Newsletter – March 8, 2021

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Air Canada Cargo boosts freight fleet while launching e-commerce service

theloadstar.com
Air Canada (AC) is jumping into the e-commerce market with a dedicated domestic service – and, at the same time, it is boosting capacity for international cargo.
The headwinds to its passenger business have prompted the airline to ramp up its cargo flights with widebody passenger aircraft and passenger freighters, and is reactivating two parked 787s for cargo missions and removing seats from five more widebodies to boost its cargo capacity. Read more here.

Air cargo 2021: The good, the bad and the ugly

freightwaves.com
The air cargo industry has officially recovered from the depths of the pandemic, with volumes in January 1.1% above the 2019 level. The bad news, according to the International Air Transport Association, is that freight capacity lost ground for the first time since April, dropping 5% on a monthly basis, because passenger airlines pulled back on flight activity in response to COVID outbreaks and widespread travel restrictions. Read more here.

A Newly Built Taxiway In Canada Is Now Unusable – Here’s Why

simpleflying.com
Victoria International (YYJ) in the province of British Columbia is Canada’s 11th-busiest airport. While it largely holds a domestic focus, limited international flights to and from Mexico and the US also serve it. Last year, it opened a new taxiway, in a move that it hoped would make airport operations more efficient, but this has remained unusable due to being in a blind spot for ATC. Read more here.

LA To Tokyo In 5 Hours: Inside The Spike S-512 Supersonic Jet

simpleflying.com
There’s a new entrant appearing in the resurgence of supersonic travel, and its name is Spike. The Spike S-512 is set to be a supersonic business jet, capable of reducing flight times dramatically. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Congestion continues at US west coast ports

lloydsloadinglist.com
Severe congestion at US west coast ports is continuing, adding to the challenges facing ocean freight carriers and their customers around the world.
The latest North America operational update from container line Hapag-Lloyd confirms that there are still dozens of vessels awaiting berths at the key ports of LA and Long Beach, with 31 ships at anchor awaiting berths in LAX/LGB as of last Friday – although that was four fewer compared with 15 February. Read more here.

Cosco hacked again

splash247.com
Cosco Shipping, the world’s third largest containerline, is urgently trying to fix another hacking issue that has ripped through many of its staff’s email systems over the weekend.
A Brazilian hacker who goes by the name of L0RDBR hacked into Cosco’s email system on Saturday. When contacted by Splash, a source at Cosco’s IT centre confirmed today that the email system had been attacked and it was still being fixed. No timeline for how long it would take to resolve was given. Read more here.

Canada – Booking Window

hapag-lloyd.com
An increasing number of operational limitations around the world are triggering schedule changes at a rapid pace which makes accepting bookings too far into the future unworkable given the high likelihood of changes.
In order to provide the most reliable, accurate vessel outlook to our customers and avoid repeated booking adjustments, as of March 8, 2021, we will be limiting our booking approvals to 6 weeks out.
Hapag-Lloyd fully understands that this is an important change and we are confident the same will ensure the best offering to our customers.

Boxship ordering accelerates

splash247.com
A total of 147 boxships have been ordered since the start of October 2020, compared to just 40 in the January to September period of last year, according to new data from Clarkson Research Services.
The 363 ships on order equating to 2.9m slots represent 12.2% of the extant fleet on a slot basis and 10.8% on a dwt basis. Until the last quarter of 2020 this fleet to orderbook ratio had been in single figures. Read more here.

CANADA BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

CDPQ and DP World investing US$1.2B in Indonesian container port

insidelogistics.ca
DP World and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) have signed a long-term agreement with Indonesia’s Maspion Group to start the construction of an international container port and industrial logistics park in Gresik.
Work on the projects is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2021, with a total investment of up to US$1.2 billion. Commercial operations are expected to begin in 2023. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS- GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Aggressive carriers ‘biting the hand that feeds them’ as importers shun China

theloadstar.com
There are growing signs that the sky-high freight prices on the Asia-Europe trades may be beginning to structurally undermine it, as European importers begin to look for alternatives to sourcing from China.
Keith Gaskin, group commercial director of Seko Logistics in the UK, said: “I am seeing importers in the UK and Europe actively telling their merchandisers to look for near-shoring solutions, because the freight rates from Asia have reached such heights it is making their business untenable. Read more here (login required).

Did COVID kill retail stores? It’s complicated

freightwaves.com
A general assumption that state restrictions because of COVID-19 drove consumers from retail stores to online sales may not be completely accurate, according to a data analysis. While e-commerce sales skyrocketed in 2020, and in-store sales declined across the board, data from Commerce Signals indicates that some of the states with the largest percentage increases in e-commerce sales also saw among the smallest declines in in-store sales. Read more here.