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News Desk


Tilbury weekend rail link to be permanent


OVERLAND The two-way rail service that provides a regular weekend link for container movements between the port of Tilbury and the port of Grangemouth has been made permanent, following a successful trial, it has been announced by Forth Ports in partnership with Direct Rail Services and Eddie Stobart.


IN THE AIR Air cargo traffic, measured in freight tonne kilometers (FTKs), decreased by 4.8% year-on-year in June, according to IATA data. Year-to-date demand is down 3.6% year-on-year. The further decline in traffic from the previous month suggests the air cargo industry is still in the doldrums as political economic volatility slows worldwide trade.


IAG Cargo indicates in its Cargo Next report that freight forwarders are optimistic about the direction of the air cargo industry. The global survey of the perceptions of more than 400 freight forwarders in 47 countries also identifies key trends and expectations for the next 12 months.


ON THE OCEAN A number of container lines have recently announced measures to discourage shippers from mis- declaring hazardous cargoes, which is a practice strongly suspected as being either the cause of, or contributing to, the spate of containership fires in recent months. Whilst agreeing that safety is paramount, FIATA voiced concerns regarding a lack of consultation and procedural clarity before the carriers made their announcements.


The latest data published by Sea- Intelligence shows that the world’s 15 largest container shipping lines were ‘on-time’ — judged as plus or minus 24 hours of scheduled arrival, 80.1% of the time in the second quarter of 2019. It was an 8.2 percentage point improvement over the past year, which was the worst 12 months for reliability on record since Sea-Intelligence started collecting call data eight years ago.


Container shipping research group Alphaliner has revised downwards


its growth outlook for global container throughput to 2.5% this year, down from its earlier forecast of 3.5% growth. This follows the IMF’s July update of its World Economic Outlook which downgraded global GDP growth from 3.3% to 3.2%, with a related decrease in trade volume growth from 3.4% to 2.5%.


European shippers fear that they will see a repeat of the capacity crunch mayhem of previous years on ships bound for Asia in September and October, as a number of carriers revealed that they are cancelling sailings in an effort to stabilise container spot rates, which had been falling for several weeks.


ON THE QUAYSIDE The UK government is planning to create up to 10 freeports across the UK after Brexit, which would allow companies to import goods and then re-export them outside normal tax and customs rules. Ports and airports will be able to apply for freeport status, to be set up after the UK is due to leave the EU on 31 October.


www.bifa.org Ian Matheson, from Impress Communications, reviews some recent news that might impact on Members’ business


Thought to be one of the UK’s largest drugs finds, nearly 400 kg (62 st 13 lb) of heroin has been discovered at the port of Felixstowe hidden under bathrobes in a shipping container.


IN BUSINESS New research from Transport Intelligence (Ti) reveals that the global contract logistics market grew 4.9% in real terms in 2018, one of the fastest growth rates seen in recent years. Ti noted that the 2018 growth figure “paints a picture of a healthy market, with 2018’s expansion well above annual growth rates seen over much of the last decade”.


The packaging industry, a business that has thrived on the expansion of e-commerce, may be boxed into a corner as online retailers and e-commerce fulfilment companies increasingly try to reduce their use of cardboard in an attempt to cut waste and slash costs by reducing the size and the numbers of the boxes used.


Major shippers, including GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo, and Vodafone, have already signed up for Trust Your Supplier (TYS) –a new blockchain solution aimed at improving supplier validation, on- boarding and life cycle information management. The announcement was made by IBM, together with Chainyard, which jointly developed the product.


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September 2019


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