24 Sullivan


Issue 4 2015 - Freight Business Journal


///MALTA Fastbook speeds cargo shipping for Sullivan Maritime


Malta agent Sullivan Maritime has launched a new FastBook application designed to speed up and eliminate errors in booking trailers and other vehicles on to vessels operating


in and out of


Malta. Designed by brand design and web development company Mangion & Lightfoot to run on desktop, smartphone or tablet, the soſtware uses responsive web design and a custom-built application framework. Managing director Ernest describes


it as “a


professional platform that eliminates,


in greater part, staff


human error while recording client accountability, thereby saving time and costly errors in the interest of both the company and its clients”. Automatic e-mail confirmation of bookings provides an additional level of reassurance. FastBook replaces a manual system using multiple spreadsheets that was “extremely paper-intensive.” Staff


can see the status of


bookings for each voyage at a glance, and can review and approve


the booking of vehicles containing hazardous or temperature- sensitive goods, before using the application to automatically send loading lists to the ports and vessels. Customised reports are also available to staff to generate legally required documentation and provide information to the vessel operators. FastBook also generates lists of


all trailers to be loaded onto each voyage which are sent to the quay at the appropriate time, so that vehicles can be loaded promptly


Logistics is the way forward, says World Express


Business on Malta is pretty buoyant, say Laurence Brincat, logistics manager at


local agent,


World Express. While the civil war in Libya has had an effect – normal airfreight and road services are now non-existent and only limited shipping services are now operating


– business is pretty


buoyant on the island’s other trade lanes. “We’re also increasing our


courier volumes – even to Libya to some extent,”


says Brincat.


Onboard couriers are in fact the only feasible way of getting freight to the troubled country, using the limited air charter services that are still operating to some airports. But imports from Europe and


elsewhere to Malta are still quite healthy.


“This may be a small


island, but everything is imported,” explains World Express general manager, Edward Micallef. They are excited by the Maltese


Government’s plans to develop the island as a logistics hub, and would consider going into bonded warehouse operation if the opportunity arose. Micallef explains: “There is a strong drive to turn Malta into a hub. It is a very small place and the local market is what it is, so getting overseas clients for a transhipment operation would be a way forward. There is a push from government to attract this type of business.” While Customs has been


reluctant in the past to allow forwarders to set up their own bonds, this could change, he considers. Also, while plans for a customs


corridor between the airport and Freeport have been discussed for many years, a new government agency, Logistics Malta could be the catalyst to make things actually happen, Brincat suggests. Malta could offer traders many


advantages as a duty-free storage area. It has excellent shipping links - a service every day of the week from China, for example – and a generally willing and efficient workforce. VAT rates, for goods that are being put into free circulation in Malta, are among the lowest in Europe. “The only thing that needs


looking at are costs,” says Brincat. “Port charges here are relatively expensive and transhipment costs can cost an arm and a leg – so the Government needs to look into that.”


This perhaps mattered


less when Malta’s ports were handling only Malta cargo, but in transhipment logistics the island would be competing with Spain, Greece or Italy. That said, road haulage rates out


of Malta can be quite competitive, partly because the island doesn’t export very much in volume terms.


and in the right order. The system maintains a full audit


trail and Sullivan Maritime staff can manage the shipping schedule, review, edit and approve bookings. Sullivan Maritime operations


assistant, Corinne Muscat, says: “The system has better workflow


especially on peak days, reducing stress and helping efficiency. There are fewer telephone calls from clients, eliminating unaccountable verbal instructions.” Clients can view status of


bookings at a glance on their home page, create new bookings, review


historical information and manage their trailer fleet. The booking form is designed


to be as straightforward as possible and ensures that clients provide all the required information, which can be reviewed and edited right up to departure.


XPH gets airside at Malta Airport


Big things are happening for Italian-owned airfreight handler XPH and its local subsidiary, general sales agent XPH Malta. The latter’s manager of cargo sales, Norman Clews, says that XPH Italy has leased a 800sq m cargo shed with airside access – a very scarce commodity at Malta Airport – and will use it, together with some warehouse space currently operated by XPH Malta, to greatly ramp up its cargo handling operations at the airport. It offers a range of temperature-controlled facilities ranging from -15 degrees C to 8 degrees C and a large X-ray scanner, currently located in XPH Malta’s area, will be moved into XPH’s new airside facility. The airside shed, which was


previously used by an aerial survey company for maintaining its planes, will be fitted out with roller-beds, racking and high- speed shutters that can be closed an opened quickly, to control


access to the airside. The X-ray scanner would be


one of only two large machines available on the island, the other belonging to Air Malta. XPH’s is however more modern than the Air Malta one, says Clews, who points out that he was actually responsible for purchasing it several years ago when he was employed by Air Malta cargo. Meanwhile XPH Malta’s


general sales agency (GSA) business is doing well, says Norman Clews. Its list of carriers currently consists of Alitalia - with its strong network to Europe and some long haul destinations - Turkish Airlines – which has recently expanded its service to Malta - Brussels Airlines (strong in West Africa), Thomas Cook (which has useful widebody capacity during the summer) and Libyan Airlines – which admittedly is at rather a low ebb at the moment, especially following the closure of its


country’s main airport at Tripoli. “Libya is still a big question- mark,” says Clews. “It’s very on and off, but there is still some business.” Many of XPH Malta’s carriers


are ‘off line’ – that is, they do not serve Malta direct – so the GSA makes extensive use of the DHL freighter and also trucking services to reach other European hubs. There aren’t regular air cargo trucking services


to


and from Malta, so XPH Malta charters its own vehicles, which generally take the ferry from Malta to Genoa and drive up from there. New carriers that do not


compete with existing ones would always be welcome, adds Clews. “However, we don’t want to take on carriers that we cannot service and we need carriers that have regular traffic. For example, one area we don’t service is Australia, along with some places in the US.”


Airfreight: imports up, exports down


Airfreight exports fell quite sharply in 2014, according to


Malta Imports by air, at 8.2m kg, International


Airport statistics. The total for the year was 4.5m kilos compared with 5.5m in 2013. Local agent BAS Malta’s Ray Buttigieg attributed the fall to an increased tendency for pharmaceutical manufacturers to use seafreight. He added: “In 2012, virtually all the pharma shipments to the US were by air, but now it’s all going by ocean freight.”


were somewhat improved on 2013’s 7.6m kg however. Export airfreight has shown


slight improvement in the first three months of 2015 compared with the same period of 2014, up 0.1m kg to 1.2m kg. Imports in the same period were stable, at around 1.9m kg. Malta


Airports’ manager


of traffic development, Alex Cardona confirms that the trend for the past couple of years or so is for imports to increase but


exports to decrease (though all the while passenger traffic has been rising). There could be many reasons for the fall- off in airfreight exports and the relatively strong import performance, he says. One could be the major switch by the pharma industry (one of Malta’s major export industries these days) to seafreight. Another could be the collapse of the Libyan market, which was predominantly an export one.


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