News

Fracht Australia Logistics News - October 2025

30/9/2025

AROUND THE WORLD 

• US POSTAL VOLUMES PLUMMET by more than 80% following de minimis suspension for China and Hong Kong at the start of May. The exemption had allowed e-commerce platforms to fly packages worth less than USD800 into the country without paying any import fees, resulting in a boom in online sales in recent years. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) said new rules placed the burden of customs duty collection and remittance on transportation carriers or US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency-approved qualified parties. Following the suspension, more than 88 postal operators have now suspended some or all postal services to the US until a solution is implemented.
• EUROPEAN AIRPORT CARGO VOLUMES FALL 1.5% in July despite growth at Frankfurt, Liege and other major hubs. The latest figures from Airports Council International (ACI) Europe show that overall cargo demand across airports on the continent was down 1.5% in July, with European Union (EU+) hubs reporting a 2% decline and non-EU+ airports registering a 2.1% increase. When compared to pre-pandemic volumes, freight stood at 10.4% higher. Major cargo hubs such as Frankfurt, Heathrow and Liege showed growth while Istanbul and Amsterdam Schiphol reported volume decreases.
• ITALY’S DOCK WORKERS have become the latest in Europe to down tools in protest against Europe’s support for Israel, hitting port operations and transport services. Access to ports including Genoa, Livorno and Ravenna was blocked on 22 September, as the 24-hour strike kicked in, protesters joining strikers to block Livorno’s main entrance at the Valessi gate. In Genoa, protesters were telling local media “We will not allow even a single bullet to leave this port”, with efforts under way to impede Haifa-bound sailings.
• GATWICK’S RUNWAY DEVELOPMENT could address critical air cargo capacity shortages in the southeast of England, with belly cargo volumes potentially doubling. The UK government has approved Gatwick Airport’s plans to put its northern runway into regular use, which Logistics UK said will help boost air cargo trade. Logistics UK's senior policy manager, Alexandra Herdman has pointed out that two thirds of the UK’s air cargo moves in the belly hold of passenger planes, so facilitating increased passenger services will also enable increased air cargo. She added that belly cargo, often high-value, time-sensitive goods, boosts the profits of airlines and the economy.
• POLAND-BELARUS BORDER CLOSURE disrupts supply chains, driving up airfreight rates. New Silk Road Intermodal’s assistant general manager, Tang Tingting, told Chinese media that the majority of more than 130 loaded freight trains were parked-up in Brest, in Belarus’s south-west, and that it would take a week to relieve the backlog. The border has been closed since 12 September, the Polish authorities citing security risks emanating from recent Belarus / Russian military exercises.
• HONG KONG AND SOUTHERN CHINA WERE BRACING for the impact of Super Typhoon Ragasa on 29 September, with factories closing, and high levels of disruption expected for air and sea operations in the busy run-up to Golden Week. Guangdong province, home to significant global manufacturing, upgraded its alert to Level 1 – the highest in a four-level system. According to SCMP, more than 10 cities, including Shenzhen, have announced the closure of factories and transport systems. 

SEAFREIGHT NEWS 

• MAERSK ANNOUNCE FLURRY OF BLANKED SAILINGS despite forwarder concerns that capacity on certain trades is already squeezed. Indeed, Maersk has announced the blanking of its Dragon service due to depart on 4 October, to coincide with Chinese Golden week holidays. “As the Golden Week national holiday period in China approaches, Maersk is looking to balance the network in light of forecast reductions in demand and reduced workforce to handle cargo operations,” it said.
• MEDITERRANEAN SHIPPING COMPANY (MSC) has issued an updated rotation for its standalone Eagle service from Australia and New Zealand to East Coast, USA, due to commence in February 2026. The carrier says windows and transit times have now been confirmed, after the new service was first announced on 23 July.  MSC has now added Wellington calls, for a revised rotation of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Wellington, Tauranga, Rodman, Cristobal, Philadelphia, Savannah, Freeport, Rodman, Papeete, Auckland, Sydney, using 11 vessels expected to be approx 3,500 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit). 
• SWEDEN’S WALLENIUS LINES HAS ACQUIRED two 30-year-old PCTCs (pure car and truck carriers) from its joint venture company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics with the stated aim of increasing the country’s defence readiness. The 5,846 CEU-built Turandot and Don Juan are part of a large group of sisterships built by South Korea’s Daewoo and originally delivered to Wallenius before the merger with Wilhelmsen. Initially placed under the Singapore flag and transferred to the Norwegian International Ship Registry in 2023, they are the only two of the class not to have been lengthened in the mid-2000s. Wallenius Lines says the pair will now fly the Swedish flag and “help to further develop Sweden’s maritime expertise and increase the availability of vessels that can assist society and the Armed Forces when needed.
• PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL LINES (PIL) launch new Korea China Indonesia Service. PIL says it is expanding its footprint in East Asia and Indonesia with the launch of a weekly Korea-China-Indonesia (KCI) service, with direct connections from Korea and central China to Indonesia. This addition follows the recent introduction of the North China Indonesia (NCI) service. The ports of call for the KCI service are: Busan - Incheon - Shanghai - Ningbo - Jakarta - Semarang - Ho Chi Minh City – Busan.
• GEMINI PARTNERS SUSPEND TRANSPACIFIC TP9 SERVICE as demand falls. Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk Line and Hapag-Lloyd are set to axe a transpacific string as weakening trade volumes force carriers to cut capacity on this key trade. In a customer advisory, Hapag-Lloyd said its WC6 transpacific service, marketed as the TP9 by Maersk, would cease operations, following announced blank sailings on the service due to take place in weeks 40, 41 and 42.
• USTR (Office of the United States Trade Representative) WILL NOT DETER CHINESE CARRIERS. Amidst reports COSCO Shipping and OOCL face massive additional costs as a result of Trump Administration imposts on Chinese carriers and owners / operators of Chinese-built vessels, COSCO Shipping and OOCL have affirmed their commitment to US trades. While neither company has a direct service between Australia and New Zealand and North America, both are active, to a modest extent, in transhipment over Asian ports. According to work undertaken by HSBC, COSCO Shipping and its subsidiary OOCL face the greatest impact from the USTR impositions, approx. USD1.6 billion and USD654 million respectively in 2026, modelled at USD600 per container extra on the main trade between Shanghai and the West Coast. 

AIRFREIGHT NEWS 

• IATA - AIR CARGO VOLUMES INCREASED STRONGLY in July as growth on the Asia-Europe trade and front-loading ahead of the imposition of more US tariffs supported growth. The latest monthly figures from airline association IATA show that demand in cargo tonne km (CTK) terms increased by 5.5% in July compared with a year ago. The performance is a significant improvement on the 0.8% increase registered in June, when US-China tariffs took effect, and the 3.1% increase registered for the year so far. Meanwhile, capacity in available CTK terms was up 3.9% on last year, and the cargo load factor improved by 0.7 percentage points to 45.1%.
• AIR CARGO CONTINUED TO BEAT EXPECTATIONS in August as volumes grew again, but the outlook for the remainder of the year remains uncertain. The latest figures from data provider Xeneta show that air cargo demand increased by a “surprise” 5% year on year in August - the second month in a row demand has grown at this level. Xeneta said the increase in demand is likely to reflect modal shift as businesses look to move goods quickly by air rather than sea to avoid the potential impact of tariffs.
• THE CHINESE AIRFREIGHT MARKET is shifting away from the US in favour of Europe as a result of Washington’s imposition of new trade and tariff policies, according to WorldACD. The latest figures from the data provider show that in August, cargo volumes from China and Hong Kong to the US were down 5% year on year. In contrast, volumes from China and Hong Kong to Europe increased by 11% on last year’s levels during the month. "Those figures back up anecdotal reports from multiple sources of freighter capacity being shifted from China / HK-US markets to other markets, and particularly to China / HK-Europe destinations, in response to the changes in US ‘de minimis’ rules for China / HK, and higher tariffs."
• ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS (ANA) AND AIR INCHEON have begun code sharing on freighter services operated between Japan and South Korea with the aim of enhancing connectivity and meeting growing demand for cargo transportation in the region. Under the codeshare agreement, effective 15 September, ANA and Air Incheon will sell cargo space on flights operated by both carriers, said ANA Group in a press release. Korean airline Air Incheon completed the integration of Asiana Airlines' cargo business on 1 August, a move which positioned the company as South Korea's second-largest cargo airline operator. Air Incheon also announced last month that it would rebrand as Air Zeta, subject to government approval.
• CATHAY AIR FREIGHT TAKES A JUMP. Cathay Pacific’s air cargo division has reported a 13% jump in airfreight year on year. Cathay Cargo carried 13% more cargo in August 2025 than in August 2024, while Available Freight Tonne Kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 15%. In the first eight months of 2025, the total tonnage increased by 11% compared with the same period for 2024. As well as its freight figures Cathay reported the second half of the traditional summer travel peak, August, was another positive month for the passenger business, carrying an average of more than 110,000 passengers per day. 

OCEANIA PORTS AND AIRPORTS 

• GLEBE ISLAND VALUE.  When Chinese cargo ship Yu Peng berthed at Glebe Island recently to unload heavy tunnel boring equipment needed for construction of the Western Sydney Harbour Tunnel, it highlighted what many say is the need to retain Sydney Harbour’s last working deepwater port. The state government was seemingly poised to announce the closure of Glebe Island late last year, with plans to turn it into a residential precinct. A rearguard action by industry groups and unions has seemingly changed the political landscape. Sydney’s Working Port Coalition was formed to defend the port. A spokesperson for the SWPC said they were encouraged by indications from Premier Chris Minns that he was prepared to compromise, with housing and port industries coexisting.
• VOLUMES DRIVE STRONG TAURANGA RESULT, with virtually every key metric in positive territory in FY2025. Total trade increased 7% on the previous year, to 25.3 million tonnes, with container volumes up 5.3% to 1.2 million TEU. Transhipped containers increased 9.7% to 306,102 TEU. Ship visits totalled 1,442 (up from 1,427). Underlying Group Net Profit After Tax was NZD126.0 million, a 23% increase on the previous year. Group Net Profit After Tax was NSD173.4 million (a 90.8% increase, including a one-off gain of NZD49.2 million from the sale of Northport Limited as a result of the Marsden Maritime Holdings acquisition. Revenues reached NZD464.7 million (an 11.3% increase from NZD417.4million). EBITDA increased 15.1% to NZD234.5 million.
• THE KWINANA INDUSTRIES COUNCIL is calling for urgent action to update Kwinana Bulk Jetty (KBJ). The council claims congestion at the jetty is costing West Australian industries nearly AUD70 million a year in demurrage fees because of delays. One company reported a 700% increase in annual demurrage costs between 2018 and 2024. Shipping delays have ballooned to an average of 96 hours, up from 12.5 hours in 2015-16. Both berths at KBJ operated at over 80% capacity on average for the year, with one of the berths exceeding 90% capacity for seven months of the year and for nine months of the year, 80% of ships unloading at the jetty experienced delays in accessing a berth, and for five months of the year, every ship was delayed. One vessel spent 67 days in port, potentially incurring an AUD4 million demurrage charge.
• LYTTELTON PORT COMPANY CHAIR Barry Bragg has welcomed a substantial improvement in the port’s financial and operational performance in FY 2025. LPC has reported a record underlying net profit after tax of NZD25.2 million, up 62.8% from the FY 2024 result of NZD15.5 million, while EBITDA for the year was a record NZD63.4 million, a 21.1% increase from FY 2024. This was driven by a rise in total revenue, which increased by 6.8% to a record NZD207 million.
• THE FIRST VESSEL to dock at Broome’s new floating wharf arrived on 9 September. The MV Frauke arrived carrying the KMSB (Kimberley Marine Support Base) Crane. Following that, smaller cruise vessels started arriving from 13 September onwards, with Livestock carriers for cattle vessels arriving within the same week. The first medium cruise vessels of more than 180 to 220+ meters arrived on 17 September, and on 21 September. The opening of the wharf has been an eight-year project, finally given official sanction by the Kimberley Ports Authority Harbour Master, allowing it to start accepting vessels.
• WELLINGTON WINS WITH FY25 JUMP. CentrePort Wellington says a continued focus on efficiency, with a customer centric approach, continues to drive success running ahead of the plan set following the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. As a result, CentrePort ended FY25 with an underlying NPAT of NZD17.6 million, up 20% on the previous year’s result of NZD14.6 million. CentrePort’s Board chair, Lachie Johnstone, said the achievement was due to the port following that clear plan, which had created a momentum that has seen 30% compounded annual growth in the underlying NPAT since FY2022.
• MENZIES AVIATION has opened its third cargo warehouse at Sydney International Airport (SYD), designed to support growing demand for temperature-sensitive and e-commerce cargo. Known as ‘M1’, the 5,000 sqm facility is located within Sydney Airport’s international freight precinct and offers direct airside access and multiple freighter bays positioned adjacent to the warehouse. Cathay Cargo and United Cargo have become the first airline customers to commence operations at M1. 

CUSTOMER SERVICE 

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