific once September comes,” van de Wouw concluded.
Texas-based start-up company Aerolane is claiming that its system of gliders towed behind a powered aircraft could reduce airfreight costs by 65%. The company, founded in 2021, is currently testing a system of automated tow gliders, dubbed Aerocarts, towed behind powered turboprop light aircraft that, it says, mimics the formations adopted by migrating birds to reduce aerodynamic drag.
The tow gliders are fitted with electrically powered propellers that allow them to take off and land automatically and can boost payload significantly, while only marginally increasing fuel consumption in the lead aircraft.
So far, the tests have used a Beechcraft turboprop and a converted Pipistrel as the tow glider but Aerllane’s graphics suggest a rather larger tow glider, about the size of a medium-sized commercial freighter. It also envisages that multiple gliders could be towed behind a single powered aircraft.
Aerolane says that towed cargo gliders could be towed behind any powered plane, making it a ‘drop-in’ increase to the capacity of existing fleets of aircraft.
As well as the technical challenges that Aerolane faces, it would also need to convince regulators that towing heavy unpowered gliders would be safe in all weather conditions and that the te4chnogolgy could be counted on to land the gliders in every circumstance.
International Cargo Logistics (ICL) has nearly doubled the size of its cold storage facility at Heathrow Airport, from 1,650 to 3,300 sq ft.
ICL Site Unit 13 now consists of five chambers with varying temperature regimes, as well as X-ray and external temporary storage facilities (ESTF), and temperature-controlled vehicles.
It also offers inspection areas for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and a control point for Customs checks and clearances.
ICL is preparing to be BRC-accredited by the end of the summer, allowing it to deliver to a wider range of retailers and wholesalers.
ICL expanded its temperature-controlled airfreight capabilities in the UK when it launched a partnership with FreshLinc and has also opened an office in Rotterdam.
This year the company plans to expand into Southeast Asia, starting with a new office in Vietnam.
Air cargo software specialist Hermes Logistics Technologies has appointed Joe Hickey as global business development manager. He brings over a decade of experience working with enterprise clients across various sectors, including logistics, supply chain, travel and hospitality, education, automotive, and financial services and, before joining HLT, served as sales director at software as a service company Ratio.
