Ethiopian Cargo adds Brussels B777F quartet

Ethiopian Cargo has returned to Brussels airport with four B777 freighters per week to Addis Ababa. The freighters will provide onward connections out of Africa, direct to Dubai, Shanghai  and Hong Kong. The flights will carry mainly flowers, while exports will be general freight. Kuehne & Nagel and DHL Starbroker have actively contributed to bringing the...

Continue

Panalpina goes into Africa again

Freight forwarder Panalpina has opened new bases in Morocco and Kenya as part of a drive to expand its presence in Africa, a continent in which it was once a dominant player in the oil and gas project sector. Offices in Casablanca in Morocco and Nairobi, Kenya, and will spearhead a drive for energy and infrastructure business. Regional chief executive for the Middle...

Continue

FIATA welcomes all-in freight rates

FIATA has joined the air cargo industry chorus calling for the elimination of fuel and security surcharges in airline freight rates. The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations said: “The simplification of rate structures will be a significant benefit to forwarders and shippers alike. "Forwarders have for a very long time desired these surcharges be removed as they are opaque and complex and thereby making it difficult to quote a definite price for air cargo transportation,...

Continue

Vietnam and Cambodia lead air cargo surge for emerging markets

Asia’s Vietnam and Cambodia provided the fastest-growing airfreight trade lanes between emerging and developed markets. US-Vietnam volumes surged 42.7 per cent by volume, and Cambodia-European Union airfreight increased by 41.9 per cent. That was one finding from the comprehensive 2015 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index, now in its sixth year, a data-driven...

Continue

IAG’s Cargo Connector is going to San Francisco

  IAG Cargo has extended its Cargo Connector service to San Francisco, the tenth city for the local pick-up service. It offers freight forwarders at or near the airport a free collection for consignments up to 300 kilos and IAG Cargo estimates that 95 per cent of its customers are based within a five-mile radius of the airport. This means...

Continue

TNT helps customers cut the carbon

TNT is offering CO2-neutral delivery of all express domestic consignments in Germany at no additional charge. The carrier measures how much CO2 is produced in transporting consignments and then ‘neutralises’ them with an equivalent amount of CO2 credits. TNT uses CO2 credits only from renewable energy projects that meet Gold Standard requirements. External auditor...

Continue

Shanghai sets freight record

Shanghai Pudong International Airport has set a new cargo record, handling a total of 1.5m tonnes of freight in 2014, with growth of 16.15 per cent year-on-year. Shanghai Pudong International Airport Cargo Terminal Co Ltd. (PACTL) - a joint venture handling operation between Shanghai Airport, Lufthansa Cargo and JHJ Logistics Management – says its domestic cargo...

Continue

China lifts price controls on 24 commodities, services

China will lift controls on prices of 24 commodities and services, said the National Development and Reform Commission on Sunday. Market will decide the price of tobacco leaves, the last agricultural product to be freed from government price control, but a minimum price will be set to protect farmers, said a statement on the commission website. Prices of railway bulk cargo, parcels and privately funded cargo and passenger transport will also be allowed to float. Railway passenger and cargo prices...

Continue

French forwarders slam fuel surcharges

French freight forwarders have called on airlines to end separate fuel surcharges, which they argue are no longer relevant. TLF Overseas, the French freight forwarders organisation representing 95 per cent of general air cargo transactions, expressed its “incomprehension” of a situation that requires “more transparency and real positive economic signals from the carriers”. The strongly worded statement comes after Middle East airline Emirates SkyCargo last week confirmed that it is...

Continue

Customs tips for the unwary shipper

Customs regulations can be a minefield for the unwary shipper, be it edible insects in Europe, chewing gum in Singapore and rubber gloves in the US. So parcels giant FedEx has come up with eight “surprising” Customs rules for small businesses setting out to conquer the world of exports. It was compiled by Harald Schoenfelder, managing director global trade services for FedEx Express Europe, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa. Says Schoenfelder: “We decided to compile some of the...

Continue

The Year in Supply Chain 2014

 The economy underlying our supply chains started weak in the US and ended strong, with Q1 real GDP falling 2.1% - largely blamed on bad weather - and ending with signs of strength, with the latest estimate for Q3 GDP growth of a robust 5%. It does feel better economically right...

Continue

Ethiopian Air cargo plane skids off runway at Ghana's Kotoka Airport

Ethiopian Air cargo plane skids off runway at Ghana's Kotoka Airport ACCRA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- An Ethiopian Airlines cargo aircraft on Saturday skidded off the runway at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on landing, Ghanaian airport officials said. "All three crew people on board the aircraft survived the accident and are currently responding to treatment at the 37 Military Hospital," the Ghana Airport Company (GAC) said in a statement. The Boeing 737, ET-AQV (Ethiopian Airline...

Continue

Thumbs up for Emirates' all-in freight rates

Shippers and forwarders have welcomed Emirates SkyCargo’s move to introduce an all-inclusive freight rate that does away with separate pricing components based on weight/volume plus fuel and security surcharges. “It is the best start to 2015 that I could imagine,” said Joost van Doesburg, airfreight policy manager with the European Shippers’...

Continue

Demand for global air freight likely to rise by 4.5 pc in 2015

Demand for global air freight grew 4.2 per cent in November last year as compared to same period in 2013 and is expected to rise by 4.5 per cent this year, driven by growth in cross-border trade, International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. The most significant growth was recorded by carriers in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions at 5.9 per cent and 12.9 per cent respectively. Carriers in these regions captured the vast majority of the global increase (93 per cent). "More...

Continue

US port chaos boosts ex-Asia Pacific air cargo revenues

Inbound US west coast container port congestion provided a November boost for transpacific air cargo revenues out of Asia to North America, although ex-US revenues fell. WorldACD’s latest monthly market data found that the transpacific was the best of the large markets in November. The Netherlands-based research house posed the question: “Did the problems in the...

Continue