The British International Freight Association (BIFA), the trade association for UK freight forwarders, says that 2016 will see its members continuing to face numerous challenges, with some the result of legislative changes and government policy, rather than economic issues.
The UK P&I Club has joined forces with leading marine cargo insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty to publish practical guidance for ship owners and operators on how to carry heavy-lift and project cargo safely at sea.
The Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) has published a series of studies designed to understand why competition in the European railroad industry has been successfully implemented in some cases but in others has led to a decline in the modal share for rail freight.
Trade between the European Union and Canada is already very strong – and growth is expected to continue as a result of an historic new trade agreement now being finalized in Ottawa, according to the British International Freight Association. The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is said to be Canada’s most ambitious trade initiative, broader in scope and deeper in ambition than the North American Free Trade Agreement.
A broad group of associations representing airfreight forwarding companies is calling on the U.S. federal government to solicit input from small and medium-sized forwarders before expanding the Air Cargo Advanced Screening (ACAS) programme.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says the international freight decline of 2.3 percent in the first three months of 2013, on a 0.3 percent drop in capacity, is a "temporary stall".
When the MSC Napoli ran aground off the UK's south coast in January 2007, 137 out of the 600 containers it was carrying on deck were at least 10 percent heavier or lighter than was declared on the ship's manifest. In another high-profile accident, the capsizing of the Xpress Container Line vessel Deneb during unloading at Algeciras in June 2011, an even higher percentage of boxes - 64 out of 150 - were not laden as recorded.
As talks are announced regarding a potential free-trade agreement between the two continental powers, which could simplify and revolutionize the €450 per annum trans-Atlantic trade there are rumblings in UK freight forwarding circles that another agreement, potentially a precursor to the main agreement and involving the security concerns when shipping goods between the partners, does not appear to hold all that it originally seemed to promise.
