The U.S. and China are close to a trade deal that could lift most or all U.S. tariffs as long as Beijing follows through on pledges ranging from better protecting intellectual-property rights to buying a significant amount of American products, two people familiar with the discussions said. Chinese officials made clear in a series of…
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has written to 145,000 VAT-registered businesses trading with the EU about simplified importing procedures and also updated them on the actions that they need to take to prepare. Transitional Simplified Procedures (TSP) for customs will make importing easier for an initial period of one year, should we leave the EU…
February 20, 2019 /
The government has announced plans to phase in for EU imports the pre-arrival forms known as Entry Summary Declarations, if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. Officials on Monday held a series of meetings with organisations who represent the haulage industry and handle a significant portion of the UK’s cross border trade, to…
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released full-year 2018 data for global air freight markets showing that demand, measured in freight tonne kilometers (FTKs) grew by 3.5% compared to 2017. This was significantly lower than the extraordinary 9.7% growth recorded in 2017. Freight capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometers (AFTKs), rose by 5.4% in…
February 6, 2019 /
The chaos at Gatwick last month emphasised the UK air freight sector’s over-reliance on the south-east region. When Heathrow and Gatwick are working at full tilt – which is almost all the time – they can claim to be the most efficient airports in the world. Between 19 and 21 December, thousands of flights were…
Rail freight traffic from Europe to Chongqing in China exceeded traffic in westbound direction in 2018. The number of trains travelling from Europe to the southwestern Chinese city reached 728, out of a total of 1,442 freight trains in both directions. This is the first time that eastbound traffic was more than westbound movement. Westbound…
January 21, 2019 /
A “reduced appetite” for ordering ultra-large container vessels (ULCVs) and carriers instead aspiring to become global logistics integrators could finally balance container capacity supply with demand, according to new analysis from Drewry. Indeed, at the end of last year Maersk’s chief executive, Soren Skou, told The Financial Times: “We for sure have to do some…
January 14, 2019 /
As we welcome in 2019, Drewry have shared their thoughts on the key issues and trends likely to affect the container ports and terminals sector in the year ahead. Demand: We will see a softening of the global container port demand growth rate, down from an estimated 4.7% in 2018 to just over 4% in…
Asia-Europe ocean carriers from have announced further hikes in their FAK rates this month after successfully pushing through 1 January spot rate increases. Alphaliner said rates on the route “remained firm in December, despite the resumption of the 2M’s AE2/Swan service”. Hapag-Lloyd said that on 16 January, “due to strong demand”, it was increasing its…
The prospect of unmanned container vessels serving global container supply chains has taken another step forward. Sea Machines Robotics, a US developer of autonomous vessels, announced it had raised $10m from venture capital funds. The investors were led by Accomplice VC and Eniac Ventures, but also include Toyota AI Ventures, TechNexus Venture Collaborative, NextGen VP, Geekdom Fund,…