The world’s three largest container shipping lines, Denmark’s Maersk, France’s CMA CGM and Swiss-based MSC, have suspended their bookings to and from Russia after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, sparking a flurry of Western sanctions.

The exit of major container shipping companies — which transport most manufactured goods around the world and are essential to international trade — is expected to cause a major decline in shipments if no alternatives to these firms are found soon, according to the head of Delo Group, Russia’s largest container operator.

“We expect the drop in shipments (to and from Russian ports) in the northwestern region to be around 90% to 95% starting in May if no alternatives appear on the market,” said Delo Group CEO Dmitry Pankov. He was referring to container terminals at Russian ports including those in St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga.

Pankov said ports in the Russian Far East, the Black Sea and Sea of Azov would suffer less from the exit of mayor container shipping companies because their share of cargo traffic was smaller than that of northwestern Russia and because new players in those regions were beginning to emerge.

He did not name those companies, but said some came from Turkey.

Alexander Isurin, chief executive of TransContainer, predicted the exit of container shipping companies would result in a shortage of containers in circulation on the Russian market.

“The market will need to find a replacement for some 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU),” said Isurin. TransContainer expects about 30% of containers on the Russian market to be withdrawn from circulation.

“The Russian transport market will most likely not be able to make up for everything and replace the largest container lines in the world that suddenly decided to no longer work here.”

Isurin suggested Russia might have no choice but to work with smaller regional container shipping companies new to the Russian market.

“There are Chinese, Japanese and Korean companies that can choose their position,” he said. “I think that many of them have taken a wait-and-see position that will depend on how the situation develops.” (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge).

Source: www.reuters.com

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The new guidance is designed to help to accelerate the transition towards safer and more resilient supply chains, while supporting Covid-19 response and recovery efforts.

Digital innovations are helping the air transport sector to transition away from paper-based documents used to facilitate the movement of global airfreight, promoting a contactless air cargo environment and greater cross-border trade resilience in the face of future pandemic threats.

In line with the recommendations of the ICAO Council’s Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART), the specifications aim to help reduce physical contact among international trade and transport professionals, and in so doing better protect the fluidity of cross-border trade and international transport operations from pandemic-related restrictions.

“The latest innovations reflect ICAO’s integrated, collaborative, and multilateral approach to transport policies encompassing air cargo and mail supply chains, and will play an important part in addressing both current and future pandemic risks,” highlighted ICAO secretary general Juan Carlos Salazar. “It’s our expectation that they will help address the tremendous double strain now being placed on global supply chains, whether by the COVID-19 pandemic itself, or the incredible surge in international e-commerce which has accompanied it.”

ICAO’s collaboration with UNECE on supply chain digitalisation is an outcome of the Joint Statement on the Contribution of International Trade and Supply Chains to a Sustainable Socioeconomic Recovery in COVID-19 Times, which was signed by eight UN agencies in September 2020.

Digital specifications will now replace the formerly paper-based Air Waybill (AWB), Dangerous Goods Declaration (DGD), and the Consignment Security Declaration (CSD). These in turn form part of a broader suite of deliverables for multimodal transport data sharing, applicable to air, road, rail, maritime and inland water transport.

Source: www.aircargo.com

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