The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Shipping Ministry to declare Andaman and Nicobar ports as major port and establish the Andaman and Nicobar Port Trust with its headquarters at Port Blair.

The strategic location of these Islands will help service large volumes of cargo and large vessel volumes for the neighboring ASEAN countries.

Continue reading →

The Indian Railways carried 730.96 million tonnes of freight during April 2009 to January 2010 vis-à-vis the 681.28 million tonnes during the previous term, thus registering an increase of 7.29 percent.

In January 2010 alone, the Railways transported revenue earning traffic of 78.33 million tonnes, recording an increase of 3.78 million tonnes over the actual freight traffic of 74.55 million tonnes during the same period last year, showing an increase of 5.07 percent.

TM International Logistics Ltd have appointed Partha Sengupta as chairman, according to a company press release. Sengupta succeeds H.M. Nerurkar, currently managing director of Tata Steel, who was chairman of TMIL from January 18, 2008, to February 6, 2010.TM international Logistics Ltd. is a joint venture between Tata Steel, NYK Holding (Europe) BV and IQ Martrade of Germany. The joint venture offers logistics services to port and terminal handling, maritime shipping, ship agency, customs clearance and freight forwarding.

DHL has inaugurated an operations simulation centre, ‘Gurukul’ at Kiravali in North Mumbai. An initiative of DHL Supply Chain, the centre is aimed at developing the skills of blue collar workers by imparting training on aspects of warehouse operations, and would include critical subjects of Safety, Health and Environment at their warehouses.

With the General Sales Tax (GST) to be introduced in India, the 3PL market is poised to re-invent itself.It will require well trained, professional and skilled employees who will be in a position to fulfill the demand for higher levels of operational and quality compliance.
Continue reading →

GR Gopinath, the chairman and managing director of Deccan 360 announced the launch of his much awaited domestic express logistics operations yesterday.

Deccan 360 will deploy 8 aircrafts, covering 15 airports, with a fleet of over 300 trucks and 850 vehicles nationwide, 8 major surface hubs, a model driven by franchisees and give overnight delivery to 50 cities in the first phase and ramp up its operations for a pan India coverage.

Commercial operations will begin on November 9, 2009.

Continue reading →

GeoPost, the express parcel arm of French Groupe La Poste, and Continental Air Express Pvt Ltd, an associate company of the Vohra family owned Continental Carriers Group, announced the setting up of a joint venture company.

The new Joint Venture (JV), called DPD Continental Pvt. Ltd., will offer inbound and outbound express parcel services under the world-class brand DPD to customers in India.

Continue reading →

According to news reports, a group of armed robbers looted high value cargo from the Mumbai domestic airport’s cargo terminal. The cargo containing six parcels of gold and silver coins weighing 145 kgs was robbed after four people flashed a gun at a cargo counter.

Continue reading →

Europe’s largest airline, Air France-KLM announced losses of €814 million for fiscal year 2008-09. In the last financial year, the group had announced around 2700 job cuts and further cuts ‘on similar lines’ are to be expected this year.

This is the first time the group suffered losses since it was formed in 2003. Continue reading →

Great Offshore Ltd  has announced that ONGC has cancelled its contract and invoked a performance guarantee of around $3.8 million.

This is a result of Great Offshore’s non-delivery of the jack-up rig named Samed Shikhar.

As per the terms of contract, the company was to deliver it by 14th May 2009.

Blue Dart has announced the opening of its new service centre at Valsad in South Gujarat. This new service centre will have access to its entire range of products and services – both air and ground, domestic and international.

In addition, it would also service DHL customers in this region.

Blue Dart said that this initiative consolidates its presence in the North-South corridor of Gujarat starting from Vapi in the South extending up to Mehsana in the northern part of the state.

The company already has service centres in Ahmedabad, Navsari, Billimora, Surat, Ankleshwar, Vadodara, Anand, Nadiad, Halol, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Gandhidham, Jamnagar and Vapi.