Newsletter – November 19, 2020

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Air carriers begin transporting Covid-19 vaccines

aircargonews.net

Air carriers have already started transporting Covid-19 vaccines, ahead of widespread global distribution.

The news comes as pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Moderna, according to BBC reports, claim their vaccines are more than 94% effective in fighting the virus. Read more here.

Cargo capacity stays tight as some passenger flights are back on the runway

theloadstar.com

Passenger aircraft are coming back into the market – in some regions – but capacity in Europe remains tight.

For example, Lufthansa Cargo told customers this week it was unable to offer capacity guarantees on continental flights out of its hubs in Europe, owing to high volumes of cargo – a ban that will remain until 31 December. Read more here (login required).

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Port of LA launches Return Signal for trucking to address congestion

freightwaves.com

Container and chassis congestion at the Port of Los Angeles is so severe that it was about 10 minutes into a press conference Wednesday before Executive Director Gene Seroka got around to announcing an all-time monthly volume record at the port.

“I’ve been advocating for a comprehensive digitization strategy throughout the complex for many years. We need to use real-time data to make smart decisions. We owe that to our stakeholders and customers. Read more here.

Exponential growth in transpacific trade in next 2 months: Sea-Intelligence

seanews.com.tr

CONTAINER shipping consultancy Sea-Intelligence says the planned capacity deployment from the carriers show a capacity growth on the transpacific for December, which is four times higher than in the Asia-Europe trade, and eight times higher in January 2021.

In its latest Sunday Spotlight, the consultancy analysed the latest capacity figures for December 2020 and January 2021 based on its Trade Capacity Outlook (TCO) database. Read more here.

Supply chains near break point amid service disruptions

lloydsloadinglist.com

A failure to forecast the massive demand swings during the pandemic is now pushing maritime supply chains to breaking point, and there is little clarity on when the situation will improve.

“In the space of a couple of months we went from a complete collapse in demand, and requests from customers to delay cargo in transit because the shops were closed, to a situation where there are almost no ships idle,” said Drewry senior consultant Stijn Rubens. Read more here.

GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES

CN will consider more layoffs if business slows

insidelogistics.ca

CN Rail may only have to consider another painful round of layoffs if Covid-19’s second wave causes shipping volumes to drop dramatically again, its chief executive said Wednesday.

“If the economy slows down we might have to have layoffs,” Jean-Jacques Ruest said a day after marking the 25th anniversary of the government’s privatization of Canadian National. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Millions of e-Commerce parcels into the US set to be rejected

aircargoweek.com

Several hundred million mail parcels destined for the United States will be rejected when the requirement for a higher threshold of advance electronic data comes into force on January 1, 2021.

Posts have had it confirmed that as of that date any parcels arriving in the US with incorrect or incomplete data will be refused and returned to origin. Read more here.

Fashion supply chains must be more creative as the global market changes

theloadstar.com

Covid-19 has dealt a heavy blow to the fashion industry.

“We saw fashion screech to a halt around 20 March,” said Lisa Morales-Hellebo, partner and co-founder of early-stage supply chain venture fund Refashioned Ventures.

The shutdown of retail venues and the disruption to supply chains illustrated the risk of globalised structures to many players in the industry, she added. Read more here.