News

Fracht Australia News - February 2020

15/1/2020

  

“Don’t stop when you’re tired.  Stop when you’re done.

              Anonymous  

Welcome to 2020 – a new decade! A lot has changed in the last ten years and no doubt, there will be even more changes in the next ten years. However, there’s something what won’t change: Fracht’s relentless pursuit of outstanding customer care for all our clients!  Wishing you the very best for a successful and prosperous year.

AROUND THE WORLD 

• SWITZERLAND: 2020 marks Fracht’s 65^th anniversary! The Fracht Group was founded in 1955 in Basel / Switzerland. From relatively humble beginnings the company now boasts more than 120 offices around the world and continues to expand successfully. Thanks to the fact that Fracht is privately owned our main focus remains customer care and we have the ability to adapt promptly to clients’ needs.
• AUSTRALIA: According to a report released by EnergyQuest, Australia has become the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas on an annualised basis. Approximately 77.5m tonnes was exported in 2019. The USA have exported about 35.4m tonnes in 2019.
• BELGIUM: Polytra Belgium – a company owned by Fracht – has acquired Zoo Air BVBA. In addition to a comprehensive range of general airfreight and warehouse services, Zoo Air is a preferred supplier to several international zoos and also transports significant amounts of police and explosive detection dogs around the world. The company will be renamed FRACHT BELGIUM AIR.
• BRAZIL: Fracht do Brasil has outgrown its old office and moved to new premises: Avenida Paulista 2644, 10. Floor – Suite 101/102, 01310-300 Sao Paulo – SP. The new phone number is +55 11 3881 6271.
• BURKINO FASO: Fracht Burkino Faso opened a branch office in Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest city in the country on 1 November 2019.
• FRANCE: The extensive strikes which started in early December have caused major logistics problems, flight cancellations, port closures and holiday chaos. Nobody seems to know when this unfortunate situation will end….
• IRAN / IRAQ: Following the killing of Iran’s General Qasem Soleiman by US Armed Forces and Iran’s retaliation missile attacks most airlines have diverted flights from Iran and Iraq airspace in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the 2014 disaster when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a missile over the Ukraine. Avoiding the conflict zone adds to flight times and increases fuel consumption. The political turbulences in the Middle East are likely to also increase insurance and re-insurance premiums for cargo and carriers moving in or near the region. 
   

AIRFREIGHT NEWS 

• SINGAPORE AIRLINES ADDED ATLANTA TO ITS FULL FREIGHTER NETWORK. The new B747-400F service operates from Dallas via Atlanta, Brussels and Sharjah to Singapore. The carrier also announced that it plans to introduce four weekly non-stop passenger services from Singapore to Brussels from October 2020.
• EMIRATES LAUNCHED A NEW DAILY B777-200LR service from Dubai via Barcelona to Mexico. This aircraft can carry up to 14 tonnes of freight.
• QATAR AIRWAYS GROWS ITS FULL FREIGHTER SOUTH AMERICAN NETWORK. The new B777F services are twice weekly flights from Doha via Luxembourg and Miami to Bogota, returning to Doha via Liege as well as twice weekly flights from Doha to Campesinas with return flights to Doha via Santiago, Lima, Dallas and Luxembourg.
• VIETNAM AIRLINES LAUNCHED NEW ROUTES between Hanoi and Macau as well as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh to / from Shenzhen.
• ACCORDING TO THE LATEST IATA STATISTICS THE DECLINE OF INTERNATIONAL AIRFREIGHT IS EASING but year to date figures per the end of November 2019 are still unimpressive. Total international airfreight for the 11 months declined by 4% while the Asia Pacific Region registered a drop of 6.7%. 

SEAFREIGHT NEWS 

• AS USUAL AROUND THE CHINESE NEW YEAR most shipping lines have announced a number of “blank sailings” reducing overall capacity while the demand is low.
• ALL THE MAJOR CONTAINER SHIPPING LINES ARE NOW COLLECTING THE NEW LOW SUPLHUR FUEL SURCHARGE. Some carriers created new names for this surcharge, e.g. Environmental Fuel Fee (EFF), Sulphur Recovery Charge (SRC) or Emission Control Area Surcharge (ECC). Meanwhile we received reports that in December ships were queuing more than twice as long as normal to stock up on new low sulphur fuel at the world’s top bunkering hub, Singapore.
• THE WORLDWIDE CONTAINER SHIPPING MARKET CHANGES CONSTANTLY and most major shipping lines are forming alliances with other carriers. Today three dominant alliances control 80% of the global market share:
  1. 2M (Maersk and MSC) = 33.5%
  2. Ocean Alliance (COSCO-OOCL, CMA CGM and Evergreen) = 29.8%
  3. THE Alliance (Hapag Lloyd, ONE & Yang Ming) = 16.7%
      

AUSTRALIAN PORTS 

• STEVEDORES CONTINUE TO INCREASE THEIR CHARGES SIGNIFICANTLY.  In our December newsletter we informed about DP World’s 36.6% increase of its infrastructure surcharge per 1 January 2020 and now VICT Melbourne (Victoria International Container Terminal) announced their increase from AUD 85.00 to AUD 121.80 per full container. This makes VICT the most expensive terminal in Australia.
• AMIDST A CLIMATE OF EVER-INCREASING FEES, PATRICKS EAST SWANSON TERMINAL MELBOURNE has now decided to reduce service levels by introducing reductions in night shift road R&D operations! After years of being encouraged strongly to embrace night shift operations, wharf transport operators are now forced to change their own staffing, rostering and operational parameters. The reduction in opportunities to collect import containers may indirectly also lead to additional container detention fee issues.
• CONTAINER VOLUMES IN AUSTRALIAN PORTS CONTRACTED in the 2018 / 19 financial year according to reports released by the ACCC. The stevedores reported 5.11 million lifts down 0.5% from the previous year. Lifts of full containers contracted by 4.9% while empty containers increased by 14.6%. This is only the second time in a decade that overall numbers declined. In terms of TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) basis there was a slight 0.2% increase because of a shift from 20 ft to 40 ft containers. The terminals handled a total of 7.88 million TEUs.
   

AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS AND QUARANTINE 

• THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES AND AGRICULTURE HAS MADE CHANGES to the Biosecurity Cost Recovery and also increased charges effective 1 January e.g. Full Import Declarations air from AUD 33.00 to 38.00 and sea from AUD 42.00 to 49.00. Interesting to note that Government or Stevedores are able to increase by double digit percentages while most other companies in the supply chain barely manage to increase by CPI!
• THE BMSB ISSUES CONTINUE TO CAUSE EXTRA COSTS AND FRUSTRATION for many people involved in the supply chain. In December / January two roll on / roll off vessels were refused permission to discharge in Australian ports and redirected to complete further offshore treatment.
• INDONESIA WAS SUCCESSFUL IN ITS ANTI DUMPING APPEAL with the World Trade Organisation. Australia was found to have imposed dumping duties on Indonesian A4 copy paper that were inconsistent with its obligations as a WTO member.
• ACCORDING TO A RECENT BORDER FORCE COMPLIANCE UPDATE approximately AUD 2.1 million has been collected by Customs from customs brokers, freight forwarders, depot operators or importers in the 12 months of the 1918/19 financial year under the “Infringement Notice Scheme”.  In the first quarter (June/July/August) of the current financial year already approx AUD 1.6 million worth of fines were issued! In other words, the fines seem to have tripled. 
  
  

CUSTOMER SERVICE

If you would like further information about any of the above items, please contact one of our friendly Fracht Team members at fracht@frachtsyd.com.au