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German port strikes averted, but low Rhine still delaying barge cargo

The prospect of widespread industrial action at Germany's ports retreated yesterday after dockworker members of the ver.di union agreed to accept new contract terms offered by the Central Association of German Seaport Operators (ZDS). "Strikes at the ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Emden, Brake, and Wilhelmshaven have thus been averted for the time being," said ver.di. "However, the employers' side still has to approve the result," it added. Workers have won: a 3.4% wage increase for the next year, backdated to 1 August; a €200 increase in holiday pay; and dockers involved in "high-turnover container operations" will receive an additional annual lump sum, increased by €416 from 1 January. "The Federal Tariff Commission has decided to accept, on the basis of the member survey and a consideration of the overall situation," said Sylvi Krisch, who led the negotiations for ver.di with Francisca Bier. "It was a difficult round, but the bottom line was acceptable," added ver.di, while union officials said a 24-hour 'warning strike' by members in mid-August had been the catalyst for this week's agreement. "This signal;ed to the employers that we are serious about our collective bargaining demand," said Ms Krisch. The agreement staves off the potential for further cargo backlogs building in Germany's three main container gateways of Hamburg, Bremerhaven, and Wilhelmshaven - although shippers and freight forwarders are still encountering some congestion. According to Kuehne + Nagel, operations remain most affected at Bremerhaven, where yard utilisation has reached 90%, while at Hamburg it is 80%-85%, and in Wilhelmshaven it has dropped to 65%. In addition, data from Xeneta's liner database shows an improvement in vessel waiting times since the beginning of September. However, German shippers in the central Rhine industrial belt continue to face hinterland congestion caused by low water levels on the Rhine, and the subsequent restrictions on barge movements to the key gateways of Rotterdam and Antwerp. Maersk warned yesterday that the mode may have to be abandoned for the time being. "There is a possibility that conditions may deteriorate to a point where barge transport is no longer operationally feasible," it told customers. According to Drewry's senior associate of ports and terminals, Eirik Hooper, 60 trucks are required to carry what just one 1,500 tonne barge can transport, but large numbers of the inland river craft continue to be stranded on the upper Rhine. "The Kaub gauge, which monitors the depth of the channel at the critical choke point of the river, hit 6cm in August, which is the lowest since records began in in 1880, which keeps about 1.2 metres of navigable fairway," he explained in the consultancy's recent Freight Loop podcast. "So barges either sailed only a fraction loaded, or not at all, with quite a few of them stranded on the upper Rhine, unable to get back down to the Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp range. "There were credible estimates of about a third of a percentage point off German GDP for the quarter if the drought had persisted into September," he added. With Maersk's low-water Rhine surcharges set to continue, this forecast may prove correct. According to operator Contargo, its barges are experiencing average waiting times of 36 hours in Antwerp and 56 hours in Rotterdam.

Another Ceva reboot, another 10,000 staff. Can it deliver?

Ceva Logistics has had a long history of re-writes. From its birth under Apollo - an era tarnished by a restructuring that left employee shareholders' investments worthless - to life as a public company, and now as a mere arm of the opaque CMA CGM group, the 3PL has seen many new beginnings, some more successful than others. Yesterday, it announced another new version of itself - offering a simpler structure, stronger accountability, and a renewed focus on customers. Again. Just two years ago, for example, in July 2024, as it began "the process of welcoming Bolloré Logistics", a reorganisation promised improved customer satisfaction, operational excellence, and faster responses to customer challenges. Now new chief executive Patrick Moebel is, again, promising faster decisions, clearer accountability, and an organisation better equipped to serve customers. The question is, what will make this version work? Following the acquisition of Bolloré Logistics, Ceva adopted a vertical, product-driven organisational approach, with teams aligned down to local level. The intention was to make its expanding capabilities easier for customers to access and deploy. Then-CEO Mathieu Friedberg said the vision for Ceva was "taking its final form" - but perhaps it was not so final after all. Mr Moebel, who took over on 1 July, spent his first months listening to employees, customers, and business partners. According to Ceva's latest announcement, the consistent message was that the company could move faster, simplify decision-making, and strengthen accountability. The inference, of course, being that the previous structure left considerable room for improvement. Ceva will now organise its activities around two global business units, Freight Management and Contract Logistics, headed by Henri Le Gouis and Chris Walton, respectively, as it continues to integrate acquisitions. But Ceva has been here before. In July 2024, The Loadstar reported an insider's account of competing leadership teams, separate systems and offices, and internal uncertainty during the Bolloré integration. The source said the upheaval was affecting customers. A smaller rival saw opportunities in the larger forwarder's preoccupation with its own internal affairs. As a source said at the time: "As we are forced to merge, everyone is trying to protect their jobs and teams, hence the politics and poor culture and environment. "We all know huge cuts are coming, so it's very uneasy times and it's impacting our staff and customers." Yet since them, the integration task has grown substantially. CMA CGM completed its $1.4bn acquisition of FedEx Supply Chain on 1 October, adding nearly 10,000 employees and approximately 350,000 sq metres of warehouse space. The transaction nearly triples Ceva's North American contract logistics footprint. That is another substantial business to incorporate, while Ceva says it will also focus on completing the integration of its previous acquisitions. Mr Moebel's experience running FedEx Logistics should help. He arrived with knowledge of the business being absorbed, its capabilities, and its people. But that will not diminish the practical work of connecting systems, defining responsibilities, managing scale and staff, and ensuring customers can obtain consistent service across the larger organisation. Buying a network is one achievement; making it function as one is another. Customers have already seen how operational disruption can turn their logistics provider's problems into their own. After an August cyber-attack, for example, ecommerce retailer Bol took products held at Ceva's Veerweg facility offline, and stopped receiving goods there. On 13 August, it still could not give sellers a reopening date; sales began restarting in stages on 20 August. Yes, cyber-attacks are notoriously difficult for companies, but adding integration - all while CMA CGM needs to extract strong returns from its investment - looks like it could be another bumpy ride. Ceva has acquired the scale, capabilities, and geographical reach. Mr Moebel's task is to make those acquisitions deliver together - and to show customers why this reorganisation will produce something they were already promised as recently as 2024.

New directions and a solid course for Air Atlanta

With several Boeing 747 freighters tied up in the Middle East as well as all of its four passenger Boeing 777s, Air Atlanta has experienced some turbulence this year. On top of this, the European Union's move to curtail the tide of e-commerce from Asia had an immediate impact on the volumes that Air Atlanta was carrying in this trade lane, remarks chief executive Baldvin Mar Hermannsson. Nevertheless, the ACMI provider has had a strong year so far and is on track to meet its goals and performance targets, he says. The four 747Fs that were contracted with Saudia Cargo have moved out of the region to other contracts, but the fundamental terms of engagement with customers have not changed because of the volatile market conditions. All of Air Atlanta's planes are currently deployed under long-term agreements with long-standing customers, Hermannsson says. "We are not doing many short-term deals. There has been no material change in our contractual relationships with our customers. However, the situation in the world means that we need to work more closely with them on an operational level. They need more flexibility. For example, we need to be more flexible on routings," he says, pointing to airport closures and restrictions. It helps that the company has two legs to stand on - its founding operation based in Iceland and the European offshoot in Malta, which now harbours more planes of the company's fleet than the Icelandic set-up, after strong growth in recent years. "I always just look at it as 'Air Atlanta'," Hermannsson says, emphasising the interoperability of crews and other elements. "We approach it from the requirement of a customer. Which network does he need to serve? "Malta gives us more flexibility in terms of traffic rights and more scope in the markets that we want to go for. Our China operation we could not be doing as an Icelandic entity." The nation's recent vote against pursuing European Union membership reinforces the validity of the concept. Future options Down the road, further opportunities for diversification beckon courtesy of the partnership with Atlas Air, but this will take some time to develop, Hermannsson says. According to him, the alignment with Atlas Air, which acquired a 49% stake in Air Atlanta this summer, was the result of a convergence of factors. The majority owners of Air Atlanta were exploring potential exit strategies, and the management of the airline under Hermannsson, which was looking to expand the business, was interested in acquiring a larger stake in the company. At some point, Atlas Air came into the conversation, which revealed synergies and room for co-operation, he says. "This gives us the potential to grow our fleet and expand market reach. With more access to their global commercial platform, there are opportunities for growth and to enlarge the fleet," he adds. Fleet size and commonality are strong suits of the alignment. Air Atlanta musters 18 widebody aircraft - 12 747-400s freighters, two converted 777-300s and four 777 passenger planes, while Atlas Air's freighter fleet includes 43 747-400Fs, 15 747-8Fs, 11 777-200Fs and 25 Boeing 767-300Fs, plus an order for 20 Airbus A350 freighters. This offers a host of synergies and opportunities, from insurance and engine overhauls, sourcing parts and components, to sharing best practices. "We can build a global partnership that has the potential to grow," comments Hermannsson. He adds that he sees in the market demand not just for freighters and lift, but also for quality operators. Still, he does not expect rapid progress in the new partnership, saying that neither side is in a rush to move on this. "For us the focus right now is along the lines of what we have been doing, gradually growing the airline," he says. Buoyed by global demand outpacing capacity growth this year, the freighter segment has been going strong for Air Atlanta, despite the turbulence and uncertainty. The passenger side has been less buoyant, particularly in the Middle East, where Saudia has leased 777 aircraft from Air Atlanta. "For the passenger fleet right now we hold steady and see how the situation in the Middle East is going to play out," says Hermannsson, adding that fleet growth in this segment will always be driven by customer demand. Conversion options One possibility would be to convert the 777s into cargo aircraft. "We love the 777. We want to continue building that fleet," he says. On the other hand, the dearth of 777s in passenger service is keeping the type in high demand and feedstock prices for conversion in the stratosphere. Air Atlanta has operated Airbus A340s and Airbus A330s in passenger service in the past, but there are no plans to resume A330 operations at this point. Hermannsson is more interested in the A350. For the foreseeable future, the emphasis will remain on the 747 fleet. "We will have 747s in the fleet for the next five to 10 years. There is nothing out there that can replace it. We could place a 747 in 15 minutes if we had the plane," he says. To begin with, the noseloading capability is a critical feature for certain types of cargo, and the situation is exacerbated by the absence of AN-124s and IL-76s these days. Moreover, the shortage of new aircraft caused by the supply chain issues has driven up demand for the 747, Hermannsson points out. Widebody freighter production and feedstock for conversions are going to affect the industry for years, he predicts. By his estimate, it will take four or five years until the industry will see an equilibrium. One wild card in this could be a drawn-out conflict in the Middle East that might cause airlines in the region to shed 777s, which would provide a boost to conversion feedstock, he reflects. Soaring fuel prices have not dented demand for 747s, he notes, adding that he does not expect this to change. "Even in the current fuel price situation or the volatility, demand for the 747 is not going to diminish in the next five years," he says. Current market conditions have also opened more opportunities for charters, a segment that Air Atlanta has not pursued in earnest so far. Hermannsson views it largely as a byproduct of fleet growth. "We have always looked more at the long-term ACMI business, but there is a role for charters, and as we grow the fleet this is going to become larger. It increases the possibility that we have an aircraft floating in the fleet," he says. "We have our eye on it. We have one aircraft now that we are using for recovery flying. We're looking to move it into charter in the peak season." This year marks the fortieth anniversary of Air Atlanta's beginnings. For all the ups and down that the aviation industry has experienced over this time, the company has charted a steady course in close relationships with long-term customers, and Hermannsson appears determined to stay the course. "I'm quite proud of what we've done," he says. "Building up something sustainable takes time."