Freight upswing for Hong Kong Airport

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) continued to see upswings in freight in August. Cargo throughput grew by 8.8 percent to 366,000 tonnes. Flight movements had a 4 percent increase to 33,700, achieving a new monthly high for the second month in a row. 

The growth in cargo throughput was driven mainly by transshipments, which were up 22 percent from a year ago. During the month, cargo throughput to/from Southeast Asia and Mainland China improved most significantly compared to other key regions. 

“It is encouraging to see that HKIA has once again achieved new traffic records this month. We anticipate air traffic at HKIA to continue its growth trend during the remainder of the year in view of the upcoming travel peaks of the National Day golden week and Christmas,” C K Ng, acting CEO of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said. 

Over the first eight months of this year, HKIA handled 2.8 million tonnes of cargo and 258,105 flight movements, registering respective growth of 6.9 percent and 5.2 percent compared to the same period last year. On a 12-month rolling basis, cargo volume increased by 5.7 percent to 4.3 million tonnes. 

Flight movements recorded 5.6 percent year-over-year growth to 384,935. - 

Source: http://www.aircargoworld.com/Air-Cargo-World-News/2014/09/freight-upswing-hong-kong-airport/6766#sthash.qojEp06Q.dpuf

Continue

FRENCH GIANT'S ANTIDOTE TO 2M ALLIANCE

French container-shipping giant CMA CGM has formed an alliance with China Shipping Container Lines and Middle East's United Arab Shipping Co to share vessels on some of the world's busiest trade routes.

The new alliance, called Ocean Three, is expected to deploy about 150 ships that would move roughly 20 percent of all cargo between Asia and Europe and 13 percent and seven percent across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, respectively, people involved in the deal said, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The move comes after larger rivals Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) sealed a 10-year tie-up in July that is expected to save them billions of dollars in operating costs.

CMA CGM said the Ocean Three vessels would call "in all the biggest Asian, European and North American ports, using transhipment hubs common to the three partners."

CSCL said in a separate written statement that the agreement would be valid for two years after the start of operations and would be automatically extended if the parties involved have no objections.

Maersk Line, a unit of Danish conglomerate A P  Moller-Maersk, and Switzerland-based MSC are the world's two biggest container-shipping companies in terms of capacity. They announced their so-called 2M alliance in July.

Chinese regulators earlier rejected a wider tie-up called the P3 alliance, which would have also included CMA CGM, over concerns that the combined strength of its proposed members would threaten Chinese container carriers.

"Ocean Three is an antidote to 2M," said Jonathan Roach, a container analyst with London-based Braemar ACM Shipbroking. "It's in line with staying competitive with the 2M and it's a good deal, because they have invested in some of the biggest ships in the business and also brought a Chinese company into the fold."

Container shipping, which carries about 95 percent of the world's manufactured goods, has suffered for the past decade from overcapacity that has led to falling freight rates, which major operators have described as unsustainable. A plethora of smaller shipping companies regularly undercut freight rates from Asia to Europe and across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, hoping to stay in business until the industry recovers.

The 2M alliance would control a 35 percent market share in the Asia-to-Europe trade loop and 15 percent and 37 percent of the cargo moved across the transpacific and transatlantic routes, respectively. The 2M fleet would include Maersk's 20 Triple E vessels, the biggest and most efficient ships in the business, able to carry in excess of 18,000 containers each.

People familiar with the matter said MSC will also likely charter on long-term leases five Triple Es from Scorpio Group, based in New York and Monaco, and China's Bank of Communications Co.

UASC and CSCL have a combined 11 Triple Es on order. These vessels steam more slowly than most other ships to save fuel, slashing operational costs by 20 percent on each container shipped, compared with the average cost of existing vessels with less fuel-efficient engines.

Both alliances need clearance from US regulators. William Doyle, a commissioner for the US Federal Maritime Commission, said in an interview last week that he would consult with his Chinese counterparts at a meeting in November before the commission reaches a decision on the 2M alliance. The Ocean Three partners haven't yet filed with the commission.

The alliances are expected to gradually push smaller competitors out of the benchmark Asia-to-Europe route because their smaller and less fuel-efficient vessels won't be able to compete. This is expected to bring some stability in freight rates as supply, which is currently 15 percent above demand, will be more tightly regulated.

A P Moller-Maersk chief executive Nils Andersen said in a recent interview that overcapacity would take at least four years to be absorbed.

Source: http://www.cargonewsasia.com/en/news/detail?id=34226

Continue

Air Freight Volumes Show Solid Gains

 
Air freight volumes continue to show solid gains on a year ago, supported by economic improvements in some regions, says IATA in its latest quarterly cargo chartbook.
But high jet fuel prices and overall weakness in yields have kept cargo financial performance from improving so far this year, adds IATA.
“Emerging Asia trade volumes have rebounded after weakness in Q1 and consumers in the US are more optimistic. These developments have supported growth in demand for airfreighted commodities like semi-conductors,” says the report.
It continues: “However, in Europe consumer confidence and trade activity have weakened due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Business confidence continues to point to expansion, but rates of improvements are still weaker than 2013 year-end.”
And although jet fuel prices have eased slightly, they remain high at about $120/bb, the chartbook, adds: “On the positive side, although yields remain weak, overall they appear to be stabilizing and are up slightly on a year ago.
“This could help reduce downward pressure on cargo financial performance in months ahead. Consistent with more supportive demand conditions in some regions, cargo heads surveyed in July expect growth in traffic and yields to pick-up during the year ahead.”

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/air-freight-volumes-show-solid-gains.html

Continue

SriLankan Cargo moving towards the future with the adoption of e-air waybill system

Ushering a new era in Sri Lanka's airfreight industry, the national carrier's cargo arm, SriLankan Cargo signed e-AWB (air waybills) agreements with four of its top customers, September 10.
At a time when the industry is increasingly adopting sustainable and cost-effective practices to enhance operational efficiency, International Air Transport Association (IATA) views this as the first step towards a paper-free air cargo, involving fewer stakeholders.
The air waybill is the most important transportation document in the cargo operations, which contains the details of the shipper, consignee, airport of origin/destination, number of pieces, weight and the nature of goods.
Currently, the cargo industry relies heavily on paper documentation, which results in increasing freight costs and lengthening processing and transportation time. A freight shipment requires over 30 different paper documents and the paper air way-billing system requires that each shipment carries one such document whereas under the E-AWB system, an electronic contract between SriLankan Cargo and the freight forwarding customer replaces paper documentation.
The new system allows the airlines and freight forwarders to sign a single standard agreement once with IATA to enter into e-AWB agreements with all parties, without having to sign numerous bilateral agreements.
Initiated by the IATA, as a progressive solution, E-AWB avoids repeating data keying and reduces cargo delays due to missing or illegible paper AWBs. It also allows one to detect errors prior to the submission of physical freight, access Real Time AWB information and track status of the shipments.
Absence of paper usage eliminates the cost of purchasing and printing of paper, space for storage and archiving and noticeably reduces the waiting time for processing papers. In terms of data safety, E-AWB has been proven the more reliable option as the automated system facilitates error detection and cuts down the risk of losing documents.


Source :  www.colombopage.com/archive_14B/Sep13_1410594198CH.php

Continue