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News Desk


United Seaways launches a direct link to Morocco


ON THE OCEAN A direct weekly shipping route between the UK and Morocco, which will link Tangier and Poole, is to be launched shortly by United Seaways, according to Poole Harbour Commissioners. It will help bypass post-Brexit traffic congestion and additional import procedures on goods arriving via Europe.


The World Shipping Council has reported that over 3,000 containers have been lost at sea in just the last few months. It is a figure that has skyrocketed, with a total of only 1,382 containers lost at sea during the entirety of 2019.


A 50% adoption of electronic bills of lading by shippers in the next 10 years could save the container shipping sector US$4billion in costs annually, says the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA). However, despite this significant cost saving, the adoption of the e-BOL remains in its infancy.


Ocean freight spot rates remained close to record highs on the main east-west trades in mid-March, according to Drewry, defying the normal annual pattern of decline in the weeks after Chinese New Year. Cargo backlogs, port congestion, equipment shortages and sustained high volumes kept prices high.


Global schedule reliability dropped to 34.9% in January 2021, according to Sea-Intelligence’s Global Liner Performance (GLP) report, which covers schedule reliability across 34 different trade lanes and more than 60 container shipping lines. This meant that for the sixth consecutive month, global schedule reliability has been at its lowest across all months since Sea-


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Network Rail makes track improvements at Redbridge


Intelligence introduced the benchmark in 2011.


GOING OVERLAND Mid-March saw the start of a daily rail service connecting the port of Felixstowe with Wakefield in Yorkshire, one of 13 operated by GB Railfreight and the 12th daily rail service to destinations in Yorkshire.


Maersk’s first-ever complete block train from Japan to the UK via the Trans-Siberian railway, comprising forty 40 ft containers, arrived at Felixstowe on 2 March. It departed from Yokohama, Japan, in January, crossing Russia and being transhipped to ship in St Petersburg for on-carriage to Felixstowe.


IN THE AIR Global air cargo demand returned to pre-COVID-19 levels (January 2019) for the first time since the


onset of the crisis, according to data released by IATA in January. January demand also showed strong month-on-month growth over December 2020 levels, with all regions seeing month-on-month improvement in demand.


ON THE QUAYSIDE Network Rail has finished the £17 million Southampton freight train lengthening project with a series of improvements on the freight lines between Southampton Central and Redbridge. Improvements to track, signals and sidings will unlock more capacity at the country’s second busiest container port and allow freight services between Southampton, the Midlands and the North to carry up to 20% more goods.


Chinese ports occupy six of the top eight spots in Alphaliner’s latest


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


ranking of the world’s top 25 container ports by volume in 2020. However, some of the country’s second-tier ports did see volumes slide.


A further five cantilever rail- mounted gantry (CRMG) cranes have been delivered to the port of Liverpool, completing the set of 22 CRMG cranes now operating as part of the £400 million Liverpool2 project, which is designed to provide additional capacity for growing volumes of cargo.


IN THE WAREHOUSE London Gateway’s Logistics Park will fast-track the delivery of a speculative 146,000 sq ft green warehouse facility before the end of 2021. This will have a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ classification, EPC Rating A and Planet Mark Accreditation, and use the latest sustainable technologies to drive down both the use of raw materials and carbon emissions to the minimum possible levels.


IN BUSINESS The locations of eight new ‘freeports’ in England have been revealed, following a rapid analysis of up to 40 bids received in February. The winning bids for the new economic zone status came from Thamesport, Felixstowe and Harwich, Humberside, Liverpool City, Plymouth, Solent, Teesside, and East Midlands Airport with, at the time of writing, a further two freeports in the devolved administrations of the UK still to be announced.


Theft of cargo in transit remains the largest proportion of the total number of cargo thefts worldwide, according to the BSI and TT Club Cargo Theft Report 2021. The report also highlighted that there has been a relative shift in the location of thefts, with in-transit incidents and those involving vehicles showing a decline, though remaining the most dominant threat, and theft from storage facilities increasing.


April 2021


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