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News Desk


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


across supply chains, along with the reopening of non-essential retail outlets and parts of the hospitality sector, making the situation even worse. In addition, about 12 months of driver training and testing have been lost due to the pandemic.


IN THE AIR Airfreight rates cooled as May progressed but this is unlikely to signify the start of a return to pre- COVID-19 levels, according to a report in the Baltic Exchange market round-up. Belly capacity on international flights remained depressed due to the slow roll out of vaccination programmes and the emergence of new variants, whilst demand continues to be brisk even heading into the summer lull as consumption remains high, inventories are low and there is ongoing supply chain disruption.


Pearl sinking highlights hazardous cargo crisis


ON THE OCEAN TT Club says the X-Press Pearl’s containership incident off Colombo is the latest in a disappointing recent and persistent catalogue of containership fires, which occur almost weekly, the vast majority of them started by hazardous cargo. It is estimated that the number of mis- or undeclared dangerous cargoes is in excess of 150,000 containers per year, each of which has disastrous potential.


The Global Shippers’ Forum has used the current disruption in supply chains to renew its call for the removal of the consortia block exemption regulation, with chief executive James Hookham saying that shippers are bearing the brunt of the broken supply chain.


P&O Ferries has added the 650 teu capacity Freya to its Hull- Zeebrugge route, joining sistership


4


Elizabeth, doubling the capacity and increasing the number of weekly each way sailings to six.


A2B-online Container BV has added a fourth weekly sailing on its service between London Thamesport and Moerdijk in the Netherlands. The extra sailing was inaugurated by A2B Comfort, one of six Sietas 151 type 508 teu capacity containerships operated by the shipping line on the North Sea.


Unifeeder has launched a fixed weekday weekly lo-lo container service between its Southampton hub and the ports of Cork and Belfast. In addition, at the time of writing, it indicated that Dublin would be added to the schedule.


W.E.C. Lines has added a direct call at the port of Thamesport to its NWC-Bilbao service and will increase weekly capacity to 835 teu


by introducing the Van Eyck, which was acquired in October 2020.


Some significant commodities such as furniture and electrical appliances can no longer afford the elevated freight rates facing importers currently on major container shipping lanes, new analysis by Sea-Intelligence has revealed.


GOING OVERLAND Truck driver shortages are expected to increase in 2021 by over a quarter on 2020 levels in almost all of the 23 countries surveyed in the recent International Road Transport Union (IRU) global survey of road transport firms.


The RHA says that the UK HGV driver shortage has now hit catastrophic proportions. The upturn in the economy since COVID-19 has increased demand


Global air cargo demand continued to outperform pre-COVID-19 levels in April, according to data released by IATA in June. Demand was up 12% compared with April 2019 and 7.8% compared with March 2021, whilst capacity remains 9.7% below pre-COVID-19 levels (April 2019) due to the ongoing grounding of passenger aircraft.


ON THE QUAYSIDE DP World’s ports at London Gateway and Southampton have become the first in the country to be capable of handling Freightliner’s new 775 m long intermodal container trains, which are 250 m longer than a typical freight train and carry between 12 and 14 additional containers on each service.


IN BUSINESS Freight insurance and risk management specialist TT Club said the risk of loss or damage to goods in the global supply chain “has never been more prevalent”, when announcing it is launching a series of six podcasts “to draw attention to the variable and complex nature of these risks and offer increased guidance on loss prevention”.


July 2021


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