Newsletter – May 26, 2023

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

British Airways IT Issues Cancels London Heathrow Flights

simpleflying.com
Airline operations are an extremely complex reality to manage, and efficiency results from the concerted effort of many. Besides people, IT systems have become irreplaceable in ensuring airlines can keep up with their schedules. Therefore, IT meltdowns translate into disruptions for thousands of passengers. For instance, British Airways is facing day two of flight cancellations and delays after an IT problem hit the airline on Thursday. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Box lines look to slash their bloated equipment pools

theloadstar.com
Super slow-steaming is taking some of the pressure off ocean carriers as they absorb newbuild ULCVs into existing service loops, but their equipment surpluses are proving to be more of a challenge.
Carriers faced with huge storage bills from depots, for their mountains of empty container stocks around the world, are looking to retire ageing owned containers to the second-hand market and return as much equipment as possible back to leasing companies. Read more here.

Peak season hopes dashed as freight rates slip again

theloadstar.com
The prospect of a traditional peak season is slipping away with each week that passes and ocean carriers are as yet unable to see any significant uptick in export orders from China.
Maersk said this week that demand remained “stable” but said it had “not seen any drastic surge”. Read more here (login required).

OOCL fires back at Bed Bath & Beyond over FMC claim

theloadstar.com
The argument between bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), and shipping line OOCL, has become fiercer. OOCL has hit back against the retailer’s $31m claim, made to the Federal Maritime Commission.
It denied that it had driven up rates, “created artificial scarcity, unjustly and unreasonably exploited customers”, pointing instead to the fall-out from the Covid pandemic, which had constrained supply chains, reports Yahoo. It argued that instead, OOCL had invested in new capacity and had worked cooperatively with customers. Read more here (login) required.

Authority refloats bulker wedged in Suez Canal

theloadstar.com
Xin Hai Tong 23, a 189m, Hong-Kong-flagged geared bulker, which became the latest vessel to get stuck in the Suez Canal, has been re-floated.
The northbound convoy was due to enter at 0930hrs. Read more here (login required).

California’s latest environmental regulation may have unintended consequences for truckers

freightwaves.com
Electrifying trucks at California’s ports could be the secret to the future. Picture it: We would continue to import and export every imaginable good (Jet fuel! Nintendo Switches! Canned peaches!). Truckers working at fleets would move these containers full of stuff from the terminal yards to railroads or highways or warehouses or all of the above, without spewing toxic emissions into local communities. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Retailers outsource ecommerce fulfilment in structural shift

theloadstar.com
Increasingly, e-commerce providers and online merchants are turning to logistics firms to manage their fulfilment.
James Gagne, CEO of Seko Logistics, has seen a “really serious uptick” in a trend that shows companies abandoning their efforts to manage the fulfilment component of their supply chain in-house. Read more here (login required).