Container index takes a fall in April 
The downturn had been expected. The container throughput of the RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and the Institute for Shipping Economics (ISL) fell from 110.4 (corrected) to 108.9 in April, down 6.5% from the value of the same period last year. In the Chinese... more
Guinea Shipping Corporation names new executive chairman
Guinea Shipping Corporation (GSC) has appointed Bernt Meldgaard Christensen as the company's new executive chairman. Christensen has a wealth of experience in the maritime industry spanning more than 30 years and will be responsible for leading the new team. He succeeds his... more
Port of Casablanca shows resilience
Morocco's port of Casablanca has reported its throughput figures for April 2020, the first month under Covid-19 anti-pandemic conditions. Total traffic recorded at the end of the month was at almost 10.5 million t, a surge of 6% compared to the same period in 2019. Imports... more
Fostering e-bills of lading globally
The Digital Container Shipping Association (Dcsa), in which most of the major carriers seek to standardise their digital activities, has put forward that the current pandemic forges the need to digitise the bill of lading (B/L) in shipping as well. André Simha, global chief... more
Impact of pandemic on already struggling airports
Significantly later than in 2019 and 2018, Airports Council International (ACI) published last year's traffic figures of its 1979 member airports in 176 countries only last week, including a comparison of Q1 figures of 2019 and 2020. As for cargo, against a global... more
New "preighter" destination Shenzhen
Lufthansa Cargo is now offering up to fourteen additional cargo flights a week from Shenzhen to Frankfurt. The first aircraft, an A330-300 from Lufthansa, took off from the Pearl River Delta city last Monday, 18 May 2020. Around 3 million respiratory masks and other medical... more
Emirates expands scheduled and charter operations
Last Thursday, 21 May 2020, Emirates resumed scheduled service to nine passenger destinations, offering bellyhold cargo capacity to and from Chicago, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, Paris CDG, Sydney and Toronto. Simultaneously, Emirates Skycargo... more
IRU: Follow the example!
The German parliament has voted to extend the existing exemption from road tolls for clean trucks, powered by CNG, LNG and electricity, until 2023. The International Road Union (IRU) welcomed this decision for a greener road transport and now calls on all governments around... more
Tightening intra-African air cargo networks
While there has been a reduction in cargo capacity to, from, and within Africa since March, Astral Aviation continues to operate cargo freighters (Fokker 27, DC-9 and B727-200 + one wet-leased B747-400 freighter on the London/Liege sector) from its Nairobi hub to 13 destinations... more
US customs tells hair-raising stories
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at the Dallas Fort Worth port of entry recently intercepted two separate shipments from Nigeria, containing a combined USD 63,000 in counterfeit currency. In April, officers selected a box of wigs and hair for... more