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DSV expands pharma offering in South Korea

DSV has continued the expansion of its Air ThermoDirect service with the addition of a new facility at Incheon Airport. The new facility offers more than 2,000 sq m of 2-8°C storage capacity, direct tarmac access and is GDP-compliant. The Denmark-headquartered forwarder said the addition reflects South Korea's increasingly important role in global healthcare supply chains, strong healthcare manufacturing base and growing export volumes. DSV's Air ThermoDirect service connects dedicated air capacity, end-to-end visibility and reusable thermal packaging solutions. Kenneth Kallström, executive vice president, global enterprise vertical head, healthcare, said: "By expanding Air ThermoDirect into Korea through Incheon, we are connecting two of the world's most important healthcare and life sciences markets with one of Asia's leading pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical hubs. "This investment strengthens the resilience, visibility and control that healthcare customers increasingly need across global supply chains." The addition of the new facility is the second development for the forwarder's pharma air operation in recent weeks. Earlier in September, the company expanded the Air ThermoDirect to include flights between Luxembourg and Shanghai Pudong. The new connection will utilise Eastern Air Logistics' (EAL) specialised ground handling facilities in Shanghai and is further strengthened by ground handling agent partner China Eastern Logistics Cold Chain, which will provide "dedicated cold chain expertise and infrastructure". The company also plans to add a link between Indianapolis International Airport and Shanghai in the future.

Continued China-Europe ecommerce slump exposes shifting air cargo flows

Chinese low-value and ecommerce exports to the European Union fell 65% year-on-year in August, according to Trade and Transport Group managing director Frederic Horst, as the market continued to weaken following the EU's introduction of a €3-per-item fee. The August decline followed a 54% fall in July. Exports to the UK also fell, although at a slower rate, down 13% in August and 5% in July. Avean's latest China ecommerce data pointed to a similar deterioration, recording a 16% year-on-year decline in August - its steepest fall so far - driven primarily by a 40% drop in exports to Europe. The figures underline the rapidly shifting nature of air cargo flows discussed by senior freight forwarding and airline executives at an industry panel during this month's EC CBEC Ecommerce Forum in Liege. Stefan Krikken, head of global airfreight at DSV, said: "The last five years has been completely crazy with with Covid and ecommerce and wars and hyperscalers, and it just shows how how agile you need to be." He added that, despite ecommerce now slowing, demand could return. "I'm sure [ecommerce sellers] will get creative, and that volume will come back." The data suggests the contraction is currently particularly pronounced on China-Europe flows. By contrast, Aevean found that exports to other regions, including Asia Pacific, North and Latin America, the Middle East and South Asia, were flat or showed only modest declines. Africa was the exception, with exports up 71%, although from a comparatively small base. The US market is also showing a different trajectory. Trade and Transport Group data found that direct low-value shipments to the US have been expanding again since May. However, on a rolling 12-month basis they remain only 65% of their level before May 2025. The panel discussion highlighted how quickly geopolitical and regulatory changes can redirect cargo and capacity between markets. Henk Venema, EVP of global airfreight for DHL, described the frequency of disruption as having changed fundamentally, saying that supply-chain crises which once occurred roughly every seven years could now happen "every seven months or every seven weeks". For forwarders, that means gateway and capacity strategies are increasingly being built around optionality rather than fixed assumptions. Mr Krikken explained DSV now follows capacity and infrastructure, while also retaining the ability to move into smaller regional gateways when required. The panel's broader message was that ecommerce remains a major air cargo driver, but the industry cannot assume today's trade flows will remain tomorrow's. As Asok Kumar, CEO of Morrison Express, put it: "It's the same playbook, just with different circumstances being rolled out."

EU shippers face €572m ETS bill - but Felixstowe calls slash exposure

A new report measuring carbon emissions from ocean transport has revealed that EU shippers have faced more than an extra half-billion euros in costs in the second quarter of this year due to Emissions Trading System (ETS) charges. The EU ETS Surcharges vs. Actual Voyage Exposure: What Shipment Execution Data Reveals report, authored by freight intelligence platform VesselBot also showed how continental European importers whose containers are on vessels that call at non-EU European ports - particularly Felixstowe - before they enter EU waters, face significantly lower ETS charges. In the second quarter there were more than 20,000 separate container ship voyages that fell within the scope of the EU's ETS - voyages either between EU ports, or to an EU port from outside the bloc - which altogether emitted 11.8m tonnes of CO2e. Based on the mix of intra-EU voyages, which are currently subject to a 100% carbon levy, and non-EU-EU voyages, subject to 50%, 7.15m tonnes were subject to allowance surrender and based on EU Allowances trading at circa €80 per tonne at the end of the period, "the allowances required to cover these emissions would represent an estimated €572.4 million in carbon costs for Q2 alone". VesselBot's digital twin analysis further calculates that the total volume collectively carried over the second quarter was 42.8m teu, putting the "estimated EU ETS exposure at approximately €13.4 per teu". Focusing on the Asia-North Europe trade, VesselBot applied the same analysis to a 31 Singapore-Rotterdam voyages undertaken by CMA CGM during the period and calculated a total ETS exposure of €14.69m across 566,300 teu, resulting a per teu exposure of €28.1 for cargo owners. CMA CGM's published Energy Transition Surcharge for Singapore-Rotterdam is €70 per teu, although VesselBot qualified that this included other costs. "This difference should not be interpreted as evidence of overcharging: the Energy Transition Surcharge also incorporates FuelEU Maritime costs and other carrier-specific commercial assumptions that fall outside the scope of this analysis," it says. However, it did demonstrate that EU ETS exposure was substantially reduced if the vessel inbound from Singapore made its first European port call in the UK before continental Europe, comparing shippers in Felixstowe and Zeebrugge. The Ocean Alliance's NEU1 service calls at Felixstowe immediately after Singapore and prior to Zeebrugge. The Singapore-Felixstowe leg falls entirely outside scope (0%), while only 50% of emissions on the subsequent Felixstowe-Zeebrugge leg are counted. Its analysis of seven Singapore-Felixstowe-Zeebrugge voyages calculated that 89,949 tonnes of CO2e in total were emitted, but because of the EU ETS limits only 451.1 tonnes were subject to allowance surrender, meaning that at €80 per tonne, the overall exposure across all seven voyages was €36,100. "At CMA CGM's published €70/TEU Energy Transition Surcharge, a 100-TEU shipment would incur €7,000 in charges. "By comparison, the estimated EU ETS liability of each observed voyage was approximately €4,400-€6,000. The comparison is not evidence of overcharging, it does, however, demonstrate how much a single routing choice can move the underlying EU ETS cost of a voyage, and how little a standardised surcharge can reveal about the ETS exposure of a specific shipment," VesselBot said.