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 most unusual and surprising rules and scenarios that exist across the shipping market. These go to show just how varied – and sometimes unexpected – countries’ customs regulations can be.”
Customs procedures are in constant flux, says Schoenfelder, and each product has different rules associated with it, adding that the European Commission’s market access database is a good starting point.
“We appreciate that it can be tricky to get to grips with each and every export rule, so you’ll need to plan on a country-by-country basis, and source a trusted resource. Our selection of unexpected regulations will give you a flavour of the kind of rules that are out there.”
Edible insects are trending – but imports of such insects are not yet allowed in all European Union countries due to variations in food safety rules. Belgium approved 10 insects for human consumption in 2014, and in November the first insect meat offers were available in supermarkets and restaurants. 
Amateur sports in France are becoming increasingly regulated compared to other European countries. France no longer allows the import of creatine, a product which helps with the building up of muscles.
As the sixth biggest wine-consuming country in the world, you might be forgiven for thinking that it would be easy to export wine from other European Union member states to the UK. But that’s not the case. When shipping alcohol from an EU member state to a private individual in the UK, there are strict rules that apply.
There’s no use crying over spilt milk, if you’re exporting to China. While you can ship baby formula to private individuals, the quantity is limited to six cans for personal use.
You must register as an exporter with the Chinese authorities. Other parties, such as the manufacturer, have to be registered and obtain approval from the Chinese government as well.
Adds Schoenfelder: “Rules and regulations change all of the time. So even if you’ve exported to a country once, do not assume the rules will remain the same six months later.
“Not all products are what they seem. For instance, one of our customers wanted to ship rubber fingers from France to the US. But as they were to be used as part of poultry feather removal machinery, they were not classified as glove parts.
“The correct customs classification was “machinery for the preparation of meat or poultry”.
Shipping chewing gum into Singapore is prohibited, although exceptions are made for dental hygiene and medicinal purposes under licence.
And, if you’re looking to send zip fasteners to India, you’ll be required to state the length, teeth material and colour of the zips.

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/customs-tips-for-the-unwary-shipper.html

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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 now than for a long time, as we learned to live with the "new normal" of positive but weak growth of 2% or so.

But the US economy is somewhat under threat from a global environment that continues to sputter. Growth in Europe has been weak or even negative, with a real and justified fear of deflation. Despite massive stimulus, Japan's economy has again stalled, and it is responding with even more massive stimulus. China's growth has slowed to about 7%, still hefty by most standards, but trending down and putting a drag on other countries and most notably commodity and input prices, good for many but not all and perhaps a sign of weakness.

The first half of the year was also overshadowed by geopolitical events that seemed possible to ignite into real conflict, but luckily mostly did not. That included Russia's invasion of Crimea and Ukraine, tensions in the South China Sea between an aggressive China and many of its neighbors over control of ocean and land, the seeming likelihood Israel would attack Iran's nuclear facilities and more.

But by year's end most of those tensions had died down but certainly not out, with some renewed risks for 2015, as I will discuss below.

With that high-level overview, here are what I view as the four key trends or themes relative to supply chain in 2014:

The Collapse of Oil Prices and the Rise of US Fracking: It is almost hard to believe what is now occurring, with US oil prices falling to below $50 per barrel and global prices just a few bucks above that, down around 50% since the middle of the year. Not much talk of Peak Oil now, is there? Who would have ever guessed, in the absence of a deep recession.

There are many causes, from a strong dollar to weak global demand, but key is surging US production that has taken it to the top of the oil producer list due to the magic of fracking. That has added millions of barrels per day to the global supply. Indeed, Saudi Arabia is said to have decided not to reduce production to drive prices back up because it actually hoped they would fall below where it was economical for US frackers to keep production going.

This astounding turn has more ramifications than we can list here, but let's start with some key ones. The financial pressure the oil price fall is putting on countries such as Russia, Iran, Venezuela and others is good to see, at one level, but could cause them to lash out in some form to take their citizens' minds off all the bad economic news. This is a real danger the longer this lasts.

It was again a very interesting year in supply chain for 2014 - but aren't they all these days?

This week, I will summarize what I feel are the most important key themes and trends of the supply chain year that was. Next week in our OnTarget newsletter, we'll publish our popular timeline of key events over the past year. In two weeks (after a pause for a summary of next week's National Retail Federation conference) I will be back for a review of the year in numbers and graphs.

So let's get right to it, starting with the really big picture.

 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 now than for a long time, as we learned to live with the "new normal" of positive but weak growth of 2% or so.

But the US economy is somewhat under threat from a global environment that continues to sputter. Growth in Europe has been weak or even negative, with a real and justified fear of deflation. Despite massive stimulus, Japan's economy has again stalled, and it is responding with even more massive stimulus. China's growth has slowed to about 7%, still hefty by most standards, but trending down and putting a drag on other countries and most notably commodity and input prices, good for many but not all and perhaps a sign of weakness.

The first half of the year was also overshadowed by geopolitical events that seemed possible to ignite into real conflict, but luckily mostly did not. That included Russia's invasion of Crimea and Ukraine, tensions in the South China Sea between an aggressive China and many of its neighbors over control of ocean and land, the seeming likelihood Israel would attack Iran's nuclear facilities and more.

But by year's end most of those tensions had died down but certainly not out, with some renewed risks for 2015, as I will discuss below.

With that high-level overview, here are what I view as the four key trends or themes relative to supply chain in 2014:

The Collapse of Oil Prices and the Rise of US Fracking: It is almost hard to believe what is now occurring, with US oil prices falling to below $50 per barrel and global prices just a few bucks above that, down around 50% since the middle of the year. Not much talk of Peak Oil now, is there? Who would have ever guessed, in the absence of a deep recession.

There are many causes, from a strong dollar to weak global demand, but key is surging US production that has taken it to the top of the oil producer list due to the magic of fracking. That has added millions of barrels per day to the global supply. Indeed, Saudi Arabia is said to have decided not to reduce production to drive prices back up because it actually hoped they would fall below where it was economical for US frackers to keep production going.

This astounding turn has more ramifications than we can list here, but let's start with some key ones. The financial pressure the oil price fall is putting on countries such as Russia, Iran, Venezuela and others is good to see, at one level, but could cause them to lash out in some form to take their citizens' minds off all the bad economic news. This is a real danger the longer this lasts.
The big drop in oil and most other commodities increases the still very present possibility of devastating deflation in Europe, Japan and elsewhere, a concern even in the US.

Many commenters have noted that the falling energy prices are a real threat to many Green supply chain and clean energy programs, as the economic landscape has been turned on its head. It was easy to reduce CO2 emissions when the ROI was also strong, but the numbers will often be very different now.

Will it last? Who knows. But if these low prices persist, just as we spoke about the need to rethink supply chain network designs considering that oil would stay at $100 per barrel or more for the long run, should not that same thinking apply on the way down too? Maybe the companies that did little to change their networks in the face of rising oil prices will have the last laugh on this one for a few years.

Continued OmniChannel Madness: OmniChannel developments continued to come fast and furious, so much so that it was hard to keep track of them, even for us here at SCDigest that do it for a living.

Amazon by itself had a series of tests and innovations, including piloting same day deliveries with commercial taxies in San Francisco and rolling out a new immediate delivery service (Amazon Prime Now) in Manhattan using bike couriers. It launched a new line of private label goods that could be a threat to branded consumer package goods companies, announced plans to aggressively expand its grocery business to new markets and much more. "Amazon shows us what is possible," a Walmart exec said.

"Click and collect" emerged as something of a "killer app" for ecommerce, in which customers place orders online and the goods are either delivered to lockers or to a drive through type location at a retail store where merchandise is loaded by a store employee into the consumer's trunk. Walmart is betting big on this strategy, hoping this and same day deliveries using its vast store network will give it an advantage Amazon can't match.

DHL is testing drone deliveries in Europe, Macy's is counting on RFID to empower inventory accuracy for store-based efulfillment, UBER is setting up efulfillment capabilities, etc.

And don't be confused that all this omnichannel madness applies only to retailers.

Acute US Driver Shortage: After appearing a bit like the boy who cried Wolfe in previous years, 2014 is the year the driver shortage really started to hit home. There was a new sense of urgency among trucking companies describing the situation, and nearly all - some substantially - raised driver pay during the year.

But it wasn't nearly enough, as an expanding economy drove freight volumes to record levels, while capacity was capped first by carrier strategy, then by a lack of drivers. So, we saw substantial increases in rates for the last nine months of the year.

According to Cass Information Systems, year over year increases in truckload rates in March through November, respectively, were 6.0%, 5.7%, 5.8%, 5.2%, 7.2%, 7.0%, 6.7%, 7.3%, and 6.5%. This cost nightmare for shippers is being partially offset by falling oil prices, but diesel costs were down only 17% in 2014, much less than gasoline, for a variety of reasons.

If the economy does show strong growth in 2015, watch out.

US Port Chaos: Service at US ports was lousy for much of the year, in some East Coast ports more in the first half of the year, West Coast ports in the second half.

A common theme: chassis mismanagement, of all things. As the carriers exited the low-margin business in recent years and sold it off to third parties on both coasts, chaos generally ensued. It usually was not so much a matter of the total number of chassis at a port, but rather where they were located.

This should be an easy problem to solve, and appears to have ameliorated on the East Coast, with a new program coming at LA/Long Beach soon.

On the West Coast, the chassis issue plus increased volumes plus what sure look like work slowdowns by the ILWU over the lack of a new contract have led to huge congestion and long delays basically since October, causing something of a nightmare for importers.

Those are my key 2014 supply chain themes. We'll have our full 2014 timeline next week in OnTarget, but the top events for me include: workers at a VW plant in Chattanooga vote against unionization in major blow to UAW; Zebra Technologies surprisingly announces it will acquire the radio frequency systems and bar code scanning business from Motorola Solutions; China blocks formation of the P3 network of ocean carriers; US manufacturing finally exceeds 2007 levels in July; UPS and FedEx implement full dimensional weighing programs at year's end; and the NLRB approves "microwave" elections and other changes in December in the biggest change to labor law in decades in a pro-union move.

Source : http://www.scdigest.com/assets/FIRSTTHOUGHTS/15-01-09.php?cid=8860&ctype=content

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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 Cargo Aircraft), operated by Asky Airlines, was landing at the Ghanaian national airport from the Togolese capital Lome when the accident took place at 11:05 a.m. local time.

The cause of the accident is still unknown and the country's emergency teams are on the site of the accident, it said.

The teams include the Ghana National Fire Service; National Disaster Management Organization; Ghana Armed Forces; Ghana Police, National Security; Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and the GAC.

The statement assured that there were normal operations going on at the airport and flights were "operating on schedule".

Flights at the airport were rescheduled on Friday due to poor visibility as a result of the Harmattan (North-Easterly cold Winds) with its hazy weather.

On June 2, 2012, an Allied Air Cargo plane overshot the runway at the KIA, killing 10 passengers in a commercial passenger bus adjacent the airport.

Source :  http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/150110/ethiopian-air-cargo-plane-skids-runway-at-ghanas-kotoka-airp

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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’ Council, adding: “We can only be happy that the biggest air cargo carrier in the world has decided to make the system much simpler.”
Lucas Kuehner, global head of air freight at forwarder Panalpina said: “We welcome any simplification of the pricing structure and have long since asked airlines to rid themselves of surcharges.
“This is about going back to basics and what our customers want since they look at all-in cost when making freight decisions. So we appreciate Emirates’ step and encourage other carriers to do the same.”
Robert Keen, director general of The British International Freight Association (BIFA) welcomed the Dubai-based carrier’s move as "a step in the right direction, provided it leads to the transparency that freight forwarders require".
He added that he felt that the move should: "provide simpler and more transparent cost structures, something that freight forwarders have been calling for, having faced various surcharges with questionable names and purposes from shipping lines and airlines.
"Perhaps Emirates Skycargo is responding to previous comments that freight forwarders stop accepting at face value opaque and unjustified surcharges."
The new structure will be implemented in Europe from February, and for the rest of the Emirates worldwide network from March.
An Emirates SkyCargo spokesperson said: “For some time now, many of our customers have asked for the introduction of an all-inclusive rate structure.
“We have therefore decided to introduce a new rate structure which will be a combination of a weight related rate and the current fuel and security surcharge. We believe that this new structure will be simpler, and is a positive development in the way tariffs are applied”.
Van Doesburg warned: “If only one airline will push all-in rates in the market then it is not a success, so we need more airlines to follow the Emirates example.”
He added that the ending of surcharges was important because “it probably makes the air cargo market much more stable, with fewer fluctuations.”
Van Doesburg continued: “For the shippers it will make cost more predictable because, at the moment, they cannot tell their financial people what they need for the transport of a certain amount of goods. It will also bring comparability.
“The security and fuel surcharges are from the past and removing them is the way to go.  Why do you need to have a special surcharge for security, when that issue has been dominant for more than a decade?
"And as for fuel, the airlines should be able to determine their rates for a longer period of time with a fixed rate. That is what shippers want and what they already get from the integrators.”

Source :  http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/thumbs-up-for-emirates-all-in-freight-rates.html

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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 goods are being traded internationally and that is fuelling the growth in air freight. It was clear in November that most of that growth is being captured by carriers in the dynamic and relatively business-friendly Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions," said Tony Tyler, IATA's Director General and CEO.

Demand as measured in freight tonne kilometres (FTK) grew by 3.3 per cent over the previous November.

"This year we expect air freight markets to expand by 4.5 per cent, outpacing projected growth in world trade (4 per cent). But that optimism is tempered by the many macro-economic and political risks that continue to impact trade flows," he said.

"The air cargo industry enters 2015 by solid growth trend. To turn the growth into sustained stronger profitability, the air cargo industry faces the challenge of investing in more efficient and higher quality processes and facilities that will give it the winning edge over its competitors," he said.

World Cargo Symposium would be organised in Shanghai from 10-12 March, whose main agenda will be enhancing air freight's competitiveness. The theme for which would be 'Improving the Customer Experience'.

Source : http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/demand-for-global-air-freight-likely-to-rise-by-4-5-pc-in-2015-115010900499_1.html

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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 western US ports play a role? Judge for yourselves: Air cargo revenues ex-US dropped by nine per cent month-over-month (MoM) across the Pacific.
“From Asia Pacific to North America, however, we recorded an impressive 17 per cent growth in revenues MoM, thanks also to a nine per cent yield increase.”
WorldACD, using primary data supplied from airlines, said that November did not disappoint for global air cargo, although year-over-year (YoY) growth slowed compared to earlier months.
“The lower figure of 4.3 per cent volume growth was influenced by the fact that, in 2013, November had shown a large jump over October. Worldwide November-yields again topped those for October, this time by growing 1.7 per cent (in US$).
“Yet, people predicting declining yields were also right: worldwide yield went down by four per cent YoY. Interestingly, yield excluding surcharges dropped less, a sign that changing fuel surcharges may begin to have an influence.”
After Asia Pacific, the African and Latin American markets were the next best performers, with YoY volume growth of over seven per cent.
Latin America “crowned its achievement” by keeping yields almost level. Europe suffered with revenues declining by more than five per cent, both MoM and YoY, though YoY revenue and yield increased when measured in Euros.
Middle East & South Asia (MESA) further consolidated its second position in pharmaceuticals (after Europe), by showing a YoY revenue growth in this category of 17 per cent, with slightly climbing yields.
In the perishables markets, Africa “easily outperformed” the other origin regions, registering a 15 per cent revenue growth,  versus a combined growth for the other regions of around five per cent, said WorldACD.
According to the research house, smaller forwarders performed “a bit better” YoY than the world’s largest. The top-five forwarders: DHL Global Forwarding, Kuehne + Nagel, DB Schenker, Expeditors and Panalpina, “did not fare too well”.
At the other end of the range, Hellmann and Fashion Logistics did particularly well, whilst large Asian forwarders, especially Yusen, Sinotrans, Beijing Global Sky Horse and CTS Intl “had a ball” thanks to the strong growth ex-Asia Pacific.

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/us-port-chaos-boosts-ex-asia-pacific-air-cargo-revenues.html

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Sodexi opens Paris airport warehouse

Aéroports de Paris and Sodexi have opened a 7,600 sq m express freight warehouse at Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport.
The warehouse, with a €22m investment, will be used to manage and process flows of air freight and mail for express specialist Sodexi, which is 65 per cent  owned by Air France-KLM and 35 per cent by Geopost.
Construction of the logistics building was completed in autumn 2014, following the signing of a long-term building lease in October 2012. The new facility can process up to 55,000 tonnes per year from over 160,000 commercial flights at CDG.
Jérôme Balbi, managing director of Sodexi, said: “With the new express hub, located right next to the passenger terminals, Sodexi has acquired a modern, high- performance facility, ideal for processing flows of international express freight, particularly e-commerce-related.
“Located just a few minutes from the aircraft parking stands, we will be able to offer our customers extremely rapid transit times between two commercial flights, just like passengers making a connection at Paris-Charles de Gaulle.
“A parcel collected at the end of the previous afternoon in Hong Kong will arrive in Paris early in the morning, and can be connected straight away to a flight to southern Europe or Scandinavia, for example, with delivery in the early afternoon.”

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/sodexi-opens-paris-airport-warehouse.html

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AF-KLM adds combi flights to Dubai

Air France KLM Martinair Cargo will this month add three B747 Combi frequencies from Amsterdam Airport-Schiphol (AMS) to and from Dubai International Airport (DXB).
Starting 10 January,  the European carrier says that the upgrade offers “increased flexibility to carry main deck commodities to our hubs, Dubai International Airport (DXB), and to Al Maktoum Airport (DWC) which our freighters already use.”
The carrier states that it will be the “only scheduled airline” to offer 21 main deck pallet positions a week directly to Dubai International Airport.

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/af-klm-adds-combi-flights-to-dubai.html

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Kerry Logistics boosts network

Asia-based Kerry Logistics has bought a controlling stake in Dubai’s Able Logistics Group and a majority stake in the sea and air arms of Canada’s Total Logistics Partner (TLP). Able Logistics is an international freight forwarder with offices across UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and China.
Total Logistics Partner Ocean Consolidators and Total Logistics Partner Air Express are two freight forwarding companies focused on the Asia-Canada trade. The acquisition has added Montreal and Toronto to Kerry Logistics’ worldwide network.
William Ma, group managing director of Kerry Logistics said: “These two acquisitions complement our existing international freight forwarding network and marked further inroads in our international expansion. With the addition of TLP, Kerry Logistics now operates in four countries in the Americas, comprising US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.
“The investment in Able Logistics Group forms an instrumental part of our long-term strategy to build a global network across six continents. It expands our capabilities in the Middle East and to connect globally through a round-the-clock transit hub linking Asia to Middle East, Europe and Africa.”  

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/kerry-logistics-boosts-network.html

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Cologne cargo up 2% in 2014

Cologne Bonn Airport saw record air cargo growth in 2014, handling 753,000 tonnes, a two per cent increase on 2013.
The German airport handled 9.5m passengers in 2014 – a “significant rise” over prior year.
“2014 has exceeded our expectations. We have developed better than the German passenger market, partially with growth rates above five per cent,” says Michael Garvens, chairman of the management board of Flughafen Köln/Bonn
He added: “Without the numerous strikes we would even have done a little better, but all in all this is a very positive development.”
The “moderate” growth in air cargo can be put down to the economic recovery, says Garvens: “Freight has recovered somewhat from its low in 2013, but could not quite keep pace with the passenger traffic.”

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/cologne-cargo-up-2-in-2014.html

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Indian air cargo export surge hit by US$ yield decline

India’s booming air cargo market has registered a 13.5 per cent surge in outgoing volumes since 2011, although coupled with a “dismal yield” fall of 20 per cent in US$, says research house WorldACD.
The Netherlands-based consultancy, which uses primary data from the airlines themselves, said that India’s yield change looked a lot better in local currency Rupees, with a six per cent increase.
Incoming volume slipped slightly, but incoming yields fell considerably less than the worldwide average.
The UK, Germany and the UAE together take 25 per cent of all traffic from India, while Hong Kong, Germany and China account for around 40 per cent of all air cargo into India, states WorldACD.
The biggest growth sectors ex-India are live animal shipments (+243 per cent), perishables (+83 per cent) and pharmaceuticals (+67 per cent). Perishables boosted its share of the total from 12 per cent to 19 per cent, while pharma grew its share from six per cent to nine per cent.
“Whereas the bulk of the pharma goes to North America (Europe is second, Africa third), the best perishables and live animals destination is Middle East & South Asia (MESA). Incoming traffic shows similar growth figures for the three categories mentioned.
“Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai count for 70 per cent of India’s outgoing cargo. The fastest growing cities in general are Hyderabad and Kochi. Bangalore and Hyderabad show the highest growth in pharmaceuticals.” 
According to WorldACD, Middle East airlines profit most from India’s growth, followed by airlines from Europe. Asia Pacific-based carriers are losing market share, particularly in the markets from India to Europe.
WorldACD says that forwarder sector shows “great volatility” in the Indian market.
“Among the large forwarders, growth figures of 40 per cent and above are just as normal as big declines in market share. Expeditors, Panalpina, GAC Logistics and Damco are growing fast, mostly at the expense of regional forwarders, but certainly also hurting a number of the world’s largest "

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Transportation Logistics Trouble Wind Energy Industry

There are now more than 45,000 wind turbines in operation in the U.S., and the installed capacity continues to grow quickly. The wind energy industry is, however, experiencing logistical issues that impact the bottom line and wind energy deployment.Although policy uncertainty continues to plague the renewable energy industry, overcoming transportation issues are a tangible way to help bolster wind energy growth by lowering costs and reducing delays.

Source :  http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/01/transportation-logistics-trouble-wind-energy-industry/

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Indian govt extends 24x7 Customs clearance at more ports

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), under Department of Revenue, India’s Ministry of Finance, has issued a circular announcing extension of 24x7 Customs clearance facility at 13 more airports in respect of all export goods and at 14 more sea ports in respect of specified import and export goods.   “Board has decided that with effect from 31.12.2014 the facility of 24x7 Customs clearance for specified imports viz goods covered by ‘facilitated’ Bills of Entry and specified exports viz factory stuffed containers and goods exported under free Shipping Bills will be made available, at 18 sea ports,” CBEC said in its circular.   The sea ports are: Chennai, Cochin, Ennore, Gopalpur, JNPT, Kakinada, Kandla, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Marmagoa, Mundra, Okha, Paradeep, Pipavav, Sikka, Tuticorin, and Vishakapatnam.   “Board has also decided that with effect from 31.12.2014 the facility of 24x7 Customs clearance for specified imports viz goods covered by facilitated Bills of Entry and all exports viz goods covered by all Shipping Bills will be made available, at 17 air cargo complexes,” the circular said.   The 17 complexes are: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Cochin, Calicut, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nashik, Thiruanantapuram, and Vishakapatnam.   CBEC said related issues such as availability of required personnel, keeping open the delivery gates 24x7 at air cargo complexes etc have been resolved.   “It is expected that an effective 24x7 Customs clearance facility will greatly facilitate trade and reduce transaction cost,” the circular said.   http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=169807

 

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China approves three new foreign courier firms

China has permitted three new overseas courier firms to offer domestic delivery services, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday, as part of government pledges to further open up the fast-growing market.
The State Post Bureau has approved Yamato (China) Transport Co Ltd, the China unit of Yamato Holdings Co Ltd, OCS Overseas Courier Service (Shanghai) Co Ltd and Kerry Logistics Co Ltd, Xinhua said.
The government said in September it would ease restrictions on foreign couriers seeking to deliver packages nationwide.
Express parcel delivery is booming in China, thanks to a surge in e-commerce. The Chinese market, however, is highly fragmented and competition is stiff.
There are currently more than 35,000 express delivery companies operating in the country. Some can ship packages for hundreds of miles as quickly as within the same day, and for as little as 2 yuan (32 US cents), compared to the U.S. Postal Service, which on average charges at least $10 for a domestic delivery.
FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service Inc already operate express parcel delivery services in China.

Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/01/china-freight-idUSL3N0UG0U420150101

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Canada bans lithium metal cargo on airliners

Canada is to ban transporting lithium metal batteries as cargo on passenger flights.
Earlier this year, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted a ban on the shipment of lithium metal batteries as cargo aboard passenger aircraft after growing concern that if ignited, they can cause any nearby batteries to overheat and catch fire.
While most passenger airlines in Canada have already voluntarily banned lithium metal batteries as cargo, the ban comes into effect on January 1, 2015, to comply with the ICAO ban. It will apply to all shipments of lithium metal batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft within Canada.
It does not apply to batteries already contained in or packed with equipment, but only to those packaged and shipped separately. The ban will not affect travellers’ personal devices such as laptops and smartphones, which use lithium ion batteries.
The United States has already banned the transportation of lithium metal batteries as cargo on passenger flights.

Source : http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2014/12/federal-government-bans-shipments-of-lithium-metal-batteries-on-passenger-flights/

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