Fracht Australia News - October 2017
29/9/2017
“The seven most expensive words in any organisation are: We have always done it that way……”
Catherine DeVrye
FRACHT’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY DOWN UNDER
29 October 2017 marks the 30th anniversary of Fracht Australia Pty Ltd. The Fracht group was active in Australia via trusted agents and Fracht delegates for many years before the incorporation of our company. From humble beginnings in Sydney and Melbourne Fracht has enjoyed successful growth for the last 30 years and today provides the complete range of forwarding and logistics services in all major Australian gateways. From the very first day Fracht Australia had a strong commitment to exceptional customer care and after 30 years, this continues to be our main focus. On this special occasion we’d like to convey our SINCERE THANKS to all our loyal clients for your wonderful support! Some of you have been with us from the 1st day. We sincerely hope that we will have the pleasure of looking after your logistics requirements for many more years.
FRACHT EXPERTISE AT SUPPLY CHAIN LEADERS INSIGHTS
Fracht Australia are participating in Supply Chain Leaders Insights in Sydney, an innovative Supply Chain Event format and would love you to join us there.
The Sydney event is being held at the Merivale in Sydney on 19 October 2017. At a broad range of ‘round tables’ industry experts will be sharing their expertise with small groups. Our chosen topic is Trade and Transport Risks. As a supporter of the event we’re able to provide a promo code for you, so the ticket price of only $87 is dropped even more to just $47! All proceeds from ticket sales will go to charity! You can read more about the event and register right now, on this link: www.supplychainleadersinsights.com.au
We hope to see you there!
FRACHT EXPANDS IN ARGENTINA
We are delighted to announce that a longstanding and successful cooperation with Schryver Argentina S.A. has culminated in Fracht acquiring a majority shareholding in Schryver. The company will be re-named FRACHT ARGENTINA and offers a comprehensive portfolio of international and domestic logistics services including project transports. The existing successful Schryver management will continue to lead the company’s further expansion. This investment in Argentina follows Fracht’s recent acquisitions in other Latin American countries and reaffirms Fracht’s serious focus on the South American market.
SEAFREIGHT NEWS
- SWIRE SHIPPING IS UPGRADING ITS NORTH ASIA EXPRESS (NAX) SERVICE by providing better connectivity between Townsville and Asian ports with larger ships. The 20 day frequency will offer an eight day transit time to Singapore and inbound from China 15 days from Ningbo and 17 days from Shanghai.
- MSC WILL DISCONTINUE SERVICES TO / FROM TIMARU from November 2017.
- SHIPPING LINES ARE INTRODUCING AND / OR INCREASING BOOKING CANCELLATION FEES for “no shows”. Hapag Lloyd is now charging AUD50.00 per container while Maersk increased their fee from AUD100.00 to 250.00 per container!! The Australian Peak Shippers Council (APSA) has challenged Maersk’s dramatic increase while maintaining the position that a two-way accountability should exist, i.e. if shippers have to pay punitive cancellation fees then the shipping lines should also pay compensation when bookings are rolled.
- PEAK SEASON DEMAND RESULTED IN A SHARP DECREASE OF LAID UP VESSELS in the last few weeks. Lay-up capacity has fallen by 94,000 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) to 151 ships with 377,925 TEUs on 21 August. In many markets around the world space has become quite tight at the moment and our Brazilian offices report a critical shortage of container capacity.
- CARRIERS HAVE AGAIN ANNOUNCED SOUTHBOUND “RATE RESTORATIONS” FROM ASIA to Australia ranging from USD100.00 to USD500.00 per TEU effective 1 October. As mentioned above space is indeed somewhat limited at the moment which will allow the shipping lines to enforce some of the increases. This will also result in increases of LCL-rates.
- WHILE THIS YEARS PEAK SEASON HAS BEEN GOOD FOR THE SHIPPING LINES THE GOLDEN WEEK IN CHINA from 1 to 8 October will result in a temporary significant drop in demand. It is therefore expected that several shipping lines will announce “blank sailings” in October in an effort to maintain their good margins.
AIRFREIGHT NEWS
- THE WORLD’S TOP RANKING AIR CARGO CARRIERS for 2016 has been released. The top ten are Federal Express, Emirates, DHL, Cathay (includes Dragonair), Lufthansa Group (includes Swiss, Austrian & Brussels Airlines), Qatar, Air France / KLM, Korean and Cargolux.
- WORLDWIDE DEMAND FOR INTERNATIONAL AIRFREIGHT INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY in recent months and this trend will continue at least until the end of the year. One of the many contributing factors towards very tight capacity is the launch of the new iPhone and lots of other tech products seeping into the market. Airlines are now starting to push up airfreight rates, e.g. Lufthansa has already announced a 5-10% increase from 1 October.
- THE LATEST IATA FIGURES CONFIRM THE INTERNATIONAL AIRFREIGHT MARKETS REMAINED ROBUST ALSO IN JULY. In the first 7 months of 2017 international airfreight increased 11.8% while the Asia Pacific region achieved 11.3% growth.
AUSTRALIAN PORTS
- QUBE LOGISTICS HAS IMPLEMENTED A NEW “INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL FEE” OF AUD 30.00 PER GATEPASS at its Container Freight Stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane Adelaide and Fremantle effective 9 October. Other CFS operators will probably follow the lead in the not too distant future.
- MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA (MUA) MEMBERS CONTINUED STRIKE ACTION at Qube’s Newcastle facility in September. The enterprise agreement negotiations appear to have reached a stalemate and Qube continues to maintain that the company’s operation in Newcastle is currently not viable.
AROUND THE WORLD
- CHINA: Companies in China will remain closed from 1 to 8 October for the Moon Festival & National Day Public Holidays, also known as “Golden Week”.
- BELGIUM / HOLLAND: Barge congestion in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam continued into September with delays of up to 72 hours. This in turn created intense pressure on the trucking industry because shippers refuse to send goods by barge after almost two months of delays.
- QATAR: Supermarket shelves are full and Qatar has seen airfreight demand return to pre-crisis levels following the introduction of new shipping routes from Asia and Oman while the Gulf State continues to battle the Saudi led blockade. At the start in June Qatar Airways had to manage a shift from a usual 180 tonnes perishables per day to 900 tonnes. Because of the blockade Qatar also brought forward plans to develop its own dairy industry which instigated Qatar Cargo to begin the uplift of 4,000 Holstein Cows on more than 20 B777 charter freighters.
- USA: Hurricanes Harvey and Irma wreaked havoc in Texas, Louisiana and Florida and severely disrupted supply chains with biblical rainfalls and mandatory evacuations. Airports and ports were closed for several days and thousands of flights had to be cancelled. The flow on effects will be felt for weeks with some vessels suffering delays of up to seven days. WWL formally declared this a “Force Majeure situation”. Fracht offices in Texas and Florida were closed for several days but our teams had the ability to work remotely.
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
