Newsletter – June 15, 2021

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

New US airfreight screening bypass a distraction: ‘it’s for the chosen few’

theloadstar.com
A new program for US airfreight exporters designed for the mandate to screen all cross-border cargo moving on freighters will not be ready in time.
Moreover, it promises little merit and will likely increase confusion, industry stakeholders have warned. Read more here (login required).

Hong Kong Airlines goes to ‘critical survival mode’, flying only eight jets

aircargonews.net
Hong Kong Airlines (HKA) will stand down its fleet of Airbus A320s until mid-2022 and operate a skeletal fleet of just eight A330s on cargo flights, as the embattled carrier enters what it calls “a critical survival mode”.
The airline confirmed reports of a wide-ranging restructuring — its latest in more than a year — in a statement to Air Cargo News’ sister title FlightGlobal. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

HMM confirms cyber attack

splash247.com
South Korea’s HMM has become another shipowner to suffer a cyber attack. The company confirmed today that it had detected an unidentified security breach, which led to limited access to the e-mail outlook system in certain areas.
Most of the confirmed damage has been restored and no information or data leakage was found, HMM said in a statement. Read more here.

Panama spread hits all-time high as shippers flee to east coast

freightwaves.com
Spot rates for shipping 40-foot containers from China to the North American east coast jumped 23% this past week, pushing the cost over $9,000 for the first time since the index was created. The big takeaway here is that capacity is probably tapped out into the west. Read more here.

Biden pressured to fix US port congestion issues

splash247.com
America’s National Retail Federation (NRF) yesterday asked president Joe Biden to step in and help fix port congestion as retailers face up to the trickiest peak season in living memory.
“The supply chain disruption issues, especially the congestion affecting our key maritime ports, are causing significant challenges for America’s retailers,” NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay wrote in a letter to the White House. Read more here.

X-Press Pearl captain arrested

splash247.com
The Russian master of the fire-ravaged 2,700 teu X-Press Pearl was arrested yesterday and granted bail later in the day.
Sri Lanka is seeking $40m in damages from ship operator, X-Press Feeders, over last month’s fire which has created one of the worst ecological disasters in the country’s history with toxic substances washing up on the island’s west coast. Read more here.

Rates crisis favours larger shippers

lloydsloadinglist.com
The surge in freight rates since last November, which propelled carriers to an estimated record $16.2bn in collective earnings before interest and tax, is having a far greater impact on low-volume shippers than their larger rivals. Read more here.