CIFFA Daily News and Updates

Transcription

1 CIFFA Daily News and Updates August 15, 2018 CIFFA Daily News and Updates Air Updates Vancouver Airport Ground Handling Facing Extreme Challenges This Summer The CIFFA survey of ground handling services at Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver has just closed and results will be used to help inform a discussion with the airlines on the opportunities for improvement. That said, the situation at Vancouver International Airport

2 (YVR) has deteriorated over the past several weeks to the state where the industry is experiencing unprecedented delays and congestion. As one member firm remarked recently, Menzies has been bad for a year, and the community has gotten used to it, but the last 6 weeks have been horrific. On Friday my warehouse had a truck there from 10 am and was finally loaded at 4 pm. The truckers going into there now have lawn chairs so they can sit when they get tired of standing. One member advised of inbound cargo arriving from Asia on July 19th that was not broken down or available for Customs until July 26th. CIFFA has learned that some cartage companies are now considering implementing wait time charges after waiting more than 30 minutes for service at some YVR ground handling warehouses. Exporters and importers must be informed of the extreme delays and members are welcome to share this ebulletin with their customers. The air cargo supply chain is only as good as its first mile and last mile. If ground handling bottlenecks drive days and dollars into the movement of goods by air, the entire industry will suffer. CIFFA will be reaching out to the air carriers to remind them of their responsibility to ensure that adequate service levels are provided by their third-party suppliers. Forwarders Get a Feeling of Deja Vu at Prospect of Congested U.S. Air Terminals Despite record investment in airports, consignees and forwarders are poised for a frustrating peak season with the prospect of freight again being trapped in overburdened cargo terminals. Neel Shah, senior vice-president, global air freight, at Flexport, reckons the 2018 peak season will bring a sense of deja vu to the air cargo industry with a rerun of the woes that afflicted imports last winter. With a few exceptions, the major gateways have failed to address the capacity problems that stretched airfreight facilities beyond their limits last year, Mr. Shah noted. U.S. airports are actually spending record amounts on construction, but most of the money is going to upgrade or revamp passenger facilities, handlers and forwarders noted.

3 The U.S. Department of Transportation recently announced $770.8 million of infrastructure grants, supporting 949 projects at 522 airports, part of a total package of $3.18 billion the U.S. will spend this year on its Airport Improvement Program. The lion s share of the fresh batch of funds goes to runway and taxiway upgrades. Little is earmarked for cargo. Read more in an article from The Loadstar. International Business/Government U.S. Goods Deficit with China: No End in Sight President Donald Trump says he wants to redress the United States' trade deficit with China, but the goods deficit just keeps on growing. That s the case, even though U.S. exports to China grew in June 2018, 14.5 percent year-on-year to $11.1 billion. But imports from China in June were $44.6 billion, a 5.5 percent increase year-on-year, yielding a deficit that reached $33.5 billion for the year so far, up 2.8 percent. U.S. exports increased primarily in aircraft and parts, and crude oil, while U.S. imports from China increased in clothing, toys, games and sporting goods, and cell phones, according to the latest report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Notably, U.S. agricultural exports to China fell 34.4 percent in June, even though U.S. farmers saw a surge in soybean sales, as they tried to get ahead of Chinese retaliatory tariffs. In the first six months of 2018, U.S. imports from and exports to China increased by between eight and nine percent. The goods trade deficit for the first half of 2018 also increased about nine percent, to $185.7 billion, relative to the first half of Trade with China is typically marked by greater export and import volumes during the second half of the year. Read more in an article from Global Trade.

4 India Trade Gap Biggest in Five Years as Rupee Woes Mount India s trade deficit in July widened to the most in more than five years, worsening the outlook for the rupee that hit a record low after a Turkish lira-led sell-off in emergingmarket currencies. The trade deficit was $18 billion in July, fanned by a higher oil import bill, data released by India s commerce ministry showed on Tuesday. While a weaker rupee is positive for exports, it poses an inflation risk for a nation that imports more than 80 percent of its crude-oil needs and adds to the stress on the currentaccount balance. The rupee dropped to as low as per dollar on Tuesday, keeping intact its position as Asia s worst-performing currency this year. The last time the trade deficit was wider was in May 2013 at $19.1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Read more in an article from the American Journal of Transportation. Freight Forwarders: Helping Canadians Do Business With The World

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