Newsletter – July 23, 2021

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Air Canada Posts Another Quarterly Loss

simpleflying.com
Unlike the positivity seen in the United States over the past week or so, Canadian flag carrier Air Canada has posted a loss for the second quarter of 2021. The airline’s net loss of $1.165 billion (US$927 million) compares to a loss of $1.752 billion (US$1.393 billion) in the second quarter of last year. Read more here.

Major Airline Websites Fall Offline

simplefyling.com
An outage at cloud tech company Akamai sent the websites of several airlines offline on Thursday. The outage, which occurred around midday US eastern time on Thursday and lasted about one hour, impacted Delta Air Lines, British Airways, and Southwest Airlines.
Frustrated passengers flooded social media as airlines scrambled to get on top of the problem. Read more here.

Rain, typhoons threaten China’s jet fuel demand

argusmedia.com
Bad weather and Covid-19 lockdowns in China have resulted in the cancellations of over 4,500 flights at key airports in the last three days, pressuring jet fuel demand.
Heavy flooding caused by record rainfall in the central province of Henan has cut flight activity at the province’s biggest airport, Zhengzhou, with more than 1,400 flights cancelled since 20 July, according to Chinese flight data provider Variflight. The airport typically handles around 630 flights a day. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Regulator wants more ‘enforcement capacity’ against container lines

freightwaves.com
The Federal Maritime Commission asked lawmakers to boost its budget to help enforce Shipping Act regulations governing detention and demurrage practices as the agency intensifies its oversight of container lines.
Testifying on his agency’s FY2022 budget before the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday, FMC Chairman Daniel Maffei said it is seeking $30.8 million — $1 million more than authorized for FY2021 — to bolster resources dedicated to the agency’s Bureau of Enforcement and Office of Consumer Affairs and Dispute Resolution Services. Read more here.

South African ports crippled by cyber attack

splash247.com
Transnet, the operator of South Africa’s major ports and a national freight rail line, was hit by a major cyber attack yesterday, further disrupting operations at Cape Town and Durban, which have also been harmed by a period of civil unrest in the country this month. Read more here.

GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES

Biden’s Executive Order Targets Railroads, And The Outcome Won’t Be Good

forbes.com
As this episode of What’s Ahead explains, the U.S. rail freight industry is the world’s best, a stark change from 40 years ago, when this critical part of our transportation infrastructure was in desperate shape. Deregulation came in 1980, and the industry experienced a stunning turnaround. Read more here.

Union Pacific to restart container shipments from west coast to Chicago next week

splash247.com
A temporary halt by Union Pacific (UP) to rail shipments of international containers from the US west coast ports in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and Tacoma will come to an end early next week, said UP chief executive Lance Fritz. The pause on shipments to UP’s Global IV facility in Chicago began on July 18, and was expected to last for a week. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Rosenberg predicts inflation will go negative within a year

bnnbloomberg.ca
Economist David Rosenberg said he agrees with North American monetary policy makers on one thing: concerns about runaway inflation are overblown.
“Take a look at newspapers around the world. The only hyperventilating about inflation is in Canadian newspapers, Canadian media and in the U.S.” said Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Rosenberg Research, in a broadcast interview Monday. Read more here.

Tariffs on Carbon-Intensive Imports Proposed in Congress

strtrade.com
Under legislation introduced this week in the House (H.R. 4534) and Senate (S. 2378), beginning Jan. 1, 2024, the U.S. would impose tariffs on some imported goods to account for the cost incurred by U.S. businesses to comply with U.S. laws and regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The measure, which follows a similar proposal recently put forward by the European Union, could be rolled into an appropriations bill currently being readied for congressional approval. Read more here.