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News Desk


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


incident comes just weeks after trade was warned there may not be enough wooden pallets that comply with ISPM15 heat treatment regulations, which come into effect on 1 January 2021 for all goods moving between the UK and the EU.


ON THE QUAYSIDE The Drewry Container Port Throughput Index for July bounced back strongly, crossing 130 points for the first time in 2020. However, despite the rise of more than six points compared with June 2020, it was still 4.2 points lower than in July 2019.


Global liner reliability ‘hits all-time lows’


ON THE OCEAN Global liner average schedule reliability hit an all-time low in August, both in terms of the actual performance levels as well as in terms of the speed with which performance has declined, according to new analysis from Sea-Intelligence. Reliability in August across all trade lanes stood at 63.7%, despite the fact that clients were often paying record rates for their late deliveries, said Sea-Intelligence.


The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) launched a probe in October into claims that shipping lines serving the USA “may be attempting to hold companies financially responsible for transport services they did not contract for and may not legally be required to pay”. This followed complaints from various industry associations that their members had been approached by shipping lines looking to enforce terms of the bill of lading, despite the fact that they are “not party to, and have not agreed to be bound by the bill of lading”.


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GOING OVERLAND The Rail Freight Group (RFG) has called for full recognition of the rail freight sector in government’s planned reforms for UK railways. This followed an announcement from the Department for Transport (DfT) of fundamental changes to the structure of passenger train contracting and operations, effectively bringing rail franchising to an end. The DfT also stated that in future ‘our railways are entirely focused on the passenger’.


Maritime Transport has agreed terms to acquire Wincanton’s container transport business, Wincanton Container Logistics, following a strategic review of the Wincanton group’s business and its decision to focus on its core activities.


Le Shuttle Freight carried 131,985 trucks in September 2020, up 2% compared with September 2019. The strong performance means that since 1 January 2020, more than 1.03 million trucks have crossed the Channel using the service.


An additional £17 million is to be invested into a major rail upgrade to freight services at the port of Southampton, increasing the length of track available to freight services in the Southampton area to 775 m. It will allow an additional seven trailers or containers to be transported on a single rail freight service.


IN BUSINESS Over €85 million of products were stolen from air, road, sea and rail freight supply chains in 46 countries in the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region in the first half of 2020, even with national COVID-19 related lockdowns restricting people and vehicle movements, according to the latest data from the Transported Asset Protection Association’s Incident Information Service.


Pest-infested wood packaging material (WPM) sent from Portugal via Spain and France was recently intercepted by the Forestry Commission, which is urging those working in the WPM industry and their customers to be vigilant. The


A £200 million government fund launched at the start of October will enable ports in England, Scotland and Wales to bid for funding for capital projects for infrastructure that will be used to accommodate new customs and border processes in 2021.


As this issue was going to press, Teesport was preparing to welcome a twice-weekly new container service as part of a weekly route from Bilbao, Spain, operated by specialist Iberian shortsea containerline WEC Lines in conjunction with A2B.


IN BRICKS AND MORTAR Take-up of UK logistics space is 111% higher than this time last year, according to the latest research by CBRE. It reported that the third- quarter take-up levels have surpassed the record-breaking take- up levels in the second quarter of this year to reach a total of 13.33million sq ft, lifting the total space acquired in the first three-quarters of 2020 to 32.57 million sq ft.


The growth of e-commerce could drive demand for some 92 million sq ft of warehouse space across the UK by 2024, according to Knight Frank, in its analysis of how the growth of online retail sales will impact demand for UK warehouse space. Online sales currently account for 26.6% of retail sales and peaked at 33.4% in May during the lockdown.


November 2020


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