A personal note on the antitrust investigations that rocked the air freight industry.
 
The weather on the day that I visited prison was perfect for the occasion: it was grey, dreary, cold. Along the interstate leading up to the ‘correctional facility’ stood countless small churches with large billboards providing advice on how to find redemption.
This put a smile on my face, despite the circumstances. But it soon disappeared when I arrived. The ...

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Eleven advertised sailings from Asia to North Europe for next month have now been cancelled, removing nearly 200,000 teu of westbound capacity and threatening a new backhaul space shortage.
The latest blanked voyage to be announced is the 5 October service from Busan: the 14,993 teu Al Mashrab operated by THE Alliance partners Hapag-Lloyd, ONE and Yang Ming on their FE4 loop.
Hapag-Lloyd told customers the voyage was cancelled as part of its vessel ...

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Qatar Airways has blamed a $69m loss on the “illegal” blockade imposed by its neighbours.
In what appears to be a transparent set of accounts, triggered by pressure from the US, the carrier reveals it was forced to cut 18 destinations and operating expenses rose 15% to $11.5bn as the carrier flew longer routes to avoid banned airspace.
Its cargo operations grew, however, with revenue up 34% to $2.4bn, with cargo accounting for more than 22% ...

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FedEx has reported a major upswing in profits for the three months to September, net income climbing more than 40%.
Its first-quarter revenue climbed 12% to $17.1bn, generating some $835m in profits, with chairman Fred Smith noting the success was due to “solid execution” of its business plan.
“We delivered high earnings, driven by a solid execution of our business plan and a strong US economy,” Mr Smith told investors.
“We’re very optimistic ...

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It is a widespread conviction among my trade and banking sources that China’s e-commerce behemoth, Alibaba, is all but set to go after acquisition targets in logistics.
Not only is it likely, I am told, but this deal-making “could be orchestrated by Beijing” if the tariff war between China and the United States does not abate.
The latest twist in the trade war saga came yesterday, with China vowing to retaliate after ...

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UK forwarder association Bifa has appointed Yusen Logistics veteran Claire Capaccioli as its new freight and customs procedures trainer.
Ms Capaccioli takes up the role a year after ending a near-20-year association with Yusen.
Training development manager Carl Hobbis said he was “delighted” to welcome Ms Capaccioli to the team: “We forecasted with Brexit and development of relevant freight forwarding apprenticeships, the need for training would increase.
“Now with International Forwarding Specialist apprenticeships available and Brexit ...

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Car maker BMW has announced a month-long shutdown of its Mini manufacturing plant after Brexit, The Independent reports. According to the paper, BMW is looking to avert any potential disruption from a ‘no-deal’ split from the EU. It seems the company had been planning a shutdown in some form in any event, but this has been rejigged to coincide with Brexit day. “While we believe the worst-case scenario [read as “no deal”] is ...

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There are few logistics and supply chain analysts as well placed to diagnose the health of US integrator UPS as Cathy Morrow Roberson. She spent nearly 11 years working at its HQ in Atlanta, as she openly admits in the opening lines of this blog on UPS’s recent strategic transformation presentation. Her key takeaway – the strategy may be transformational for UPS, but is it really transformational in terms of its ...

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Yesterday, Donald Trump did what everybody knew he was going to do and escalated the China-US trade war with the application of 10% tariffs on another $200bn worth of Chinese goods. They are expected to be increased to 25% next year and, in a splendid case of doubling down on an existing double-down, The South China Morning Post reports, he added that goods worth a further $267bn would see tariffs ...

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CMA CGM wishes to introduce Onne Feeder, its 5th feeder service to West Africa. Onne Feeder will connect with EURAF 4 service at the transhipment hub of Kribi on fortnightly basis.

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