News

Fracht Australia News - January / February 2018

23/1/2018

 

 

“Make the customer part of the solution, not part of the problem….”

    Catherine DeVrye     

Welcome to our first Newsletter in 2018. The whole Fracht team sincerely hopes that this will be an excellent and successful year for all our valued clients and supporters. We are looking forward to providing you with the best possible Customer Care in 2018. 

AROUND THE WORLD 

• ARGENTINA: In our October newsletter we reported that Fracht purchased a majority shareholding in Schryver Argentina S.A. We are pleased to announce that on 5 January 2018 the company’s name was changed to FRACHT ARGENTINA S.A.
• USA: Fracht Miami moved into larger premises and now also has their own warehouse. Please note the new address: Fracht FWO Inc., 8400 NW 25^th Street, Suite 104, Doral, FL 33122, Tel +1 305-9947753.
• PERU: Australia signed a historic Free Trade Agreement with Peru.  The conclusion of the new Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement (PAFTA) is expected to eliminate 99% of tariffs that Australia exporters face into Peru.
• USA: The first winter storms on the East Coast in early January caused major disruption of logistics services. The severe blizzard conditions resulted in extreme cold and huge amounts of snow which caused the cancellation of more than 7,000 flights and almost 20,000 delayed flights. Road transport, Amtrak as well as East Coast ports were also impacted by the extreme weather.
• IRAQ: The Iraqi Government implemented new Customs rules in January 2018. One of the major changes is that all current exemptions on duties and taxes in Iraq have been cancelled. 

 AIRFREIGHT NEWS  

• QANTAS PLANS TO INTRODUCE NEW Melbourne – San Francisco – Melbourne services on 1 September 2018. There will be four weekly flights.
• IATA FIGURES REVEAL THAT INTERNATIONAL AIRFREIGHT continued to perform strongly toward the end of 2018. International airfreight increased by 10.5% year to date per 30 November and the Asia Pacific region grew 9.3%.
• THERE WERE UNPRECEDENTED BACKLOGS OF AIR CARGO IN AIRPORTS AROUND THE WORLD in December. The “perfect storm” was created by a record peak season general airfreight, huge volumes of e-commerce and significant under capacity due to cancellations of thousands of flights in Europe and the USA due to extreme weather. Some airlines were unable to accept freight even at “Express rates” which were 2 – 3 times higher than normal airfreight rates.
• IATA PREDICTS GLOBAL AIRLINE INDUSTRY PROFITS TO RISE from USD 34.5 billion in 2017 to USD 38.4 billion in 2018. Overall revenues are expected to rise from USD 754 billion in 2017 to USD 824 billion in 2018. Average net profit per departing passenger will rise from USD 8.45 to USD 8.90. Profit for airlines in the Asia Pacific region should increase from USD 8.3 billion to 9 billion.  

SEAFREIGHT NEWS  

• HOEGH AUTOLINERS WILL INTRODUCE A NEW DIRECT RO/RO SERVICE from Baltimore, MD and Jacksonville, FL via Lazaro Cardenas to Auckland, Brisbane, Port Kembla, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle. The first sailing will be the Hoegh Jeddah V.25 eta Baltimore on 12 March 2018.
• CMA CGM LAUNCHED ITS NEW “PAD SERVICE” ON 4 JANUARY. The rotation of this weekly service will be Zeebrugge, London, Rotterdam Dunkerque, Le Havre, New York Savannah, Miami, Cartagena, Papeete, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Nelson, Napier, Tauranga, Manzanillo, Savannah, Philadelphia, Zeebrugge.
• AN UNUSUAL HIGH NUMBER OF SHIPMENTS ARRIVING IN AUSTRALIAN PORTS WERE DELAYED in January. Several shipping lines were affected by these delays which were caused for a variety of reasons, eg. engine failure, congestion in overseas ports, strikes or delays in overseas ports due to high winds and swell.  Consequently some ports were omitted to restore schedule integrity.
• SEVERAL SHIPPING LINES HAVE ANNOUNCED “BLANK SAILINGS” from Asian ports in the second half of February due to Chinese New Year. This means that in March there won’t be any sailings from Australian ports on corresponding northbound services.
• DUE TO INCREASING COSTS OF BUNKER FUEL some shipping lines have announced higher fuel surcharges for February.  

AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS AND QUARANTINE  

• THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND WATER RESOURCES HAS implemented NEW Annual Packing Declarations. The Department will continue to accept current packing declarations until 30 June 2018. All consignments shipped on or after 1 July 2018 must be accompanied by a packing declaration that meets the revised requirements.
• THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE HAS INTRODUCED NEW EMERGENCY MEASURES FOR IMPORTS FROM ITALY.  This follows the significant number of detections of Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs (BMSB) on arrival in Australia in various types of containerized goods arriving from Italy. All containers from Italy arriving between 17 January and 30 April 2018 MUST be fumigated on arrival. Exceptions are goods treated offshore or fresh produce, live animals, food for human consumption and seeds for sowing.