L4 Logistics | Transport Shipping and Logistics News

World-Leading Freight Forwarders Select Descartes for New Initiative to Integrate Pick-Up and Delivery Options With Local Carriers Connections Over Descartes' Global Logistics NetworkTM to Enable Door-To-Door Services for Logistics Services Providers

 Russian Railways (RZD) intends to set up joint venture engaged in cargo carriage with Railion Deutschland - ZAO EuraziaRailLogistics in 2006, RZD President Vladimir Yakunin said.

Reports that Deutsche Bahn plans to buy BAX Global for between 800 mn euros and 1 bn euros have yet to be officially confirmed by either company, although Reuters reports a DB source as saying that the purchase is to be concluded at a special meeting of the German rail operator's supervisory board on Saturday.

SkyEurope Airlines, Central Europe’s largest low cost, low fare airline continues to expand and is opening this winter 13 new, exciting routes to its network.

After seven rounds of talks, the United States and China on Tuesday signed a three-year agreement on textile trade, imposing quotas on Chinese textile products but clearing a major obstacle to bilateral trade.

The European Union is preparing new anti-dumping tariffs on China’s leather and reinforced shoes in a bid to control the country’s booming exports. Following an investigation that found Chinese exporters were dumping footwear — selling it below production cost — EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson will unveil the punitive measures in the coming month, the Financial Times said last week quoting a senior EU official.

East China’s Shanghai Port will likely register a cargo turnover of 443 million tons this year, ready to outperform Singapore to become the top cargo port in the world. The forecast was made recently by the Shanghai harbor administration on the basis of statistics about Shanghai Port’s cargo turnover for the past 10 months, which amounted to 363 million tons.

 Geneva – On the occasion of the General Assembly of the International Road Transport Union (IRU), IRU President Paul Laeremans presented the 3rd annual IRU awards for the “Best Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Road Transport Operator”. The award, organised jointly with the CIS Transport Coordination Council, recognises outstanding performance in road transport management, including development and implementation of best practices for sustainable development.

Nine months results: Strong organic growth and improved profitability The global transport and logistics group Panalpina posts convincing results for the first nine months of 2005. Net forwarding revenue grew 13.7% to CHF 4,967 million while the operating result (EBIT) increased 26.0% to CHF 130 million. Net income improved by 31.3% to CHF 103 million.

Exel has won two awards at this year's Asia Logistics Awards, organised by Lloyd's FTB Asia publication. Exel in Asia Pacific was presented with the 'Third Party Logistics (3PL) of the Year' and 'Lead Logistics Provider of the Year' awards at a dinner and presentation ceremony held recently at the JW Marriott Hotel in Shanghai, China which was attended by over 400 professionals from the transportation and logistics industry.

Exel has extended its existing contract with Verlagsunion (VU), one of the largest magazine distributors based in Germany, to include reverse logistics. Exel will now also retrieve magazines, CDs, DVDs, surprise bags and toy supplements that are no longer required by retailers on Verlagsunion's behalf.

From the time that Macquarie Bank in May listed an Asian infrastructure fund in Singapore, it was clear that China would be a top priority for the company's deal makers.Macquarie, the biggest Australian investment bank by market capitalization, has gained a global reputation for taking lucrative stakes in transport infrastructure including rail, toll roads, tunnels, shipping and airports.

Deutsche Post World Net increased its profit from operating activities (EBIT) by 19.9 percent to around 2.4 billion euros in the first nine months. Revenue rose slightly by 2.5 percent to 32.5 billion euros compared with the first nine months of the previous year.

News in short for 11th November 2005.

Russia’s Federal Property Fund (RFFI) sold yesterday, November 10, 2005, the 48.79 percent in St. Petersburg Seaport. The state-run stake was bought out by Cyprus Chupit Ltd. at the starting price of 802.5 million rubles. It seems worth mentioning that this offshore is said to be acting on behalf of Novolipetsk Metal Works (NLMK), which controls the port.

A crack team of TNT customer service experts has won global acclaim for its work in arranging the expert collection and delivery of human blood samples used in life-saving drugs trials around the world.

The Scotts Company LLC and OH Logistics Partner in Southern California: 3PL to Operate 600,000 SF Building. Ozburn-Hessey Logistics and The Scotts Company LLC, a subsidiary of The ScottsMiracle-Gro Company, announced a partnership in which OH Logistics will provide warehousing and transportation scheduling for The Scotts Company and operate a 600,000 square foot building in Fontana, CA. The addition of this space brings OH Logistics total square footage in the Riverside/Inland Empire area to approximately 800,000 and total square footage in Southern California to well over 1 million.

As holiday traditions go, UPS's annual Peak Season is one of long standing. And that tradition will be extended in 2005 with a "Peak Day" that will see UPS deliver more than 20 million packages.That amounts to 230 packages delivered every second on Peak Day, which will occur this year on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Hardly had Shekou Container Terminals ("SCT") set an  vessel productivity record on 20 October 2005 (see the relevant news) than it buried it in a fortnight. On 6 November 2005, when stevedoring MV.NYK.ATLAS/14E44 of the FEX Service of the Grand Alliance, SCT moved 2,494 boxes in 12 hours, which is equivalent to 200 moves per hour, breaking the previous record of 180 moves per hour by 11%.

Europe Container Terminals (ECT), a member of the Hutchison Port Holdings Group announced the acquisition of a majority stake of 51.56%, from the current shareholding of 27%, in DeCeTe Duisburger Container Terminal (DeCeTe), a large trimodal inland terminal in Duisburg, Germany.

General Motors/Opel and their carriers UECC have selected BCT for exports of Polish-build cars to the UK market. UECC and local agents Wm H.Muller are regular clients at BCT. For this project they have been succesful in setting up a reliable logistics chain with overland transport in special rail cars and weekly sailings from Gdynia. The first loading of 480 cars took place on November 1 2005. BCT operations were smooth and all parties are looking forward to expand business for 2006.

The United States and Canada have reached a full open-skies aviation agreement that removes all economic restrictions on air services to, from and beyond the other’s territory by the airlines of both countries. The agreement builds on the liberalised accord reached in 1995 between the two countries, and will make Canada the US’ 73rd open-skies partner.

According to new research, the Panama Canal, while currently coping with the growth in tonnage/transits, is unlikely to be able to mitigate the continuing pressure on North American West Coast Ports and rail infrastructure over the next ten years. The APL-commissioned research by Drewry Shipping Consultants shows that use of the Panama Canal climbed sharply last year as shippers moved to all-water services in response to congestion at US West Coast ports and deteriorating performance of the trans-continental railroads.

A demo freight train "Russia Express" to carry cargo on the Berlin - Warsaw - Minsk - Moscow route will bound along the second transport corridor on November 17-20. The project is realized to attract additional cargo flows to the East via Belarus. The train arrives to Brest on November 18

The chief executive of Dutch mail and logistics company TNT said on Monday his company was looking for acquisitions in Europe and China, and could comfortably spend up to 1 billion euros ($1.18 billion). “We are actively looking in the express arena in Europe and we are even looking in China and working on one or two ideas for acquisitions,” Peter Bakker, the firm’s chief executive, told Reuters.