Singapore: Southeast Asia’s Cargo Gem > 자유게시판

Positioned at the center of the dynamic and vibrant region of Southeast Asia, Singapore just isn't only the freight hub for Asia but for the world. But that is not the tip of this story. Its give attention to infrastructure and partnerships is getting ready it to be the air freight hub of the long run as nicely.

It's the smallest country in Southeast Asia but ranks high in per capita GDP. It is among the few international locations on the planet with almost no pure sources but has a big quantity of world commerce that passes by way of. It is not solely residence to one of many busiest seaports on this planet but in addition an airport ranked amongst the highest 10 cargo airports in the world. Singapore is Southeast Asia’s cargo gem. Singapore even topped the World Bank’s 2023 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) on trade logistics performance.

In March 2022, DHL Express and Singapore Airlines (SIA) signed a crew and maintenance settlement to deploy five Boeing 777 freighters underneath which SIA operates new cargo routes between South Asia, North Asia and North America, based mostly at Changi Airport in Singapore. That is one in every of the most recent examples of how the world and world’s greatest cargo movers leverage the position of Singapore as the worldwide cargo hub to move their goods.

But why? With an appropriate geographic position, Singapore’s Changi Airport gives strong air connectivity to completely different elements of the world. It also provides robust infrastructure and service high quality with its air cargo partners. In 2022, Changi Airport was ranked 10th globally based mostly on worldwide cargo site visitors and was the busiest air cargo hub in Southeast Asia. In accordance with the newest operational figures, Changi Airport registered an airfreight throughput of 1.3 million tonnes for the first 9 months of 2023.

The quarterly operations information reads, "From July to September 2023, airfreight throughput totalled 451,000 tonnes, a decline of four percent compared to the identical period final year. The softening in air cargo demand has gradually eased in the course of the quarter, led by improvements in transhipment volumes. For the interval, Changi’s top 5 air cargo markets comprised Australia, China, Hong Kong, India and the United States of America. Notably, air cargo traffic with India registered a strong development of 21 p.c in comparison with the corresponding period final yr."

Lim Ching Kiat, government vice president of air hub & cargo improvement, Changi Airport Group points out that the airport has one of the widest networks in Asia Pacific, Giochi di gioco 1x2 served by devoted freighters and belly hold capacity.

"One of Changi Airport’s strengths as a leading air cargo hub lies in our sturdy network and connectivity, supported by a vibrant neighborhood of air cargo partners. Changi Airport is currently linked to some 360 cities globally, with close to a hundred airlines including some 30 freighter operators that function over 530 weekly flights," he stated.

Southeast Asia in particular, with its burgeoning growth in manufacturing, trade, and logistics, is a first-rate space of focus for Changi Airport.

"Positioned at the heart of this dynamic area, Changi Airport is dedicated to expanding our cargo network and reinforcing our regional presence. We're additionally focusing our attention on the areas of enhancing cargo dealing with capabilities, sustainability, automation and digitalisation over the close to- to medium-term," he added.

Supported by 70 hectares of contiguous Airport Free Trade Zone and key cargo amenities, Changi Airport can handle up to 3 million tonnes of air cargo yearly. With quick-growing regional trades, Changi is investing in the Changi East growth to nearly double its handling capacity to 5.Four million tonnes per annum in its finish-state.

In accordance with Lim, the long run expanded air cargo hub shall be smarter, extra connected, and extra environment friendly.

"As a world air cargo hub, strengthening service high quality, and delivering reliability are Changi's key thrusts. To this finish, Changi's methods and priorities are centred on fostering community and connectivity, bettering operational effectivity, and boosting dealing with capabilities by partnerships and group stewardship," he knowledgeable.

While infrastructure is one a part of the coin, the airport must foster strong collaborations and dependable companions to keep up its status as a world air cargo hub.

Designed to handle an annual turnover of 550,000 tonnes, the bottom handler dnata’s cargo terminal at Changi Airport facilitates the motion of cargo, together with perishables, pharmaceuticals, harmful goods, dwell animals, aircraft engines and autos.

Sam Gould, head of cargo, ramp and baggage services, dnata Singapore knowledgeable The STAT Trade Times that the company performs an energetic function in supporting this by infusing finest practices, and worldwide expertise into the sphere and collaborating with other players within the ecosystem to ensure cross-pollination and alignment that advantages all the native aviation group.

"In current years we’ve considerably invested in infrastructure, gear and technologies to provide greatest-in-class cargo providers to our clients in Singapore," he stated.

Gould famous that, while cargo connectivity stays vital to anchor Changi Airport's position as a number one air cargo hub, it additionally prioritises raising service quality in cargo dealing with and unlocking capability for lengthy-term sustainable cargo progress by leveraging automation and digitalisation.

"With airfreight operations consolidated on the Changi Airfreight Centre and Airport Logistics Park of Singapore, this 24-hour Free Trade Zone permits transhipment cargo to be broken down and reconsolidated with minimal customs formalities, which reduces cargo processing occasions as well as prices," he added.

In addition, he pointed out that Changi’s extensive air network is complemented by Singapore’s position as a number one seaport.

As he puts it, "With seamless air-sea connectivity, Singapore presents customised options to each e-commerce corporations and manufacturers. To capitalise on these alternatives, the local air cargo supply chain focuses on offering seamless operations with end-to-end visibility underpinned by innovation and digitisation through a extra connected air cargo ecosystem."

Automation and digitalisation are a number of the crucial factors that would determine the power to handle efficient cargo operations and Changi Airport has been investing in each consistently. For example, with promising trials underway, Changi is anticipating absolutely driverless baggage delivery operations by 2024.

Lim informed that Changi Airport is investing with their companions to trial autonomous options, like autonomous tractors, to cut back manpower in airport ramp operations such as baggage and cargo transport.

"Additionally," he added, "Changi can also be implementing asset tracking solutions for motorised ground support equipment to achieve optimised deployment, increase productiveness, and improve total ramp handling."

In terms of digitalisation, Lim gave the example of an initiative jointly developed with the airport neighborhood called the Truck Dock Slot Booking (TDSB) software.

"It evens out cargo lodgment and collection on the air freight terminals, offering higher insights to landside freight movement activities and resulting in lesser truck waiting time. It is targeted for roll-out to the wider Changi Airport air cargo neighborhood in early 2024," he said.

Changi Airport additionally leads the air cargo industry by prioritising the enhancement of special cargo dealing with capabilities. For instance, Lim notes that its pioneering initiative, Pharma@Changi, in partnership with IATA CEIV Pharma-certified companies in Changi, exemplifies their commitment to advancing chilly chain expertise.

"This additionally reinforces our standing as the preferred regional pharmaceutical gateway and underscores Singapore's reputation as a trusted and dependable hub for air pharmaceutical transportation throughout the region," he stated.

In March 2023, Changi Airport and Brussels Airport Company (BAC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly drive initiatives to boost capabilities in pharmaceutical logistics, undertake studies and trials within the fields of digitalisation and sustainability, in addition to exchange greatest practices.

Lim added, "One of the projects each airports are co-leading is a research on Green Air Pharma Logistics, which goals to determine a green lane with a set of sustainability indicators to be measured throughout air transportation journeys."

dnata has a 1,400 sq metre pharma and perishable dealing with centre at Changi Airport which is able to processing 75,000 tonnes of goods yearly.

Gould said, "Our cool chain facility was designed and built with flexibility and unique product handling requirements in thoughts, benefiting from the latest cold storage applied sciences and designs. The temperature-managed areas in the ability are modular, enabling teams to manage changing handling demands with devoted local weather management capability. The modular system permits us to scale back our energy use when we're not operating at capacity. An online-based mostly monitoring system can also be in place to facilitate actual-time administration of all areas. We operate a number of cool dollies, which guarantee secure and seamless supply of temperature-delicate goods between aircraft and our facilities. The cool dollies have both solar panels on the roof and are conditioned to optimal temperatures utilizing electric power."

Gould also spoke to us about the customer experience they provide with the track & hint portal, a multi-useful platform that gives entry to its on-line companies.

"Through this platform," he said, "Customers could make online flight and shipment enquiries, view the import and export lists, print import and export consignment lists, in addition to generate stories on month-to-month cargo tonnage statistics. Each forwarder has their very own portal the place they'll evaluate shipment updates, cost data and customs info for all their shipments across all carriers in a single place. This was a big milestone for us and has helped with consolidating all of the related data a forwarder can be in search of. Because of this our customer support employees are spending much less time answering calls and more time contributing to the standard of dealing with."

Announced in August 2023, the latest applied sciences dnata has launched at their acceptance dock are Speedcargo’s synthetic intelligence (AI)-based dimensioning machine Cargo Eye and digital planning instrument Assemble.

He added, "Other than providing the volume of every shipment lodged with us, it captures the exact time the cargo was introduced to our export counter, takes photos from multiple angles and may provide this info to the relevant forwarder and even the shipper. This information is then inputted into Assemble, which generates a digital plan that advises dnata’s expert cargo dealing with groups on the best approach to assemble a pallet."

Gould also gave us an replace that they are actually working on integrating temperature studying know-how into the machine.

E-commerce is another key cargo section at Changi Airport. In accordance with a forecast by McKinsey, between 2022 and 2026, the Southeast Asian market is projected to triple at a compound progress fee of twenty-two percent and will reach round $230 billion in gross merchandise quantity.

In July 2023, SATS Group and Singapore Post (SingPost) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore a partnership in the potential institution of an e-commerce transhipment hub in Singapore. Under the MOU, SATS and SingPost have committed to providing equal shares of sources to engage operational and business consultants for business case formulation, discover synergies and facilitate trial runs to capture essential information for a feasibility research. Thus, we're witnessing the evolution of Singapore itself as the e-commerce transhipment hub as effectively.

Building on its intentions, SingPost signed a MoU very just lately in September 2023 with FedEx Express to conduct a trial for submit offices to just accept FedEx parcels. The three-month trial will present greater convenience for FedEx customers with the choice of dropping off their parcels at POPStop counters situated inside six collaborating submit places of work across the island, at no further charge. POPStop is a devoted facility for e-commerce parcel-associated transactions as well as e-commerce returns obtainable in all submit offices.

This was originally printed in the November 2023 challenge of The STAT Trade Times.

Sam Gould
dnata Singapore
Singapore
Lim Ching Kiat
Changi Airport Group
Libin Chacko Kurian

Principal Correspondent at STAT Media Group, he has six years of expertise in enterprise journalism masking food & beverage, nutraceuticals and now logistics. His current passion is to understand the nuances of world provide chains and their present turmoil. Outside work, he can also be enthusiastic about philosophy, historical past, birding and travelling.