SHORT SHOTS

DB Schenker inaugurates its green Red Lion

It is the largest investment in a single site to date for DB Schenker: €101 million went in to constructing and equipping the company’s new, 51,400 m² “Red Lion” warehouse at the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore (ALPS) at Changi Airport in Singapore, and its opening coincides with its 50th anniversary of operations in the “Lion City”. Sustainability, Digitalization, Automation… the latest logistics hub ticks all the boxes: Not only is it certified as LEED Gold Standard and Green Mark Platinum labels by Singapore’s BCA (Building and Construction Authority), for its sustainability features, which include 1,440 photovoltaic solar panels, enabling energy savings of 34%, it also houses the latest technological developments such as an in-house designed robotic-labeling system (world premier), which utilizes 3D-vision technology and three robotic arms to apply labels in multiple languages on products of varying sizes, shapes, and configurations, as well as pallet lifters, automated warehouse systems (with Very Narrow Aisles (VNA) to optimize capacity), multi-shuttle and carton live storage systems, Goods-to-Person (GTP) and Pick-To-Light technologies, conveyor systems, and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). In all, productivity has increased by 100% (!), and customer lead times have been reduced by 40%.

Jochen Thewes, DB Schenker’s Chief Executive Officer: “DB Schenker further strengthens its position among the world’s leading logistic service providers for the APAC region. Our new logistics hub makes us even faster and more reliable for our customers. The record investment in Red Lion marks an unparalleled milestone for our corporate history of almost 150 years. We are happy and proud to reinforce our commitment to Singapore as the heart of our logistics operations in Asia.”

David Christmas, APAC Contract Logistics Board Member at DB Schenker: “Our new warehouse is a record-breaking facility full of technological and digital innovations. It is designed to serve customers with requirements for short lead times and high throughput. Our robotics will revolutionize product labelling. With our automation novelties, we are paving the way for our continuous journey in contract logistics toward a fully digital supply chain.”

Expecting 2020 adjusted net income to be over double 2019

Atlas Air Worldwide has published a Q2-2020 net income of $78.9 million, bringing its adjusted EBITDA to $247.0 Million and Adjusted Net Income to $123.2 Million for Q2, and rounding the first half year up at an adjusted EBITDA of $368.2 million ($204.5 million in the first half of 2019), and adjusted net income totaled $153.1 million, ($31.8 million previous first half-year). The outlook for the rest of the year is “same again”, which would bring 2020’s final results to over double that of 2019.

Chief Executive Officer John W. Dietrich explained that revenue and earnings were continuing stronger than anticipated and that “these positive results were primarily driven by the team capitalizing on strong demand and higher yields in our commercial charter and South America businesses. We also continued to provide the U.S. military with essential services and our ACMI customers flew well above their minimum guarantees." To counterbalance the lack of capacity caused by the pandemic and passenger aircraft being grounded, “we reactivated three of our 747-400 converted freighters and operationalized a 777 freighter from our Dry Leasing business. This enabled us to serve the strong and profitable shorter-term demand, while also entering into numerous new long-term charter programs at attractive yields. We expanded our long-term charter business to include new agreements with manufacturers such as HP Inc., and large freight forwarders like DHL Global Forwarding, APEX Logistics, DB Schenker, Flexport and Geodis, all that wanted to secure committed capacity from us.”

Pointing out Atlas’ involvement in keeping the global supply chain running during the pandemic, he underlined that “we have a talented team, a strong balance sheet, and we continue to demonstrate our ability to adjust to market conditions, capitalize on strategic growth opportunities, and navigate through these evolving and uncertain times. Reflecting our first-half results and our current market expectations, and subject to any material COVID-19 developments, we anticipate full-year 2020 revenue of just over $3 billion and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $750 million.”

Re-fresh! Amerijet has again received IATA’s CEIV Pharma certification

Back in 2017, Amerijet was the first all-cargo airline based in the USA, to be awarded the globally recognized CEIV-Pharma certification. It recently announced its re-certification, having completed IATA’s independent assessment of its quality assurance processes, operational and technical innovation, risk management, and its system of ensuring relevant shipment data along the logistics chain.

Amerijet’s Temperature Control Manager, Ronald Irish commented: “We are continuously reinforcing our internal processes through training, collaboration, and partnering with like-minded suppliers. Achieving the CEIV recertification is evidence that Amerijet continues to advance, towards the strategic objective of remaining an important stakeholder in the transportation of pharmaceuticals. This recertification confirms to our customers that the commitment to quality and reliability is a core value.” Amerijet’s Vice President of Airport Operations, Rasheme Richardson added: “The pharmaceutical supply chain consists of a historically demand-driven as well as a growing patient-driven model, due to the rise of personalized medicines, which makes speed and traceability even more relevant. We provide our customers with quality standards through uniformed processes, transparency, and a compliant network.”

Amerijet offers a modern 33,500 m² cargo facility at Miami International Airport, comprising dry warehouse space with 49 dry cargo spaces and a 3,700 m² perishable handling center with 12 cold storage and 3 dedicated pharmaceutical receiving doors. Cargo throughput times are streamlined to ensure they remain as short as possible, and the temperature-controlled storage areas as designed to provide ideal refrigerated, frozen, and chilled storage for pharmaceuticals and perishables. The CEIV recertification recognizes Amerijet’s capabilities in this regard.

In other news, LOT Polish Airlines also received its CEIV certification recently, following an audit process that had started back in 2018. It is the first of the Central and Eastern European carriers to achieve this, which it had hoped to be awarded in OCT19, originally.

LATAM Solidary Plane flies medical supplies across the continent

Despite its own uncertain future, having filed for bankruptcy in the US and announced that it will lay off 2,700 of its crew in Brazil (around one-third of the current set-up), in an effort to recover in the face of a USD 18 billion debt, it continues to help out. As part of its “Solidary Plane” program, LATAM has flown more than 680 tons of medical supplies, 300+ patients requiring urgent medical care, and over 400 health professionals across South America over recent months. Not only has that cargo included 64 tons of food destined for the 70+ LATAM-supported NGOs and projects, such as Gerando Falcões, Gastromotiva, Amigos do Bem and Instituto Tennis, and 45 tons of donated and transported medical supplies for hospitals, but the patients and health professionals were all flown free of charge.

The initial medical cargo flights were from China to South America and marked an historic moment given the first direct connects for LATAM. Lately, the Solidary Plane Program, in partnership with DKMS Foundation in Chile, has experienced another first: the transport of stem cells in the cabin of a LATAM Cargo aircraft. Eight stem cell shipments have so far been transported and helped leukemia suffers in Chile, Argentina, and Europe.

Menzies Aviation is the latest to deploy Descartes’ BLE tracking

Edinburgh-based Menzies Aviation is the latest to deploy Descartes Core Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)™ readers at all of its cargo facilities around the world. Robert Fordree, Executive Vice President of Cargo, Menzies Aviation, announced: “As a global logistics specialist, Menzies is dedicated to embracing new technologies to provide market-leading service to our airline customers. By introducing ULD tracking with the Descartes solution, we can offer customers a higher standard of service when it comes to air shipment visibility and ULD fleet management.” Menzies will benefit from Descartes Core BLE Network™ used to track international mail, parcel, and cargo shipments in real-time via the Descartes Core™ Unit Load Device (ULD) Tracking solution, thus getting greater visibility on asset movement and shipment parameters which, combined with forecasting, can vastly improve processes and reduce losses.

Scott Sangster, Vice President, Global Logistics Service Providers at Descartes “We’re pleased to help Menzies Aviation ensure ULDs are in the right place at the right time to meet the air freight needs of its customers worldwide. By enabling the visibility of ULDs and ground equipment through automation, Descartes’ advanced IoT and Bluetooth networking technologies help airlines and their partners significantly improve control over the transportation of air cargo from the point of origin to final destination.”

ABC transports record number of RKN on B747-8F

AirBridgeCargo has already seen a 60% increase in temperature-sensitive shipments in the first half of  this year, with over 11,000 tons having been transported. The latest shipment, on behalf of DSV, of a record-breaking 41 RKN CSafe containers containing over 30 tons of temperature-sensitive medication, and flying from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Shanghai, China, recently, was seen as a dress rehearsal in preparation for when the corona vaccine is finally available and requires transportation, as Yulia Celetaria, Global Director, pharma for AirBridgeCargo Airlines, explained: “This transportation, to some extent, is the rehearsal to check that we are well-prepared for the Covid-19 vaccine, once its testing is finalized. For the last five years, we have deepened our cooperation with providers of temperature-sensitive containers and now, in the middle of the pandemic, we are in constant dialogue with our trusted partners, Envirotainer, SkyCell, va-Q-tec, DoKaSch, CSafe, Sonoco and others regarding strategic container reserve. Last year we successfully gained our IATA CEIV Pharma re-certification, which stands as an industry commitment to be a reliable partner of cold chain and keep 100% vaccine integrity.”

The 41RKN CSafe containers were securely loaded and stowed both onboard the main and the lower decks, optimizing the aircraft’s capacity and with the aim of guaranteeing safe delivery of the total shipment without it having to be broken down for different flights.

Brigitte Gledhill

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