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The Yara Birkeland will be the world’s first fully electric and autonomous container ship, with zero emissions. Unmanned voyages are planned for 2020.

“This is happening. It’s not if, it’s when. The technologies needed to make remote and autonomous ships a reality exist.”

So said Oskar Levander, vice president of innovation for Rolls Royce, at Amsterdam’s Autonomous Ship Technology Symposium in 2016. He wasn’t wrong about the technology, considering the United States and China already have unmanned naval ships patrolling the seas.

As it turns out, Rolls Royce isn’t the only company trying to bring pilotless cargo ships to market. Fast forward to one year later and multiple shipbuilders are working to turn self-piloted freighters from concept to reality. Ocean shippers Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and Nippon Yusen have teamed up with Japanese shipbuilder Japan Marine United, pledging to put unmanned ships on the water by 2025. MOL and Nippon Yusen agreed to split the several hundred-million-dollar development cost.

Meanwhile, in the Land Down Under, Australian mining company BHP Billiton Limited wants to develop cargo ships of its own to haul dry bulk materials between Australia and China.

“Safe and efficient autonomous vessels carrying BHP cargo, powered by BHP gas, is our vision for the future of dry bulk shipping,” said Rashpal Bhatti, BHP’s vice president of freight, in an announcement on the company’s website. “We believe that future could manifest within a decade.”

While BHP continues its search for partners to develop its own self-driving ships, Norwegian maritime technology firm Kongsberg Gruppen plans to begin testing its fully electric autonomous ship next year. The tech company partnered with fertilizer manufacturer Yara International to build the Yara Birkeland and get it on the water with a test crew by 2018, with unmanned voyages planned as soon as 2020.

“By moving container transport from land to sea, Yara Birkeland is the start of a major contribution to fulfilling national and international environmental impact goals. The new concept is also a giant step forward toward increased seaborne transportation in general,” says Geir Håøy, president and CEO of Kongsberg, in a public statement. The Yara Birkeland will haul fertilizer up and down the Norwegian coast.

With so many trying to put ships in the water, it will be only a matter of time before we see autonomous vessels in common use. Ships driven by artificial intelligence and tracked using the Internet of Things could be the answer to many problems, such as lowering greenhouse gas emissions, reducing accidents at sea, and lowering operating costs for ocean shippers.

Every five days a logistics startup is born.

Or at least so it seems given the numbers. In a recent study, we identified more than 400 of these disruptors worldwide that have sprung up particularly over the last couple of years working on every aspect of logistics – from freight forwarding, brokerage, and long-distance transportation, to warehousing, contract logistics, and last-mile delivery.

Along its entire value chain, the logistics industry is facing disruption. It’s gradually being digitalized by agile, innovative startups capitalizing on the industry’s high number of transactions and large amounts of data, and large logistics incumbents will no longer be able to fight back using their size and global breadth alone.

But is this a threat or an opportunity for the industry? While admittedly the business models of these upstarts are poised to eat into the revenue of established giants, the technology-driven solutions they are developing also represent a springboard to fuel next-generation growth and innovation strategies in an industry long in need of a 21^st century upgrade.

The Race to Invest

Five major startup clusters dominate the landscape: online platforms, asset management solutions, robotics/autonomous vehicles, shipping execution & tracking, and data and analytics solutions. While funding is still not at the level of leading business-to-consumer and sharing-economy disruptors, these new logistics enterprises are attracting serious investor interest – more than $11 billion in investments over the past decade. While the total number is significantly below funding for B2C startups, the amount has been trending upwards in recent years, highlighting the acceleration path logistics startups are on.

The largest percentage of new logistics businesses are focused on online platforms and data-driven services – areas that are easily scalable and require little fixed-cost investment. But rapid technological evolution means that all identified startup clusters are seeing a steady stream of new entrants. In line with increasing amounts of funding for logistics startups, annual funding rounds have quadrupled since 2007.

Source: Forbes

PILOTS are taught that a too-hard landing is better than a too-soft one. A plane can absorb more shocks than one might think, but a runway is only so long. When it comes to Brexit, airlines think the opposite it is true. As the deadline for Britain’s secession from the European Union approaches, the spectre of a hard Brexit has some airlines scrambling. For carriers with big operations in Britain, the terms of Brexit cannot be cushioned enough.

Of most concern is that a hard Brexit will involve Britain leaving the European Common Aviation Area. Europe’s open skies fall under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, whose yoke the country must be free from, insists Theresa May, Britain’s prime minister. That in turn would bring into question the right of British carriers to fly routes within the EU. The most pessimistic within the industry, including Michael O’Leary, the boss of Ryanair, say that unless a new bilateral agreement is agreed, there is a real prospect that flights between Britain and the continent will be halted altogether in March 2019.

No wonder British carriers are worried. Under European law, airlines can only fly routes within the EU if they are majority EU-owned. But airlines that are partly in British hands may cease to be “EU-owned” after Britain leaves the club. That makes life complicated for operators such as IAG, which owns several European carriers including Iberia (as well as a soon-to-be ex-EU one, British Airways). Willie Walsh, IAG’s boss, has asked the EU to relax its ownership rules, which the firm calls “arcane”. Otherwise IAG might face a choice between buying back shares from non-EU shareholders (including British ones), or breaking up the group. Some insiders suggest that the continent’s other big long-haul airlines, Air-France/KLM and Lufthansa, are quietly lobbying for the EU to retain a tough stance, and so nobble the competition.

EasyJet, another British airline, is not prepared to sit around hoping. Europe’s second-biggest budget airline is so worried about the prospect of Brexit without an aviation deal that it is to set up a subsidiary in Austria, it revealed on July 14th. The carrier is planning to re-register 110 of its planes in the country. Ryanair thinks it is less exposed. A significant proportion of the Irish carrier’s shares are owned by Britons, though probably not enough to put its EU status at risk. And although London Stansted is by far Ryanair’s biggest base, it flies few domestic routes in Britain, meaning setting up a British subsidiary is not so pressing. Mr O’Leary says he is on standby to shift operations from Britain to Europe if need be.

Air freight expectations have taken the Ti Logistics Confidence Index higher in June, but growth has been tempered by results in sea freight.

According to World ACD’s latest note, growing cross-border e-commerce demand is one reason why air freight growth is on the up, though interestingly, it appears not have stimulated large increases in express air cargo. It is suggested that this is because most e-commerce finds the regular speed of air cargo sufficient, and e-commerce is not just a matter of flying small individual parcels across the world. In addition, increasing consumer demand in general (electronics in particular) may be another factor, driven by higher purchasing power, especially in Asian markets.

Though IATA statistics trail the current situation by two months, they nevertheless offer a window into the confidence of the air freight industry; April results from the organisation showed yields up by 4.5% year-on-year, whilst FTK rose by 10.5%.

The Sea Freight Index demonstrated a far more mixed picture. In this instance, the present conditions declined, offsetting a slight improvement in expectations.

Vessel space appears to be in much shorter supply than in previous years, following aggressive capacity reduction strategies from the major carriers. Following the Europe-Asia capacity crunch in April, shippers will inevitably be nervous, though at least port congestion problems in China now appear to have been resolved.

Air freight

The Air Freight Index registered a month-on-month rise of 3.1 points to 56.9 for June 2017. Whilst this score reflected a year-on-year improvement of 6.5 points, it stood 2.7 points below the June 2015 total.

The Air Freight Logistics Situation Index noted a month-on-month improvement of 1.5 points to 55.0. This growth was mainly led by the US to Europe lane, which rose by 3.1 points to 51.3. Nonetheless, both the Asia to Europe (up 1.6 points to 59.0) and Europe to US (up 1.4 points to 51.1) lanes grew enough to offset the Europe to Asia lane, which declined 0.3 points to 56.9.

The performance of the Air Freight Logistics Expectations Index can perhaps be described as a June boom. Increases across the board were underlined by particularly strong performance on the Europe to Asia lane, which rose 7.3 points to 59.8. The US to Europe lane saw the second-strongest growth, with an improvement of 5.2 points taking it up to 52.2. A gain of 3.4 in the Asia to Europe lane brought that up to 70.1, whilst a 2.7 point rise in the Europe to US lane resulted in a total of 50.4, ensuring all lanes finished above the 50-point mark for the month.

Sea freight

The Sea Freight Logistics Confidence Index recorded an overall score of 54.9, having decreased by 0.6 points against the previous month’s score. The result was 7.3 points greater than the score registered in June 2016, and 0.8 points greater than that recorded in June 2015.

Standing at 51.8, the Sea Freight Logistics Situation Index declined by 1.7 points against the previous month. This result occurred following declines in three of the four individual lanes, with only the Asia to Europe lane, at 61.8 points, recording an increase (up 1.6 points). US to Europe remained the weakest-performing of the lanes, losing 1.9 points to total 37.8 for June. The Europe to Asia lane recorded a monthly total of 53.7, having declined by 2.8 points, whilst the Europe to US fell further, down 4.3 points to 50.4.

The Sea Freight Logistics Expectations Index totalled 58.0 points, having risen by 0.6 against the May result. This outcome was chiefly driven by the Europe to Asia lane, which increased 2.2 points to 55.8. In addition, the Europe to US lane gained by 0.3 to total 54.1 points, whilst US to Europe increased by 0.1, amounting to 53.8. Together, these results more than offset the 0.5 point decline on the Asia to Europe lane, which nonetheless still recorded the highest figure of the four at 66.8.

Source: tandlnews

Stockland has secured a major blue chip tenant for part of its 11-hectare industrial business park in Warwick Farm, with the remainder of the property set to be speculatively developed to meet leasing demand for opportunities in close proximity to the M5 and M7 orbital.

Daikin Australia has signed a 10 year lease 33,278sqm of Gross Lettable Area, at 200 Governor Macquarie Drive, with occupation set for early 2018.

Darren Curry, director of industrial and business services at Savills Australia said Daikin Australia plans to use the Stockland development to cater for the expansion of their current site, located at 62-66 Governor Macquarie Drive. The new lease will cater for predominately office, warehousing and the wholesaling of Daikin products to trade services.

Stockland purchased the property from the Australian Turf Club in 2013, it being originally used as a horse training facility known as ‘Coopers Paddock’. 200 Macquarie Drive is opposite the new Inglis thoroughbred horse stables and sale yard, who will relocate from their Randwick stables to Warwick Farm. In addition, Inglis is developing a conference centre and hotel that will be run by the Sofitel MGallery.

The prime south west corridor in Brisbane is experiencing shortage of large lot land supply, particularly for sites larger than 5ha and those with immediate access to the Logan, Ipswich and Gateway / M1 Motorways.

“We are now heading into single digit opportunities of available large lot land sites to develop,” said Matthew Frazer-Ryan, national director of industrial at Colliers International.

“This is leading to the increase in land values and driving occupier requirements further south to Yatala or further west to Ipswich, which is helping grow and develop these districts.”

According to Colliers International research, Brisbane industrial land values for 2.5ha serviced land lots have increased on average 16% over the last financial year, from $253/sqm in 2015/16 to $294/sqm in 2016/17.

Mr Frazer-Ryan added: “Occupiers and developers in these precincts are now planning up to ten years ahead and looking for sites to build on that are situated adjacent to existing transport nodes or future road network upgrades.

“They are land-banking to secure their future industrial footprint. Some of these occupiers who have less flexibility in choosing a location are also now starting to look at brownfield sites that provide short to medium term income, and that can become available for future redevelopment in lieu of the traditional land-bank strategy.

“Limited stock of quality warehousing facilities has meant that on the leasing front we are experiencing a flight to quality, with occupiers moving from older and less efficient facilities into modern A Grade facilities.

Source: tandlnews