Newsletter – May 9, 2018

AIR FREIGHT

Proposed ban on night flights at Heathrow not right move: IATA
source: shippingazette.com
A PROPOSAL by the Airports Commission to impose a six and a half hour total ban on flights at London Heathrow airport has met with warnings from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that such a move would negatively impact the air cargo sector that increasingly relies on overnight delivery. Read more here.

Japan Airlines Co. has spent the best part of a decade recovering from its 2010 bankruptcy.
source: ajot.com
The collapse – Japan’s largest outside the financial sector – turned its one-time flag-carrier into a distant follower of ANA Holdings Inc. Worse than that, it put JAL on the back foot at a time of dramatic change in the country’s aviation industry, with the deregulation of low-cost airlines and a fivefold surge in inbound tourists rewriting the rules of the game. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Workers at Major Indian Ports Plan Indefinite Strike
source: thehindubusinessline.com
Major port workers unions plan to go on an indefinite strike at all the 12 major ports on or after 30 May to press their demands, according to T Narendra Rao, general secretary of the Water Transport Workers’ Federation of India. Read more here.

Feeder Vessel Shortage Looming Large
source: transportjournal.com
The Copenhagen-based maritime consultancy Seaintel said that the rising deployment of ultra-large vessels tends to result in a service frequency reduction in the major trades to balance supply and demand.
This leads to a situation where networks with lower service frequency will continue to depend on feedering services and even increased transhipments owing to the lower service frequency.
Based on the existing fleet and orderbook, it is possible to calculate the ratio of feeder vessels to large vessels in excess of 11,000 teu. The current ratio is 7.9 feeder vessels for each large vessel in operation. Read more here.

GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES

Feds, Quebec to announce Lac Megantic rail bypass on Friday
source: canadianshipper.com
Montreal, ON — Robert Bellefleur was about 100 kilometres west of Lac-Megantic on the night an oil-laden train derailed in his hometown five years ago and killed 47 people. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

All Systems go for Elon Musk’s SpaceX at the Port of Los Angeles
source: splash247.com
The Los Angeles City Council yesterday approved a lease agreement for ELon Musk’s SpaceX to build rockets capable of interplanetary travel at a disused shipyard at the POrt of Los Angeles.
SpaceX will construct a new manufacturing facility for its Big Falcon Rocket, which Musk has predicted will be capable of reahing Mars by 2020. Read more here.

Cooling China phone sales creates zero-sum game: fully charged
source: ajot.com
Hi folks, it’s Shelly Banjo. Raise your hand if dollar signs pop into your mind when thinking about China’s 1.4 billion consumers. That was certainly true for mobile-phone makers in the 1990s and until 2012, when the country surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s largest smartphone market. Read more