EFFSAA and WIFFA agreed to Cooperate
Ethiopian Freight Forwarders and Shipping Agents Association (EFFSAA) and World International Freight Forwarders Alliance (WIFFA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
EFFSAA & WIFFA agreed to cooperate on linking Ethiopia and China Logistics industry, conferences and events, trade between Ethiopia and China, digital transaction and payment platform and on different belt and road projects.
Mrs. Elizabeth, President of EFFSAA and her counterpart Mr. Kang, CEO of WIFFA signed the agreement on behalf of their Associations.
WIFFA is the international freight forwarding cooperation platform under the network of Shipping China and also the international freight forwarding branch of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing. At present, WIFFA has 29 port committees, 18 overseas branches and 25 special service alliances with more than 1,100 domestic and foreign freight forwarding credit cooperation members distributing in 100 domestic cities and more than 60 overseas countries and regions.
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FIATA & TT Club Acknowledged YIFFYA Participants
In early August 2021, FIATA & TT Club announced winners of the 2021 Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year Award from each region of FIATA. Besides revealing winners, all participants were acknowledged by the organizers for the tireless effort they made.
โThe dissertations this year were again of an extremely high standard and all entrants should be congratulated on the knowledge and experience shown in their papersโ said the chairman of Award Steering Group, Michael Yarwood. Accordingly, FIATA and TT Club sent Certificate of Participation and Memento to the National Associations to deliver it to the candidate on their behalf.
The certificate of participation and a memento was presented by the President of EFFSAA, Elizabeth Getahun on behalf of FIATA and TT Club to Abenet Belay who participated on this prestigious competition representing EFFSAA for the very first time.
The Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year Award was started in 1999 by FIATA TT Club. The aim of the award is to encourage training in the freight forwarding industry and to further develop the professionalism of young people in the industry.
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Central Bank Grants Nods to Cargo Truck Imports
Authorities at the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) have given commercial banks the nod to issue letters of credit (LCs) to close to 170 importers interested to bring in 3,200 cargo trucks.
It is an extension of a decision from the National Logistics Council, a 10-member body, including representatives from the ministries of Transport and Trade, the Transport Authority and the Freight Forwarding & Shipping Agents Association, to import cargo trucks in a bid to alleviate logistics hurdles and avoid congestion at the ports in Djibouti.
The latest instructions were issued after the central bank approved the applications, brought to its officials’ attention through the Federal Transport Authority.
It is a rare move in a country with a critical shortage of foreign currency, with reserves only sufficient to cover two and a half months worth of imports.
Officials at the Authority believe the letters of credit permit would be instrumental in solving bottlenecks in logistics, which is under duress due to a shortage of shipping containers and a surge in shipment costs, adding to pre-existing problems, including the congestion of ports.
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Boost for Mombasa Port as Kenya Removed from Piracy Red List
Mombasa port expects to receive more ships after the Kenya maritime waters within the Indian Ocean were re-designated from the high-risk area (HRA) by the global shipping industry.
The move will save Kenya and East Africa millions of shillings in insurance and other security expenses.
The decision was communicated to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations (UN) agency responsible for improving the safety and security of global shipping.
This was as a result of a heightened campaign by Kenya to end labelling of Kenyan waters as high risk, which made shipping prohibitively expensive and threatened the nascent blue economy.
Kenyan maritime waters were designated as high-risk area in 2009 by BMP-5, which comprise five largest global shipping industry associations which are International Association of Dry Cargo Ship Owners, International Association of Independent Tank Owners, International Chamber of Shipping, Oil Companies International Marine Forum and Baltic and International Maritime Council.
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CMA CGM to Halt Spot Freight Rate Rises until February
French container shipping group CMA CGM said it was stopping all increases in its spot freight rates until February in a gesture to customers after a surge in shipping costs during the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has strained global logistics due to sanitary restrictions and a sharp rebound in economic activity following a slump last year.
“Although these market-driven rate increases are expected to continue in the coming months, the group has decided to put any further increases in spot freight rates on hold for all services operated under its brands,” it said in a statement. “This decision applies to spot rates and is effective immediately until February 1, 2022.”
CMA CGM, founded and controlled by the Saade family, is one of the world’s largest container lines. Like its peers, the Marseille-based group has seen earnings climb on the back of high freight rates and saturated vessel capacity.
The group said it had increased the capacity of its operated fleet by 11% since the end of 2019.
Shipping congestion has been exacerbated in recent weeks by backlogs at some Chinese ports as the authorities in China have tried to curb renewed COVID-19 cases.
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Hapag-Lloyd Introduces Worldwide Electronic Bills of Lading
Hapag-Lloyd offers its worldwide customers the use of electronic Bills of Lading. In cooperation with WAVE BL, a digital platform for supply chain partners, customers can go paperless not only with the Bill of Lading, but also with other vital trade documents.
By using the WAVE BL network, printing, signing, and releasing paper-based documents will come to an end. The platform optimizes the flow of cargo in a blockchain-backed digital infrastructure, taking the place of manual workflows in exchange for a more secure, automated solution, where carriers can issue, possess, transmit and sign documents within minutes.
With the new solution Hapag-Lloyd gets one step further of going paperless with its customers. Physical documentation sharing on paper has high costs and exposes risk of forgery and loss in an industry that grosses over 19 trillion USD in goods, annually.
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Evergreen Marine Orders 24 Container Ships
Container shipping firm Evergreen Marine has this week ordered 24 container ships for a total price of up to ~$1.1 billion from CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding in China.
In a Taiwan Stock Exchange announcement on Wednesday, Evergreen said the order comprised newly-built 1,800 TEU, 2,300 TEU, and 3,000 TEU container ships.
More precisely, the company has ordered two 1,800 TEU vessels, eleven 2,300 vessels TEU and eleven 3,000 TEU vessels. The total transaction price is between $958 million and ~1.1 billion.
Evergreen Marine, the owner of the Ever-Given container ship which earlier this year blocked the ship traffic in the Suez Canal, did not share any details on the expected delivery dates.
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