**Down Under Trucking:** electric Aussies invade U.S; LNG trucking underway in Western Australia; police crackdown on dodgy waterfront truck drivers; new logistics park for Northline; Australian truck rollovers – roads full of chaos, mayhem and… pig manure.

Global Crossing Airlines is branching out from the U.S. market to help investors start a charter airline in Australia, serving passenger and cargo airlines.

Melbourne Airport is moving ahead with plans to build a third runway, which is expected to increase the competitiveness of shippers in the region.

ASL Aviation is upgrading the fleet at its Australian subsidiary with a modern Boeing 737-800 cargo jet.

Qantas’ freight division had trouble smoothly deploying a new cargo reservation system and shippers are livid about lengthy delays moving their goods.

FedEx Express is quadrupling throughput at one of its airport gateways in Australia.

Ireland-based cargo group ASL Aviation is expanding to Australia with the acquisition of a FedEx contract carrier.

(UPDATED: Lufthansa announced Sept. 12 that it finalized a contract with pilots that will carry through the end of June 2023. And dnata announced Sept. 8, 2022, that had reached agreement in principal on a new collective bargaining agreement with employees, forestalling a potential strike.) Airport services provider dnata is making contingency plans for a […]

Mud dauber wasps pose a danger to jets at Australia’s Brisbane Airport, which is using special treatments to keep the insects away.

Several trade and transport groups claim ocean carriers should lose special antitrust privileges and face stricter regulatory enforcement of shipping laws.

A compilation of the past week in social media images includes a fiery two-truck crash, huge Australian hail, big Plains snowflakes and more.

The world’s 10 longest railway networks

XAct Solutions Director of Supply Chain Jamie Dixon discusses the need for brands to utilize technology in last-mile logistic strategies.

Mud dauber wasps in Australia are setting up home inside pieces of sensitive aircraft equipment. It’s more than a nuisance. It could be dangerous.

FedEx Express and TNT Express are integrating. They will continue to outsource airfreight to Qantas under a new deal.

You’ll have to hold your nose if you crush a stink bug. More than a nuisance, the stink bug is a destructive pest that can damage many crops. Australia has put tight measures on air and sea freight to keep the bug out of the country.

Shippers are facing delays at Sydney Airport in Australia because cargo terminals are buried in cargo.

Victoria and the city of Melbourne, Australia, are tightening health measures to stop an outbreak of the coronavirus. Imports and exports could get stuck at terminals and warehouses.

Logistics providers are worried that new emergency measures to combat a COVID resurgence in Victoria, Australia, will hamstring deliveries of imports and exports.

The state of Victoria in Australia has declared a COVID-19 emergency and is shutting down nonessential businesses. Qantas Freight is pausing operations at its warehouse because of a health issue.

The Australian government threw a logistics lifeline to exporters having trouble securing air transport to international markets. Hundreds of companies have grabbed on during a tight market. Now, more relief is on the way.

Robots make work easier at Amazon fulfillment centers. Now, the robots are coming to Australia.

Improper loading of cargo led to a weight and balance issue on a passenger plane, investigators found.

At least two governments, Australia and New Zealand, are helping to correct distortions in the airfreight market.

There are more ways to help businesses struggling during the coronavirus crisis than loans and direct payments. The Australian government has operationalized an international airfreight support program to restore supply chains for perishables that were broken by the pandemic, threatening to kill business for many exporters.

Ports of Hedland and Dampier, big iron ore exporters, in Cyclone Damien’s path.

Australian logistics giant
Toll Group possible cyber attack victim

The global ground handling company has leased warehouse space at Melbourne Airport.

This week: productivity; freeway truck fire; telematics; truck roll-over deaths; ecstasy drug-bust; cyclist death; trucking contract win.

It’s scary days in Australia for truck makers and importers, as the volume of truck sales has fallen off a cliff. Also this week: road upgrades, drug-taking drivers, company debt and a parliamentary trucking inquiry.

In this week’s round-up of trucking stories from around Australia: truckers slugged by box terminal operators; truckers slugged by tax hikes; truckers slugged by safety regulators; drivers slugged by Queensland politicians; Freightliner Cascadia rolls into the Outback; Linfox buys 90-truck fleet to transport booze.

A rare stake in an Australian airport has hit the market.

The Tasmanian airport is gearing up to become a cargo hub.

The Port Report focuses on another vessel being seized in the Strait of Hormuz.

Australia’s competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has expressed competition fears over the acquisition of the wharf-side GrainCorp Liquid Terminals by independent bulk liquid storage company ANZ Terminals. The ACCC has formed a preliminary view that the potential sale would “substantially lessen competition”… and that’s the first step on the way to blocking the A$350 million (US$248 million) deal.

Waterfront tensions are increasing as the Maritime Union of Australia declares more wharfside strikes around the country.

Patrick Terminals in Sydney, Australia, shut down for about 19 hours over Monday, July 8 and Tuesday, July 9 after a worker tragically committed suicide.

Elderly driver charged following fatal truck collision and car explosion left two dead; competition law woes in hostile takeover; heavy vehicle roadworks and access; smart roads.

Smoking crystal meth directly led to a fatal crash that killed two truckers; meanwhile, dead kangaroos, speeding, and dodgy crane operators feature in two labor-law hearings in Australia

Notorious bridge claims victim; freight road upgrades; truck company director fined after trucker deaths; horror crashes in good driving conditions continue; drayage gets an over-mass exemption.

Trade growth, demography and land use changes in the city of Melbourne, Australia, have made necessary a shift of freight from truck to rail, according to an analysis by Melissa Horne, Victorian Minister for Ports and Freight.

Deadly crash treated as a potential murder/suicide; Mainfreight reports US$1.93 billion of revenues; druggy truckie gets 14 months; freight costs revealed.

A looming workforce supply gap in the freight forwarding sector has caused the industry to reach out to over one million high school students.

Australian ports recorded in excess of 1.94 million twenty foot equivalent (TEU) container movements during the first quarter of 2019. But freight forwarders sense a downturn may be about to happen…

It’s been busy in Australian trucking. A hostile takeover bid has succeeded, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. An innovative Aussie manufacturer has invented a new kind of intermodal tanker for dangerous chemicals. This, and more, in Down Under Trucking.

Government approval has been given for the construction of a $250 million (US$175 million) liquefied natural gas import terminal at Port Kembla, 44 miles to the south-south-west of Sydney, Australia. The country is facing a shortage of gas and record high prices, which is somewhat ironic because Australia is likely the world’s biggest exporter of gas.

Global freight forwarder Bolloré Logistics and productivity software provider WiseTech Global  ASX: WTC) have done a deal to roll-out WiseTech’s core software across the forwarder’s global network.

Down Under Trucking: electric Aussies invade U.S; LNG trucking underway in Western Australia; police crackdown on dodgy waterfront truck drivers; new logistics park for Northline; Australian truck rollovers – roads full of chaos, mayhem and… pig manure.

Australia’s import, export and logistics industries are in dismay at a massively escalating series of surcharges that are being unilaterally charged to truckers and shippers by the nation’s main box terminal operators. There have been hikes in surcharges of hundreds of percentage points. And, in one case, an imposed surcharge was literally increased over a couple of years by 2,372 percent. Industry executives are furious.

Down Under Trucking: a weekly round-up of trucking news from Australia. The country has been struck by a spate of horrible crashes of trucks with multiple trailers have rolled over. On the corporate side, a major trucking-related hostile takeover has broken out. Politicians in Queensland are seeking to modify the Heavy Vehicle National Law and, on the commercial front, truck sales appear to be coming off the boil from last year’s red-hot market.

EXCLUSIVE: a fire at the Port of Dampier has seriously damaged iron ore miner and exporter Rio Tinto’s facilities. Iron ore exports from Dampier are likely to be severely disrupted. Iron ore prices will come under pressure, sources say, adding that dry bulk rates will “fall through the floor”.

Australia’s maritime officials are keeping a wary eye on the oceans around north west Australia as Cyclone Wallace menaces the Pilbara-region coastline. The harbour master for Port Walcott directed that the port be cleared. However, it was a narrow miss for iron ore export facility, Port Walcott, as the cyclone swerved away. And so the harbour master cancelled the direction to clear the port. Iron ore exports are, nonetheless, likely to disrupted. But it’s not over yet as, to the north east of Wallace, a “tropical low” is threatening to build up into a cyclone too.

Down Under Trucking: a round-up of trucking news from Australia. Top news this week: revealed – how trucks have accidents in Australia; a new in-depth government inquiry into trucking and transport. And, finally, how one truck driver thought he was being pranked… but, in reality, he was winning BIG!

Brisbane, Australia-based construction company Watpac has been contracted to provide design, engineering and construction services to EPIK, a South Korean liquefied natural gas (LNG) developer for the construction and placement of a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) at the Port of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. Watpac is a subsidiary of Belgian multi-disciplinary engineering company, Besix.

Major Australian miners BHP and Rio Tinto have both revealed that they were adversely affected by the recent category four Cyclone Veronica and that they have suffered iron ore production losses.

Down Under Trucking: a round-up of news, information and the latest developments from the Australian trucking industry. Top news this week is the announcement of a A$2 billion (US$1.4 billion) road safety funding package by the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Funding was a big theme this week, as was driver safety, road safety and fatigue.

A major iron ore export port with 185 million tons iron ore capacity on Australia’s north west coast has been absolutely clobbered by the recent category four Cyclone Veronica, FreightWaves can exclusively reveal. Port Walcott’s operational ability is down by nearly 90 percent. Rio Tinto has declared force majeure to its customers. Major miner, Rio Tinto, which operates the port, is mostly staying silent. Dry bulk freight rates are likely to be hit, dry bulk sources say.

Two strong cyclones in as many months have caused trouble in a tiny, vulnerable island in the Indian Ocean. Damage to infrastructure widespread.

Although it’s still early yet, there are indications that Cyclone Veronica may have adversely affected freight infrastructure along Australia’s north west coast – where some of the world’s largest iron ore export ports are located.

All ocean shipping, port and cargo operations remain shut at the world’s two largest dry bulk ports, Hedland and Dampier, owing to the passage of Severe Tropical Cyclone Veronica. Major liquefied natural gas export facilities along the north western Australian coast have also suspended operations. It’s the fourth consecutive day of suspended operations as Cyclone Veronica is moving very slowly. But there could be weeks of delay if Veronica soaks the landscape.

Trade ministers from Indonesia and Australia signed a new free trade agreement (FTA), the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), in Jakarta, Indonesia, on March 4. The new agreement eliminates nearly all tariffs on the two-way trade in goods between the two nations. A wide variety of non-trade barriers will also be removed.

Freight rates for biggest ships fall below those of smaller ships, but that is set up for rebound, market experts say.

GrainCorp, an agribusiness and bulk-ports operator, has agreed to sell its Australian bulk liquid terminals business to independent bulk liquid storage company, ANZ Terminals, for about AUD$350 million (USD$248 million).

In announcing of giant revenues and super-massive dividends, Australian mining colossus Rio Tinto delighted markets, shareholders… and maybe even roboticists too!

Australian miner Rio Tinto generated over US$12 billion (all figures in U.S. dollars) from its bauxite, alumina and aluminum production in 2018. It predicts about 67 million tonnes production of bauxite, alumina and aluminum this year. These minor bulk commodities are significant seaborne cargoes.

Worldwide customs and logistics software provider WiseTech Global has today announced the acquisition of Containerchain, a provider of a shipping container tracking and managing systems for AU$92 million (just over USD$65.8 million) in cash.

Global logistics player, Toll, has officially launched two new roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) ships for the carriage of trucks and containers across the Bass Strait between mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania. The first commercial sailing begins in a few days on March 1. FreightWaves reviews the vessels in detail, describes the local wharf upgrades and analyses the Bass Strait trade.

Widespread jitters in the Australian political and business communities that China may have banned imports of Australian coal now appear to be unfounded. Customs clearance delays at Dalian are happening owing to entirely “normal” reasons and coal cargo can be re-routed around a given port anyway, coal mining and coal transport executives have explained to FreightWaves.

Sydney-headquartered multi-modal logistics operator Qube has announced “solid” company earnings today. ASX-listed Qube revealed a small 5 percent increase in revenues and a large 36 percent increase in profits.

Sydney, Australia-headquartered customs and logistics software provider WiseTech Global yesterday released details of massive increases in revenues and profits. ASX-listed WiseTech reported that total revenues increased by 68 percent.

Flinders Ports, South Australia, had a mixed bag of containerised cargo throughput results in 2018 compared to 2017, new data analysis shows. Overall containerised throughput – which includes imports, exports, empties and boxes in various configurations – was essentially flat.

Brambles, a supplier of reusable pallets, crates and containers for the supply chain industries, recorded strong revenue growth but its profit was much lower in the first half of its financial year, according to results released to the Australian Stock Exchange.

An Australian court has refused permission for the creation of a coking-coal mine in New South Wales on the grounds that it would adversely contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and would set back the fight against climate change. Legal scholars are hailing the decision as a “hugely significant” ruling.

Longshoremen working for DP World Australia (DPWA) are fired up over an alleged threat to their income protection insurance. That benefit was granted to them by the company three years ago in the last round of negotiations for a collective employment contract known as an “enterprise agreement”.

Every three years each of the stevedore companies enter into a protracted and bitter dispute with the local longshoremen’s representative body, the Maritime Union of Australia. This short article explains how and why.

Wharfies are eyeing strikes at DP World Australia in pursuit of better terms and conditions in their next collective employment contract. Asian maritime shipping schedules and landside Australian logistics timetables could be thrown into disarray.

Baraja raised U.S.$35m on the back of its ability to use lasers, prisms and the colors of the rainbow to grant sight to machines. It’s a critical step on the path to helping vehicles drive themselves. Photo – Shutterstock.

An intersection in New Jersey has been deemed the worst for truck bottlenecks, plus Nikola Motor may be adding a purely electric truck; GM and Tesla are working together, and FedEx Express signs on to a new cargo terminal.

Australian Stock Exchange listed bulk rail freight operator Aurizon reported decreases in top-line revenue, earnings before interest, tax and depreciation, and a big decline in net profit after tax on February 11, 2019.

A noticeable change in the pattern of trade is underway at Australia’s second biggest box port, Sydney’s Port Botany. Botany handled more boxes in the last calendar year than in 2017  – but those boxes arrived and departed on fewer, although larger, container ships.

Queensland’s Port of Brisbane handled just under 1.4 million twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers in the last calendar year. Just under 29 per cent of all boxes handled were empty, according to the port’s trade statistics.

Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. (NYSE: GWR) beat fourth quarter revenue consensus estimates by $4.89 million. Revenue was expected to decrease by 0.2 percent year-over-year (Y/Y), but it increased 0.7 percent Y/Y from $571.6 million to $575.6 million, according to Seeking Alpha. GWR also beat fourth quarter consensus earnings per share (EPS) estimates of $0.89 by $0.11 to $1.00.

Rail operator Aurizon has completed the sale of its Queensland Intermodal Business to privately owned Australian logistics company Linfox. The Queensland Intermodal Business delivers general cargo for more than 300 customers across the state and includes a wide variety of freight including groceries, white goods and general goods.  

Australia’s busiest box port, the Port of Melbourne, broke the three million mark in handling twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers in the last calendar year. It is likely the first time that any port anywhere in Australia has handled three million TEU in any twelve month period whether that’s on a running month, financial year, or calendar year basis.

An industrial dispute between the local longshoremen’s union, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), and stevedoring company, Hutchison Ports, is intensifying. A one day strike is now taking place.

It’s a growth story at Western Australia’s main container port, Fremantle Ports (Freo), with just under 10 percent growth of international shipping container traffic in the last calendar year. Stevedoring at the port is also up for tender.

Overall cargo volumes on Australia’s air routes have increased, according to the latest data from the federal government’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.

Australia is experiencing growth in volumes of inbound international air cargo, new official figures show. Freight volumes from overseas airports to airports in Australia grew by 7.3% in the year ended November 2018.

New Zealand’s Ports of Auckland has been conditionally granted funds to buy hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as part of a wider project to build a hydrogen fuel production plant. That second project, in turn, is part of a bigger project to transform New Zealand into an electricity-powered economy.

One of the world’s largest coal export ports, the Port of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, has announced it is committing to the EcoPorts global environmental and sustainability standards.

Sharon Middleton of Whiteline Australia Transport in Adelaide, and Phyllis Jones of road transport company NJ & NP Jones, based near the town of Hay in Outback New South Wales, have been honoured for their services to the road transport industry in Australia’s annual national awards

A high-level review of road safety governance has begun in Australia.A lack of road safety carries a terrible toll in lives and injuries in Australia

Australia’s National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has warned that grot and grime can obscure damage to parts during visual inspections; fatigue fractured leaf springs caused the death of truck driver Stephen Ross Brown.

Trucks and truckers are baking in the extreme Australian summer heat, which is nudging the 122 F (50 C) in certain parts of the country for days at a time. (Photo: Shutterstock).

Australia’s Heavy Vehicle National Law has been heavily criticised for being too bureaucratic, prescriptive and generally difficult to work with. A major review has been announced.

Playing pass the parcel is fun when you’re a little kid. It’s less so when the parcel is a great big bill that you’re being stiffed with as a side effect of a fight between longshoremen and their employer.

Rolling strikes by workers at the Hutchison Ports Australia box terminals in Sydney and Brisbane started at 6:00 a.m. (Australian Eastern Standard Time) yesterday January 17 and are causing logistics chaos.

Australia is carrying out a series of large scale studies into its domestic supply chain; one study currently underway is into the nation’s freight data requirements. (Photo: Shutterstock).

Infestations of the brown marmorated stink bug found on ships en-route to Australia are causing havoc with local supply chains. Bugs are breeding, ships are re-routing, trucks are idling and supply chains are collapsing.

Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier announced earlier this week that European nations were ready to build the necessary infrastructure to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S. At this time, Europe has 28 ‘regasification’ import terminals.

Australian livestock haulers will greatly benefit from a programme of livestock-haulage related road upgrades in Northern Australia. Road investment decisions have been informed a massive transport research and simulation project by the national scientific research agency.