Newsletter – June 15, 2018

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Brussels launches blockchain freight management app

source: aircargonews.net

Brussels Airport has launched its first application using blockchain technology, which it describes as the next step in the landside management tool it is developing with stakeholders in the BRUcargo airfreight community. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

As oil rises, slow steaming returns to MSC and Maersk

source: transportweekly.com

Slow-steaming is once again operational at the world’s two biggest carriers – Maersk Line and the Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) – driven by the rise of oil prices and environmental compliance costs.

MSC chief executive Diego Aponte said they had “decided to go for more slow steaming, and will add vessels to current strings to improve punctuality”. Read more here.

Angry shippers accuse carriers of ‘price-signalling’ with ‘unjustified’ surcharges

source: theloadstar.co.uk

The European Shippers Council (ESC) has accused container lines of price-signalling, following a wave of emergency bunker surcharges (EBSs). Read more here (login required).

Los Angeles May volumes fall 3.4pc as alliances favour Long Beach

source: seanews.com.tr

CHANGES in alliance choices in San Pedro Bay favouring Long Beach has been blamed for the 3.4 per cent year-on-year drop in container throughput to 768,804 TEU at the Port of Los Angeles decline in May. Read more here.

CANADA BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Feds provide $2.8 million in funding to Trucking HR Canada

source: canadianshipper.com

Gatineau, QC — Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, announced funding of $2.8 million to Trucking HR Canada through the Government of Canada’s Sectoral Initiatives Program (SIP), to develop the sectoral labour market information needed to shape the industry for the future. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Italy won’t ratify EU free-trade deal with Canada: farm minister

source: ca.reuters.com

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy will not ratify the European Union’s free trade agreement with Canada, its new agriculture minister said on Thursday, ratcheting up an international trade spat and potentially scuppering the EU’s biggest accord in years. Read more here.

Trump announces 25% tariff on Chinese hi-tech imports

source: theguardian.com

Donald Trump has announced a 25% tariff on $50bn of Chinese goods, escalating trade tensions a day after Beijing officials warned China was preparing to retaliate. The move, after a long war of words, escalates the possibility of a full trade war between the world’s two leading economies. Read more here.