Newsletter – August 6, 2021

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Uptick in passenger air travel hitting cargo capacity

lloydsloadinglist.com
The recent uptick in passenger air travel has seen a significant number of ‘preighters’ returning to passenger (pax) mode, raising fresh concerns that the air freight capacity squeeze is set to intensify as the peak season approaches, according to a leading freight forwarder.
Speaking at a webinar last week, Flexport’s EVP and global head of air freight, Neel Jones Shah, said the latest statistics – for the period 29 June to 12 July – showed that global air freight capacity is still down 12% over where it was during the same weeks in 2019, although the picture varies widely across different regions and markets globally. Read more here.

Preighters unlikely to offset rising air cargo demand

aircargonews.net
The use of passenger aircraft in an all-cargo configuration is unlikely to offset rising air cargo demand for the peak season.
Writing in the Baltic Exchange monthly market summary, Bruce Chan, vice president of global logistics at investment bank Stifel said that issues in ocean shipping, high ocean prices and ongoing air cargo demand were putting capacity under pressure. Read more here.

Air Canada Resumes More Transatlantic Services

simpleflying.com
This week, Air Canada announced the resumption of more transatlantic services, noting that it would restore its three-times-weekly services from Montreal to London Heathrow and from Toronto Pearson to Dublin. Let’s take a look at what aircraft are operating these routes and what customers can expect when flying the airline ‘across the pond.’ Read more here.

Boeing Sends The 737 MAX To China For Recertification Testing

simpleflying.com
Boeing is sending a 737 MAX over to China to conduct flight tests as part of the recertification process. The MAX departed from Seattle on Wednesday morning, stopping in Hawaii five and a half hours later. The jet will remain in Hawaii for a couple of days before its expected arrival at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on August 7th. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Ocean contract rates surge almost 30% in a month

lloydsloadinglist.com
July saw the container shipping industry “enter uncharted water”, as long-term contracted rates surged by their largest ever monthly increase – “climbing by close to one third”, analysis by ocean freight rates specialist Xeneta indicates.
According to the latest Long-Term XSI Public Indices from Xeneta – which crowdsources real-time rates data from leading shippers – the global index recorded a “staggering” month-on-month (MoM) jump of 28.1% compared with June, “blowing the previous record (a 11.3% rise in May 2019) out the water”.  Read more here.

MSC hits back saying it was ‘shocked’ by anti-trust breach allegations

theloadstar.com
Switzerland-based carrier MSC has roundly rejected complaints made by Pennsylvania home décor supplier MCS Industries and says it was “shocked to learn of the accusations”.
MSC said today the notice from the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) of the complaint lodged by MCS was published on Tuesday, but the carrier had received “no formal complaint by MCS Industries in advance of the filing”. Read more here (login required).

Maersk spending close to $1bn to beef up its e-commerce logistics offerings

splash247.com
The transformation of A.P. Moller – Maersk under CEO Soren Skou enters a new, important chapter today with the decision to acquire two e-commerce logistics companies, helping the Danish giant build an asset-light business based on e-commerce technology across Europe, US and Asia and further blurring the lines between container carrier and express operator. Read more here.

OOCL becomes first carrier to launch a China – US east coast rail/sea service

splash247.com
Hong Kong liner OOCL today debuted a landmark new rail-sea service connecting China to the US east coast.
The Cosco subsidiary’s new offering is a combination of the Chang An China-Europe block train service from Xian to Kaliningrad with onward feeder to Bremerhaven, and then with OOCL ocean services from Bremerhaven to various ports on the US east coast. Read more here.

Container equipment prices double in the space of 12 months

splash247.com
Prices of dry freight shipping containers have doubled over the past year to reach historic highs but will moderate over the next few years, according to Drewry’s recently published Container Census & Leasing Annual Review and Forecast 2021/22 report.
Dry box newbuild prices rallied strongly in 2020 from the lows of the prior year to reach their highest level since 2011 by the fourth quarter, with a year-on-year gain of 75%. Then by Q2 this year 40ft high cube containers breached the $6,500 threshold, more than doubling over the year, to reach their highest value since Drewry started monitoring container equipment prices back as far as 1998. Read more here.

CANADA BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Canada border officers begin job action as slowdown hits trucking

freightwaves.com
Thousands of Canada Border Services Agency members began a work-to-rule strike, bringing delays to major truck crossings as talks between the unions and government continue.
Nearly 9,000 Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) employees began the work-to-rule strike — effectively a collective slowdown — at ports of entry across the country on Friday morning as delays mounted for trucks at some of the busiest border crossings.  Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Lockdowns in China and Vietnam see swathe of factory closures

splash247.com
Global brands from Toyota to Nike are being forced to down tools at key production sites in China and Vietnam as the two communist export powerhouses batten down swathes of their populations to fight rising levels of Covid-19 cases. Global supply chains, already reeling from one of the most challenging years ever recorded in peacetime, look set to face greater disruption. Read more here.

Is The US Getting Closer To Reversing Its Travel Ban?

simpleflying.com
The United States is inching towards reversing a travel ban that prohibits most travelers from the United Kingdom, the European Union, and several other countries from entering the States. White House sources say they are working on a plan to allow fully vaccinated travelers from now-banned countries to enter the United States. Read more here.