Cargo To Africa

Category: Cargo To Africa

  • Abandoned Cargo Planes In Malaysia Claimed By Swift Air

    Ever since the advertisement ran on media, this news of three unclaimed air freighters has created quite a stir around the globe

    As these ads ran in the local print media about three Boeing 747 jets sitting in on the tarmac of Kuala Lumpur airport for more than a year, unclaimed, the world suddenly became evermore interested into knowing about these mysterious jets.

    Although this kind of planes are extensively in use to deliver cargo to Africa and rest of the world on daily bases but do they present any sort of threat to the world? Why has no one come to claim them in all this time?

    Swift Air Cargo, a Malaysia based cargo company ended all these speculations by stepping forward to tell the whole world that they own these three air cargo carriers, and they have been trying to retrieve them ever since they bought them in this June. The hurdle has come from the Malaysia’s Airport Authority due to a dispute over the paperwork.

    When asked, Malaysia Airports answered it has identified ‘multiple owners’ of the planes and they need to be sure of the ownership before they handover the jets to anyone. Having said so, the authorities haven’t said anything about Swift Air’s claim of ownership yet.

    Blue Peterson, chief executive officer, said that the Malaysia Airports has refused to give him access to his own planes saying they need to verify the paperwork first. Speaking to the BBC he said that it is ok if the officials wanted to see his registration papers “but the planes have yet to be registered as they must first undergo maintenance checks. And I can’t even go on the property to look at my own planes.”

    Air Atlanta Icelandic is the Iceland based company to whom these planes were registered previously but deregistered in 2011 and 2012. Malaysia Airports said that it had ran advertisement in local print media that if the owners would not come forward till 21 December, they will scrape or sell the planes.

  • Important Information About Cargo or Courier Delivery

    Before plan a delivery of cargo or courier what is necessary to know.

     

    Air Cargo is one of the prominent method to deliver the things and articles around the globe. In the same way door to door cargo is also a significant way of cargo distribution. Door to door or courier delivery has greater worth in the world of logistics.

    Airlines and courier services handle many shipments daily, but there are numerous questions that disturbs the customers. Specially, it is a game of puzzle for those who are sending their products by air cargo for the first time.

    An important information is given below for those who are unaware about this process. These questions will help the sender before cargo delivery.

    What is volume, weight?

    How volume is calculated?

    What is chargeable weight?

    What are prohibited goods?

    What is customs clearance?

    What is Volume Weight?

    A less thick article usually occupies more volume of space, in comparison to its real weight. In common expressions, volume weight is a space of a package occupied in a carrier.

    How Volume is Calculated?

    Volume weight completely relies on the dimensions of the package.

    The formula deviates for different methods of shipping. In Air Cargo it is calculated by multiplying the length, width, height and dividing by 6000 (L x W x H/6000), whereas, volume calculated  formula for Door to door service is multiplying the length, width, height and dividing by 5000 (L x W x H/5000).

    What is Chargeable Weight?

    The Chargeable Weight is the Volumetric Weight of the shipment.

    In global freight industry the carriers charge either on the volume, weight or the actual dead weight whichever is greater.

    What are Banned Goods?

    All illegal goods are banned in air cargo.

    Air cargo and courier service there are so many limitations that prohibit transporting a lot of things, including currency, perfumes, bearer instrument, liquid or lithium batteries, semi-liquids, radio-active material, etc.

    What is Customs Clearance?

    It is an act of passing the goods through customs so that they can enter or leave the country.

    This method demands particular formality to be completed for each shipment that leave and arrive in the country. Some of the documents are required for the customs clearance that are export documentation and import documentation.

    This is the useful information that will help you in the delivery of cargo through air cargo or via courier to abroad.

  • A Hefty Addition of Thousands of Truck Trailers in Amazon Fleet

    Amazon has already employed drones to get the parcels delivered to customers as soon as possible and this effort now goes to great lengths with …

     

    Putting thousands of its own truck trailers on the road. On Friday morning, the ever-ambitious online retailer had announced of purchasing “thousands” of truck trailers,

    in the wake of their rapid growth in business in North America and increasing their shipping capacity to move cargo to Africa and rest of the world.

    Where will they deliver packages?

    Well, they will not be used for door-t0-door cargo delivery to customers, instead they will be utilised to transport packages from one Amazon warehouse – also known as fulfilment centre – to another, also between warehouses and sort centres.

    The sort centre is the place where Amazon organises the parcels by zip code so they can be delivered to the local post offices for further delivery to the customers.

    How good is Amazon doing?

    Impressively well. Amazon’s North American retail business is doing so well that in the third quarter, the revenue of this unit grew 35 per cent. It is also due to the growth of Amazon’s Prime membership program – which is hugely popular – and apparel categories.

    This latest initiative is aimed at taking more control over company’s time to deliver goods into customer’s hands quickly and safely. Amazon will continue to utilise its trucking partners to transport merchandises within its fulfilment centre network, and UPS and FedEx for bundle delivery to customer doors.

  • Sea Cargo Takes Lead After Panama Canal growth

    The increase in the use of Panama Canal ports has caused air cargo industry to lose a huge market share to sea cargo industry

     

    In Miami, an event under the title “Air and Sea Cargo Americas” was organised recently where Jaime Alvarez Price, senior director cargo at Copa Airlines said that there has been an increase in the number of shipping line services transiting the artery.

    Over recent years, this increase has had a severe effect on the air cargo services as sea cargo has earned a huge share.

    What’s going on with air cargo?

    Price also added that on the marine side, there is more and more activity and since they are into airfreight, they are witnessing more and more airfreight being converted into sea freight services.

    A huge number of ships has started coming into the port more frequently than ever before, like for instance, previously one ship would come to port in a week but now things have changed exceptionally as now there are two or three ships in a week.

    What’s the role of Panama?

    Panama has become the backbone of sea cargo and after the expansion, experts say it is going to make matters worse for the airfreight as the number of shipping containers transiting the Panama Canal will increase once the project has completed. It will then allow larger vessels to pass through without any difficulty.

    What will be the future of air cargo?

    Mathieu Floreani, DHL Global Forwarding chief executive for the Americas has said that Panama’s air cargo industry has a God-given 0pportunity to benefit from as by this year’s industrial action. The haulers had been put off using the US west coast ports and there is also a long term unavailability of the truckers too.

    Floreani also said that he has been into constant contact with many of his customers who used to come into LA, truck across the country to Miami and then fly right into Latin America. But now most of the companies go direct to Panama and then fly the cargo out of Panama.

     

  • Difference Between Dry Cargo Vessels and Bulk Carriers?

    Dry cargo ships are used to transport solid dry things that have a greater resistance to heat and cold, such as metal ores, coal, steel products, forest products and grains.

     

    These ships have a greater capacity for high temperatures along with the capacity to tolerate very low temperatures. It is prepared with on deck cranes and other types of heavy machinery which helps in easy and independent loading and unloading of cargo.

    These ships don’t need any special arrangements at the port for loading or unloading cargo. Dry cargo ships are used to transport international bulk trade and coal from ports to ports around the world. Cargotoafrica.co.uk is a reliable company for groupage shipping to Africa from UK at affordable rates.

    There are two types of dry cargo ships, Bulk carriers and Container ships. Bulk carriers are used to transport unloaded bulk cargo like fertilizers, coal, cement, steel, grains and metal ores. Bulk carriers handle more than 40 percent of the total cargo handled in the world.

    Main kinds of cargo ships

     

    There are six main types of cargo ships and these are considered according to the dead weight and tonnage capacity of these vessels. These six types contain Handy size, Handymax, Panamax, Capesize and Very Large.

    Huge bulk carriers are usually considered as capsize vessels, however, sometimes these ships are considered as a distinct entity. Some of the famous bulk carriers are Seawaymax, Kamsarmax, Setouchmax, Dunkirkmax and Newcastlemax. South Korea is the World’s biggest manufacturer of bulk carriers and these carriers have the load volume of 40,000 DWT.

    Container Ships:

     

    Any sea vessel that transports container cargo is called a container ship and the method used for freight goods is called containerization rather than bulk cargo. These vessels transport all kinds of goods from small toys to the big manufacturing goods.

    Handy size Ships:

     

    Handy size ships like Handymax and Supermax are also bulk dry carriers and have the capacity of over 10,000 DWT. They are mainly used to transport dry cargo things such as grains, iron ores and  minerals.

    Panamax Ships:

     

    Panamax and new Panamax cargo ships are average sized vessels with an extreme cargo capacity of 13,000 TEU while the minimum capacity can be around 5000 TEU in a smaller ship. These ships have particularly been planned to follow special standards and dimensions to cross through the new locks at the Panama Canal.

  • Indonesian Cargo Ship Banned By Australia

    It seems that the Indonesian cargo ship Noah Satu broke the rules one too many times leading to it be banned from entering Australia

     

    Not Following Rules

    It’s no surprise considering the cargo ship transgressed the maritime guidelines and broke the rules no less than four times in the last two years since august 2013.

    It’s a basic necessity for any ship no matter where it comes from or where it’s going to follow the guidelines given by the country it is travelling to and from.

    Strict Guidelines

    The cargo ships multitask bringing containers carriers and tankers yet in all their tasks there are standards that must be followed to ensure safety and maintenance of the standard as well as equipment.

    If these guidelines are disregarded then the countries will take necessary disciplinary action which acts as a warning to the global cargo market. Australia in this case has taken disciplinary action and rightfully so.

    No Leniency

    Depending on the size, capacity and operating system of the ships the requirements and safety standards vary. They are formed by maritime professionals and are accepted globally.

    No leniency is expected when it comes to these rules and it is expected that these standards will be kept with utmost care.

    The Indonesian Ship

    This particular ship was an Indonesian ship called Noah satu and is a ship used for general cargo services.

    It has now been banned from Australia altogether and cannot enter any part of the country until around mid-December 2015.

    Problematic Ship

    The Australian maritime safety authority issued this ban after the ship was stopped at a port operating by the Gladstone Ports Corporation known as port Alma.  The reasons given were failure to follow safety regulations and standards and the management of the ship in regards to safety was fairly insufficient.

    Surprisingly alongside this there were also other flaws in the ship included route plans that were not deemed appropriate and equipment that was used well beyond its age posing a serious risk.

    The planning of the route was done incorrectly and machines were found on board that had not been authorized. Enclosed space entry drills had not been undertaken.

    And last but not least authority’s found that there was food on board that was no doubt contaminated. The safety authority of Australia undertakes thorough and high level ship checks yet it is a rare occurrence for ships to be banned from Australian waters. In total this ship marks the fifth ship to have been banned out of the many ships that enter Australia.

  • Africa Thanks UPS

    A Massive Thanks from Ebola Affected Countries for UPS

     

    Impressively, UPS took part in the best disaster response and community resilience program offering amazing services and working worldwide to help the disadvantaged and needy.

    Among the huge help it offers across the world and inspiring work this organization arranges, one of its amazing programs was the fast and caring response to the Ebola crisis.

    A flight with 48 tons of antiseptic and over 5 million medical provisions containing protective wear such as mask and gloves were distributed to those providing humanitarian aid. Not only was this, but the rescue process of over 70 trucks in West Africa which helped the CDC to reach affected areas was arranged by UPS.

    Another award has been presented to UPS, ‘The Corporate Citizenship Award’ was given to UPS based on its massive contribution to the crisis in Africa and its amazing response to those in need.

    A supplier in the United Kingdom also granted UPS an honor for its help and management during the recent Ebola crisis. This was granted to them in September and was given by the Ethical Corporation.

    There help has been noticed and appreciated by many professionals and has led to a greater recognition and respect for UPS. UPS president Eduardo Martinez remarked that the Ebola crisis was unpredictable and it was necessary at the time that quick and efficient responses and strategies be formed.

    All the help organized shows the importance of humanitarian unity when it comes to crisis and natural disasters and how much help it can be to a tragedy.

    As well as UPS appreciation is shown to all the organizations who united and rushed to help during the Ebola crisis. The most effective international community award was rightfully given to UPS and it was praised for its determined and well expressed support and help of the Ebola victims.

    UPS offers a wide range of services and helps in many different ways. It was set up in 1907 and has come a long and progressive way since then.

    A legacy has been created and they are renowned for their help nationally and internationally. Reports showed that over 104 million dollars was given, funded and raised in charity by workers including those retired.

  • Air Cargo And Its Major Types

    To transfer the freight by the use of aircraft cargo services is commonly known as air cargo. Air cargo is a rapid source of freight transportation

     

    The beginning of the air cargo industry was very interesting. The first air cargo flight took place in the United States on 7th November 1910. The Wright Model B biplane was designed by the Wright brothers in the United States.

    This cargo plane was used for the very first time to transfer packages containing 200 pound of silk.

    What are other types of cargo?

    According to the nature of the cargo properties it can be divided into two major classes, General cargo and Special cargo.

    What is General cargo

    General cargo includes things of delicate nature, such as electronics, Jewelry, pharmaceuticals and wristwatches. Things of delicate nature, have very high value. The electronics industry accounts for around 40 percent of the value of the whole international air cargo industry.

    The products related to electronics industry are transported very carefully. It is because these products links to delicate family so the industry wants to transfer these products through a reliable source.

    The air cargo service is more reliable to transfer electronic products. But it is costly as compared to sea cargo service. By and large the value of the cargo is more important for the shipper as compared to shipping charges.

    What is Special cargo

    Special cargo is very much different from the general. Special cargo includes the shipping of living organisms and the shipping of hazardous chemicals. Suitable environment and suitable conditions are very essential for the shipping of both classes.

    For shipping animals and seafoods, appropriate temperature and refrigeration are very significant. Special cargo has different regulations as compared to general cargo.

    Special cargo requires various inspections and numerous requirements, and not every airline can accept these items. Make sure that you advise in detail about special goods you want to transport. Because without knowing any detail can lead to additional charges and rejection of the shipment.

    Items that are not allowed to transfer via air cargo

    There are so many items which are in the list of prohibited goods and these goods are not allowed to be shipped through air cargo. Because these prohibited items are hazardous for the aircraft as well as for the lives of the passengers.

    Explosives,Gases,Flammable liquid, Toxic and infectious items, lithium batteries, Magnetic substances without degaussing packaging, magnetic steel and other strong magnetic products,

    Items dangerous to public health, Oxidizers, organic peroxides, radioactive materials & corrosive items,Powder, liquids, pastes, and other items with danger signs on their packaging and Biochemical products and infectious materials of all kinds.

  • A Massive Collision In Singapore

    A video has been released showing a collision between a giant tanker and a small cargo ship that seems to get caught up.

     

    In the straits of Singapore the two ships were passing the stretch of water when the smaller ship didn’t keep enough distance and thus collided.  The waters they were passing through measuring 65 miles long with a width of 9 miles lies between the Strait of Malacca which is west and the South China Sea situated east.

    Passengers and workers on other cargo ships captured video footage of the incident and it is seen that the larger ship then seems to be shoving the smaller boat of its course as it gets too close and blocks the way. The horn is being beeped aggressively and the larger ships captain seems outraged. Both boats then try to maneuver and get back into a safe distance after the incident.

    Being one of the world’s busiest ports it’s thankful that not more damage was done and it was just a collision. The boats suffered damage but thankfully no one was injured.

  • Kenya Ready to Blow up A Norwegian Cargo Ship

    The Hoegh Transporter is set to be destroyed after clearance from the Kenyan President

    A Norwegian cargo ship was found containing white powder and weapons when raided by the security forces of Kenya. It is unsure what weapons were found but it was at the Mombasa port that a raid took place by the elite officers leading to the findings of weapons and drugs. The ship is called the Hoegh Transporter and is from Norway.

    In response to this discovery Kenyan security is ready and preparing to blow the whole cargo ship up. The decision to raid the ship was highly influenced by U.S intelligence advice.

    What caused suspicion and how and why they were on board is unclear at the moment, but the Kenyan law demands that any drug carrying transport in Kenya’s waters must be destroyed. Now all that awaits is President Kenyatta’s orders and it will be the end of the ship.

    The weapons were later found to be rifles and rocket propelled grenades of Russian make as well as other firearms. Mombasa’s police chief spoke to a news conference regarding the findings.

    Considering the weapons reached as far as they did, Kenya has doubts as to why it was not disclosed earlier and is entertaining the possibility of a UN agency transporting what was found in the ship.

    Police have also revealed that the crew members will be charged, a total of 20 of them. The charge against them will be illegal arms trafficking.

    Further raids and searches as well as extensive reports suggest that Mumbai was the place where drugs were placed in the ship and intended for Mombasa. It is from the rules and regulations that everything put into the ship must be declared, but the Kenyan government was not made aware of any additions until the raid where they themselves discovered the drugs.

    A spokesman for the U.N revealed that the weapons found were intended for the Indian battalion for a Congo peacekeeping mission. They also revealed that they were placed in the ship in India.

    Their take on all the events was that Kenya was wrong to have raided without the U.N. presence as the weapons were stated in the lading bill and left out of the manifest. The military vehicles were also sent with a declaration of weapons. An anonymous commenter declared it normal for weapons to be placed inside after dismantling due to the possible damage during the voyage.

    At the moment everything is being kept on hold until a thorough investigation has taken place. Hoegh auto liners have confirmed that some of the weapons discovered by Kenyan police were not mentioned in the manifest. Alongside an issue has been raised regarding the initial contract which forbade any weapons being placed inside the cargo. This leaves little room for any justification.