Newsletter – January 27, 2021

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

China Misses Expected Boost From Lunar New Year

simpleflying.com
China’s lunar new year is in mid-February. It is China’s most important holiday. Typically, hundreds of millions of travelers go on the move, heading home for the holiday. For China’s airlines, it’s usually the busiest time of the year. But not this year. On the back of another wave of COVID-19 in China, the 2021 lunar new year looks like being a bust for China’s airlines. Read more here.

More than 150 aircraft reconfigured as mini freighters in 2020

aircargonews.net
Last year a total of 155 aircraft had seats removed in order to transport cargo in the cabin, according to figures from Cirium’s Airline Insight Review 2020. Read more here.

Strong air cargo demand on the transpacific, but locked-down Europe softens

theloadstar.com
Airlines continued to add cargo capacity to the market, and enjoyed good volumes, right up to the end of the year, according to new data from Accenture’s Seabury.
In the final two weeks, global capacity was down just 12% year on year.
Seabury noted that: “With demand still strong, the end-of-year traditional capacity drop in 2020 was less pronounced than at the end of 2019, with airline/express freighters operating 30% more capacity than last year.”  Read more here (login required).

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

New box terminal at Vietnam’s Cai Mep already attracting alliance calls

theloadstar.com
Vietnam’s newest container terminal is open for business – completing a turnaround for the once under-utilised Cai Mep deepwater port.
Gemalink International Port (GIP), the fifth container terminal at Cai Mep, 50km south-east of Ho Chi Minh City, is a joint-venture between homegrown logistics group Gemadept and Terminal Link, a terminal operator part-owned by CMA CGM. Read more here.

Covid outbreaks add to US west coast box port disruption

lloydsloadinglist.com
Strong winds, rising levels of coronavirus infections among terminal workers, and higher than normal numbers of containerships due to arrive in Los Angeles and Long Beach have been adding this week to the already challenging conditions and disruption at US west coast ports. Read more here.

CMA CGM axes SEA-X – prelude to the end of transpacific premium products?

theloadstar.com
CMA CGM appears to be set to close its transpacific express container shipping service, after worsening congestion at Los Angeles port impacted delivery guarantees.
According to Alphaliner, the French carrier has closed its transpacific premium SEA-X service, and is set to launch a new route between China and rival west coast ports of Oakland and Seattle. Read more here (login required).

Contract obligations kept Hapag-Lloyd from enjoying rocketing rates bonus

theloadstar.com
Hapag-Lloyd’s preliminary results for 2020, of an ebit of $1.5bn, are at the top end of its revised earnings forecast.
But the full effect of the surge in freight rates in the final months of 2019 will probably not be seen until this quarter.
Hapag-Lloyd said the main drivers for the enhanced results had been “improved freight rates and lower bunker prices”, as well as some $500m of cost savings. Read more here.

GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES

CN cautious about Q1 but bullish about 2H

freightwaves.com
Although CN (NYSE: CNI) is looking forward to an improved economy in the second half of 2021, uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccine rollout are making the Canadian railway “cautious” about the first quarter of this year. Read more  here.