News

Fracht Australia News - July 2017

1/7/2017

 

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

                                                    Will Rogers

 

FRACHT AUSTRALIA WINS AWARDS

We are delighted to announce that the TRANSPORT NEWS MAGAZINE has awarded Fracht Australia BEST INTERNATIONAL FREIGHT FORWARDER – AUSTRALIA as well as AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE.

To have received these awards is a great privilege and further reinforces our commitment to ensuring the best outcome for our clients in sometimes challenging circumstances.

  

AROUND THE WORLD

• CHINA: The Fracht Shenzhen office moved into new premises: Tower-B, 2508/B Block #2, Excellence Meilin Central Plaza, No 128 Zhongkang Road, Futian District, Shenzhen, China 518000. The phone numbers remain unchanged.
• QATAR: The spiralling diplomatic crisis in the Middle East affects the movement of cargo and people to / from Qatar. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen and Libya have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. Cargo to / from these countries and Qatar can NOT be moved by land, sea or air. Qatar Airways had to cancel all flights to / from these countries and ships flying the Qatar flag or owned by Qatari companies or individuals can’t call at any of the ports. All other vessels carrying Qatari cargo or with their last / next port of call in Qatar are not allowed to enter into ports of the boycotting countries. The airlines of these countries also had to suspend all flights to / from Qatar. There are no restrictions between Qatar and Oman, Kuwait and Iraq. Shipping Lines that have already loaded cargo to Qatar via UAE hubs will have to make alternative arrangements which will incur additional costs for the shippers or consignees. Airfreight volumes into Qatar have increased significantly since the blockade. Qatar Airways has announced the purchase of 4.75% of American Airlines with a potential increase to 10% subject to board and regulatory approval.
• SPAIN: Further to our June Newsletter we regret to inform you that strike action in Spanish ports continued well beyond the initially expected date and won’t stop to before 7 July. Consequently all Spanish ports are currently congested.
• SWEDEN: The partial lockout at the APM Terminals in Gothenburg resulted in a major impact and significant additional costs on Swedish importers and exporters.  Instead of the usual 10,000 units per week Gothenburg now handles only 2,000 units. Many containers go into storage and trucking companies incur many hours of expensive truck waiting time to deliver and or pick up containers. Containers are diverted to alternative ports and shipping lines are reducing capacity to Gothenburg. The bottom line is a lot of delays and extra costs.

 

 AIRFREIGHT NEWS 

• AIR CHINA LAUNCHED A NEW WEEKLY B777-F full freighter service between Shanghai and Liege, Belgium.
• ETIHAD CARGO COMMENCED A NEW A330F FREIGHTER service with a payload of 64 tonnes between Abu Dhabi and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The rotation is Abu Dhabi – Singapore – Phnom Penh – Abu Dhabi.
• QATAR AIRWAYS CARGO ADDED A WEEKLY A330 FREIGHTER to London Heathrow. This boosts the carrier’s weekly cargo capacity from the UK to an impressive 1,500 tonnes.
• MALAYSIA AIRLINES’ MASKARGO NEWEST FULL FREIGHTER DESTINATION IS NEW DELHI which is serviced by a weekly A330-200F from Kuala Lumpur
• VIRGIN ATLANTIC CARGO WILL LAUNCH A NEW MELBOURNE – HONG KONG service on 5 July. The additional A330-200 operated in partnership with Virgin Australia will bring the total capacity to five flights per week with a capacity of 14 tonnes each.
• MELBOURNE WILL BE JAPAN AIRLINES’ SECOND DESTINATION IN AUSTRALIA.  JAL will launch a daily Tokyo Narita – Melbourne service on 1 September.

 

SEAFREIGHT NEWS 

• THE MERGER OF THE THREE LARGEST JAPANESE CONTAINER LINES is a step closer to completion. As announced in our December Logistics News K-Line, MOL and NYK have agreed to form a joint venture. The new JV will be called “Ocean Network Express’ and will commence joint operation on 1 April 2018. A holding company will be established in Japan with regional headquarters in Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK, USA and Brazil. The new entity will control a fleet of 1.4 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) which represents 7% of the world’s total capacity, ranking it 6^th largest container line.
• THE LARGEST CONTAINER SHIP IN THE WORLD HAS BEEN LAUNCHED BY Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL). The “OOCL Hong Kong” was built by Samsung Heavy Industries and boasts a capacity of 21,413 TEUs. The sizes of container ships have increased dramatically over the last 10-15 years and a good illustration of this is the fact that only in 2003 OOCL held the world record for the largest container vessel with the 8,063 TEU “OOCL Shenzhen”.
• SHIPPING LINES FROM NORTH EAST ASIA TO AUSTRALIA HAVE ANNOUNCED A “RATE RESTORATION” for cargo to Australia from 1 July. The increase will be USD 300.00 per TEU.

  

AUSTRALIAN PORTS 

• FOLLOWING DP WORLD’S LEAD (refer to our April newsletter) PATRICKS WILL NOW ALSO INCREASE THE MELBOURNE INFRASTRUCTURE SURCHARGE BY ALMOST 1,000% from AUD 3.50 to AUD 32.00 per container. A new surcharge of AUD 25.45 per container in Sydney and AUD 4.76 in Perth will be in introduced on 10 July while the Brisbane surcharge will increase to AUD 32.55. Patrick blames the increases on higher costs including rental increases of up to 140% some being backdated to 2015. The charges are collected from truckers picking up from the terminals and forwarders and customs brokers will have to pass the additional costs on to importers.
• THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW FINANCIAL YEAR IS ALSO THE TIME when shipping lines to tend to increase their tariffs for port service charges, terminal handling, Port Licence fees etc.
• SYDNEY’S PORT BOTANY RECORDED A SIGNIFICANT GROWTH of 4.8% up to May in the current financial year. In the first 11 months 2.237 million TEUs have been handled and more than 18% of them were moved by rail 

 

AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS 

LOW VALUE GOODS WITH AN FOB VALUE of less than AUD1,000.00 are currently duty & GST free and this was supposed to change on 1 July 2018. This legislation has now been postponed and effective 1 July 2018 suppliers, online marketplaces and re-deliverers with an Australian GST turnover of AUD 75,000.00 or more are required to register, charge, report and remit GST on sales of low value goods to consumers in Australia (vendor collection model). High value goods with a customs value greater than AUD1,000.00 will continue to be taxed at the border.