BDP International (BDP), a privately owned global logistics and transportation solutions company, has announced the launch of BDP GO: a new self-service platform that connects users to instant freight quotes and bookings. After a beta testing launch earlier in the year, the platform is now live. Customers have the ability to manage the ever-evolving complexities of cargo movement while maintaining a complete view of total landed cost.
“As the expectations and needs of BDP’s customers shift with varying micro and macroeconomic forces at play, the demand for self-service capabilities has never been more apparent,” said Lance Malesh, Chief Commercial Officer of BDP International. “Our customers seek simplicity, transparency, and innovative methods for the prompt execution of their high-velocity shipments. BDP GO provides a single-source platform to deliver on these emerging expectations while enhancing and streamlining the overall booking experience.”
Source: Supply Chain Brain
The International Air Transport Association on Tuesday pushed back by a year its estimate for the airline industry to fully recover from the novel coronavirus and said the air cargo market’s modest improvement in June still lagged growth in manufacturing output and trade.
The airline group downgraded its forecast for global passenger traffic and revenues, saying it will not return to last year’s levels until 2024 because a COVID-19 resurgence in several countries, depressed corporate travel and weak consumer confidence is slowing growth more than expected.
Source: Freight Waves
China continues to lag behind the pace of imports from the U.S. needed to meet the terms of the two nations’ trade deal, amid a rapidly worsening diplomatic standoff that’s sparking global fears of a new Cold War.
By the end of the first half of this year, China had bought about 23% of the total purchase target of more than $170 billion for goods in 2020, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Chinese Customs Administration data. That has quickened on a month-over-month basis from May’s 19% marker, but it means China needs to buy about $130 billion in the remainder of the year to comply with the agreement signed in January.
Source: AJOT
While the ongoing trade (and just about everything else) dispute with China is the daily headline grabber, the relations between the United States and Europe have steadily deteriorated since the election of President Trump in 2016. The reasons for the worsening relations between the Trump Administration and Europe are many. At its heart trade is the key matter, issues like the EU subsidies to Airbus (and Boeing’s support from the U.S. government) or the Administration’s 232 investigations into various import commodities.
The Administration’s policy of disengagement, whether that be leaving international organizations like the Paris Climate Agreement, WHO or the threat to the Universal Postal Union, or more recently the WTO (World Trade Organization) not to mention NATO, all have played into Europe’s growing mistrust of the U.S. And Europe’s own ongoing struggle with BREXIT, strained relations with Russia and the trade imbroglio with China have added layers to this already complex state-of-affairs. Still for three-quarters of a century, Europe and the U.S. have largely been in close accord, can it be so again?
Source: AJOT
Blanked sailings and network changes resulted in a mixed bag of throughput results at North Europe’s top two container hubs, Rotterdam and Antwerp, in the first half of the year.
With the three east-west carrier alliances cancelling more than 20% of sailings from Asia to Europe at the peak of the Covid-19 lockdowns in Q2, the carriers reshuffled their pack of retained loops to offer shippers alternative loaders.
While all the container ports in the Hamburg-Le Havre range would have expected a slump in box volumes as a consequence of the blanked sailings, the Belgian port of Antwerp and its smaller compatriot at Zeebrugge have emerged as comparative ‘winners’.
Source: The Loadstar
Insufficient numbers of transport operators are disclosing their emissions, slowing down the process of ‘greening’ the industry.
Less than 20% of global freight emissions are reported, the majority of those by airlines, while road freight is barely touched on, according a new white paper by Smart Freight Centre and CDP.
Freight transport accounts for about 8% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and 11% of logistics sites, such as warehouses and ports, are included. With freight demand expected to triple from 2015 to 2050, emissions will double if no action is taken.
Source: The Loadstar
This year has been an uphill battle for the electronics sector. A March McKinsey study cautioned that electronics companies could stock out by April due to coronavirus-driven factory shutdowns in China and extended lead times.
The shutdowns in China impacted "about a month to 45-day cycle," Richard Barnett, chief marketing officer at Supplyframe, told Supply Chain Dive. “And [production capacity] is coming back to maybe 5% to 10% lower than year over year, seasonally adjusted.”
Source: Supply Chain Dive
