Newsletter – April 24, 2020

  • 24

    Apr

    Newsletter – April 24, 2020

     

    AIR FREIGHT UPDATES
    Key COVID 19 testing chemical reaches Canada, amid China empty plane denials

    canadianshipper.com

    Ottawa, ON — Despite the fact two Canadian cargo planes returned empty of supplies from China, a New Brunswick biotech company has received its latest shipment of the key chemical that it says it needs to ramp up widescale COVID-19 testing. Read more here.

    India Bans Medical Evacuation Flights As Rich Play The System

    simpleflying.com

    India has moved to ban medical evacuation flights over fears that the ultra-rich may use them for non-essential travel. These types of services take place when patients are critically ill or need access to specific resources that are not available where they are. Read more here.

    United Flight Attendants To Wear Compulsory Masks

    simpleflying.com

    The wearing or not of masks for flight attendants has been a source of contention between the AFA and US airlines since the beginning of the corona-crisis. Initially, flight attendants were only allowed to wear masks on international flights to coronavirus hotspots. Now, United has made facial protective equipment mandatory for its cabin crew on all flights. Read more here.

    OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES
    Lines under pressure to cut ‘obsolete’ low sulphur surcharges

    lloydsloadinglist.com

    Container lines face growing pressure to suspend low sulphur surcharges and drastically cut other fuel charges levied on shippers as the crash in oil prices dramatically reduces the cost of bunker fuels. Read more here.

    Carriers take advantage of low fuel costs to reroute via Cape

    lloydsloadinglist.com

    The collapse in the price of oil has not stopped container lines’ efforts to retrofit exhaust scrubbers to their vessels, but it is giving them an incentive to save on canal costs by rerouting many of their services.

    With oil prices hitting record lows in the past week as demand collapsed, bunker prices are also falling. Read more here.

    Blank sailings tally on major tradelanes for next month tops 300 – so far

    theloadstar.com

    Covid-19 lockdown restrictions on consumers, particularly in Europe and the US, has resulted in a dramatic slump in demand for container space and forced ocean carriers to blank hundreds of sailings.

    According to the latest data from Copenhagen-based maritime and supply chain intelligence company eeSea, carriers have so far cancelled 302 headhaul voyages in May across the major tradelanes – 11% of the 2,693 proforma sailings. Read more here. 

    HMM deploying world’s largest container ship

    freigthwaves.com

    Imagine the Empire State Building laid on its side. The newly christened HMM Algeciras is more than 60 feet longer than the New York City landmark is tall. A walk around the world’s largest container ship would be about half a mile. Read more here.

    Uncleared import boxes clogging India’s ports being used as ‘free warehousing’

    theloadstar.com

    There seems no end in sight to the congestion choking India’s ports.

    According to the Container Shipping Lines Association of India (CSLA), tens of thousands of uncleared import containers are clogging supply chains amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Read more here.

    GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES
    Tight capacity will drive year-end snapback in trucking markets: TIA economist
    freightwaves.com
    The “snapback” in freight markets is going to be hard and fast, driven by tighter capacity as drivers leave the current falling market, according to the chief economist of the leading third-party logistics providers’ (3PLs) trade association.
    Longtime industry economist Noel Perry, now chief economist of the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), told a TIA-sponsored webinar this week that he sees a recovery in which volumes fall off sharply this quarter and into the third quarter. Read more here.
    INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES
    Omnichannel Comes to the Fore as States Launch Plans to Reopen Retail
    supplychaindive.com
    As plans to reopen state economies materialize after weeks of “stay-at-home” orders, a snap back to pre-COVID-19 operations is not in the cards.
    The U.S. government has issued guidelines for reopening in three phases, putting the onus on states to hand down the orders, and one day later Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced non-essential retailers will be permitted to reopen on Friday, April 24 – though without allowing customers to enter stores. Read more here.

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