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MSC Air Cargo formalises partnership with Neutral Air Partner

Neutral Air Partner (NAP) and MSC Air Cargo have formalised a strategic partnership that will see the carrier engage with NAP's community of vetted freight forwarders, consolidators and specialised logistics providers across more than 150 countries. The partnership, which builds on an established relationship, will support closer industry dialogue, commercial engagement and the development of opportunities across regular airfreight, specialised cargo, charter and project-driven movements. The addition of MSC Air Cargo further strengthens NAP's airline partner portfolio and its ability to connect independent air cargo professionals with leading carriers, relevant capacity and specialised solutions across key global markets. Jannie Davel, chief executive of MSC Air Cargo, said: "Our relationship with Neutral Air Partner has developed through direct engagement with its members and a shared understanding of the value of strong, dependable partnerships. "Formalizing this collaboration gives us an important platform to stay close to a highly experienced global forwarding community, better understand its evolving requirements and explore new opportunities together." MSC Air Cargo participated in OPENAP25 Khao Lak, Thailand, which it supported as a major sponsor, with Davel and Alexander Padmore, global managing director, joining NAP's executive panel and conference stage, addressing the market challenges facing independent freight forwarders and consolidators. "MSC Air Cargo's involvement at OPENAP 2025 allowed our members to engage directly with its leadership and better understand its ambitions, capabilities and approach to collaboration," said Christos Spyrou, founder and chief executive of Neutral Air Partner. "That experience created genuine trust between our organizations. This strategic partnership is the natural next step, connecting our members more closely with MSC Air Cargo's growing capacity, specialist products and global network." Launched in 2022 as the dedicated airfreight carrier of the MSC Group, MSC Air Cargo operates a fleet of seven Boeing 777 freighters. Its scheduled and ad hoc services currently provide more than 50 connections across the Americas, Europe and Africa, supported by wider connectivity across the Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA.

Washington's Cosco spying claims a new hat on an old head

In just over three weeks Donald Trump and XI Jinping are due to meet in Washington DC for the latest round of bilateral talks. Meanwhile, Reuters reports today that US intelligence officials believe Chinese state-owned carrier Cosco "uses concealed equipment onboard its ships to spy on military communications near the coastlines of target nations including the US", and that the shipping line "has a decades-long intelligence-collection partnership with Beijing". "The arrangement allows China to collect communication signals from vessels and aircraft operating across Europe, North America and Asia," they said. Like, duh - it would be more surprising if it wasn't true. The Communist Party of China/government of China has always had a presence in virtually every sector of the country's economy, and certainly a physical presence in its leading state-owned enterprises (SOEs), so the claim that CCP members hold both senior management positions at its largest shipping company, as well as among the crews of its ships, and that the vessels themselves are used for intelligence gathering as well as carrying cargo should really not be news to anyone familiar with shipping in the 21st century. It's been hiding in plain sight all along. Logically, the argument is a syllogism with two premises: Cosco (and let's not forget the erstwhile China Shipping, which served the same purpose until folded into Cosco around a decade ago) is China de facto supply chain operator; meanwhile the country and the CCP use economic leverage as part of its international relations strategy... therefore the shipping company is one vehicle (pun intended) for the Chinese leadership's geopolitical ambitions. Tariffs on Chinese exports; the pending 301 port fees on Chinese carriers; Panama; Iran; threats to fund new container facilities in Greece... the list of trade flashpoints on which the world's largest two economies collide lengthens by the day. The trouble is, to borrow one of Trump's favoured analogies, that the US doesn't really hold the cards for this game. It doesn't have the transport assets on any scale to commercially compete with China - as has been established by bi-partisan congressional investigations and both current and previous administrations - which means that one of the few recourses available to Washington is to limit Cosco's access to the US market and make it prohibitively expensive for it to do business there. And in this respect, the proposed 301 port fees - proposed in 2025 but officially in abeyance until this November - is probably the strongest card in its hand, and we can expect the spying claims will be presented as strengthening the case for the introduction of the 301 fees - and the groundwork for this is likely to be on display in Washington on 24 September.

Analysis: Time to think 'constructively' about Cosco

Cosco Shipping Holdings has just delivered the kind of second-quarter rebound that should reassure container-shipping investors. As disclosed at the end of last week, revenue rose 17.6% year on year to Rmb60.1bn, while profit attributable to equity holders rose 29.1% to Rmb7.5bn. Yet the stronger quarter sits awkwardly beside the first-half picture: attributable profit was still down 23.6% year on year, to Rmb13.4bn. The second quarter is the more informative signal: management's own commentary and the underlying capacity backdrop ...