News

Fracht Australia News - May 2017

1/5/2017

 

 

“You can’t fall if you don’t climb. But there’s no joy living your whole life on the ground.”

                                                       Anonymous

 

AROUND THE WORLD

 

• CHINA: The Fracht branch office in Xi’An has moved into new premises: Room 1817 Bldg. C, Fortune Center, Gao Xin 3 Road, Xi’An 710075, PR China, Tel. +86 29 62095266.
• GERMANY: WWL advises that the port of Bremerhaven is currently heavily congested which may lead to vessel delays. For some origins or destinations Zeebrugge in Belgium can be considered as an alternative port.
• SWITZERLAND: Swiss Post and the drone manufacturer Matternet have successfully launched a new service to move laboratory samples between two hospitals in Lugano using drones.
• INDIA: The Ministry of Finance implemented the Bill of Entry (Electronic Integrated Declaration) Amendment Regulation effective 1 April 2017.  Fines will be charged if the Bill of Entry is lodged later than one day after vessel or flight arrival. INR 5,000 (USD 80.00) per day will be charged for the first three days and INR 10,000 (USD 160.00) will be charged for each day thereafter.
• JAPAN: The 4^th round of tariff cuts under the Japan Australia Economic Partnership (JAEPA) Free Trade Agreement came into effect on 1 April. In 2016 Australia exported AUD 4.7 billion worth of agriculture, food, fishery and forestry products and Japanese import duties for these items have now been further reduced.
• FIJI: Hapag Lloyd will introduce a new Container Bond for all import containers to Fiji. The carrier will charge FJD 3,425 per 20 ft container and FJD 5,475 per 40 ft container.

  

AIRFREIGHT NEWS

 

• EMIRATES WILL REDUCE THEIR WEEKLY SERVICES TO THE USA from 126 to 101 flights per week. The frequency cut was prompted by the deteriorating demand following the US restrictions on travel.
• QATAR AIRWAYS LAUNCHED A NEW A330F full freighter service between Doha and Phnom Penh / Cambodia. The airline has also considerably increased its freighter capacity to / from Basel / Switzerland and Brussels / Belgium to cater for the pharmaceutical industry.
• AIR CHINA WILL INCREASE FREQUENCIES AND ROUTES for the new summer / autumn schedules and will offer more than 8,500 flights per week to 1,330 airports in 193 countries. New routes include Shanghai – Barcelona, Beijing – Zurich and Beijing – Astana (Kazakhstan).
• THE TOP 10 GLOBAL AIRFREIGHT HUBS IN 2016 were Hong Kong, Memphis TN, Shanghai, Incheon, Anchorage, Dubai, Louisville KY, Frankfurt, Paris and Tokyo.
• IATA FIGURES INDICATE THAT THE POSITIVE JANUARY FIGURES CONTINUED INTO FEBRUARY 2017.  International airfreight increased by 7.8% in the first two months of 2017 compared to 2016 and the Asia Pacific region achieved an 8.4% growth.

 

 SEAFREIGHT NEWS

 

• APL HAS LAUNCHED THEIR NEW ASIA FREMANTLE EXPRESS (AFX) SERVICE which directly links Singapore with Fremantle. With a seven day direct transit time between Singapore and Fremantle the AFX service is perfect for time sensitive cargo. The new service will allow shippers to access APL’s global network via the Singapore hub.
• HAPAG LLOYD WILL COMMENCE ITS NEW NORTH EAST ASIA AUSTRALIA EXPRESS (NAX) service on 21 May. The rotation will be Yokohama – Osaka – Busan – Qingdao – Shanghai – Ningbo – Melbourne – Sydney – Brisbane – Yokohama.
• MITSUI OSK LINES (MOL) HAS TAKEN DELIVERY OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST BOXSHIP ON THE WATER. The “MOL Triumph” has a capacity of 20,170 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units), is 400 metres long and 58.8 metres wide. The ship is the first of six ultra large container ships ordered by MOL.
• FLEET IDLING RATIO CONTINUED TO DROP IN MARCH. Idling container ships’ ratio dropped from 6.8% in the first week of March to 5.6% on 20 March. Good news for ship owners!

  

AUSTRALIAN PORTS AND AIRPORTS

 

• ALL AUSTRALIAN AIRFREIGHT TERMINAL OPERATORS HAVE INCREASED THEIR CHARGES for import and export airfreight at Australian airports. The increases became effective between 3 April and 8 May 2017.
• PATRICKS STEVEDORES AT SYDNEY’S PORT BOTANY ENDURED “ILLEGAL INDUSTRIAL ACTION” by the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) on 10, 20 21 April. Time slots for truckers had to be cancelled. The dispute was triggered by Patrick’s decision to temporarily sublease a “small part” of its Botany Terminal to Qube Logistics for an empty container park. The Federal Court has ordered the MUA to abide by a directive of the Fair Work Commission not to take industrial action until after the next FWC hearing date.  To make matters worse Hutchinson Port Botany had to cancel slots on 10 and 11 April due to “unforeseen maintenance issues”.
• ROAD TOLLS FOR HEAVY VEHICLES IN MELBOURNE HAVE INCREASED by up to 125% which will probably lead to an increase of container delivery rates between AUD 20.00 and 65.00 per container.

 

 AUSTRALIAN QUARANTINE

 

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry have issued a NEW Packing Declaration which must be used for all shipments arriving after 16 June 2017.