News & Insights

The UK government plans to break international law, while launching the Trader Support System, to keep them compliant! In a truly extraordinary admission to the House on Tuesday, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said the government will break the law in a ‘very limited and specific w... Read more

October sees the launch of a new multimodal sea-rail service from Altynkol on the Chinese border, to Hamburg, boasting transit times of 12-14 days from Chongqing to Hamburg. The service, a strategic joint venture between Russian Railways subsidiary JSC and Frankfurt based Belintertrans (B... Read more

Container freight rates are at their highest levels in five years, Westbound Asia to Europe, driven by rocketing demand and the carriers manipulating capacity to create under or balanced supply, which allows the shipping lines to cherry-pick the best paying cargo and maintain rates at the st... Read more

The global air cargo sector is recovering alongside improving economic activity and while most regions are on an upward swing, at different paces, volumes in Latin America have struggled amidst challenging economic and health conditions. Despite growing uncertainty in COVID19 developments,&nbs... Read more

Formed in 1946, the African specialist shipping line Safmarine, which is represented in more than 130 countries, was acquired in 1999 by Maersk. Earlier this month Maersk announced that it was closing the Safmarine brand at the end of the year, integrating it into Maersk Line. What are the market... Read more

The effects and uncertainty of COVID is creating a parallel issue for UK businesses, who are already trying to navigate the shifting landscape of a post-Brexit trading environment. On Monday we learned that the coronavirus alert level should move to 4, transmission is ‘high or rising exponen... Read more

The ongoing congestion and industrial action at Sydney port, which caused schedule disruption to many carriers and prompted Maersk to stop acceptance of all bookings for the port, has been withdrawn. The move to withdraw industrial action at Sydney port, will bring relief to shippers and shipp... Read more

As the government insinuates that business has not prepared and warns of 7,000-truck-long queues in Kent and two-day delays for exports to the EU, BIFA director general Robert Keen accuses them of “making villains of the key workers who have been tackling the impact of the pandemic on the UK’... Read more

High vessel volumes, spikes in container throughput and diminished operational capability due to COVID safe-working is creating high yard density at the port, resulting in terminal-wide congestion which means vessels are unable to complete empty loading or have diverted to other ports, not loadin... Read more

Currently, VAT from 3rd country imports is due on arrival, or on release of the goods into free circulation. From the 1st January 2021 postponed VAT accounting (PVA) is being introduced for EU and non-EU imports of goods.  This means that all UK VAT-registered traders who import goods int... Read more

Up to a further 29 lorry parks, from Devon and Somerset to Warwickshire and Suffolk, will be built in order to cope with border trading chaos after Brexit, under emergency government powers, which will take no notice of local objections. The move was revealed after the leak of a government doc... Read more

In a survey by the freight forwarders trade association, BIFA, 64% of respondents felt they would not be ready to undertake the additional Customs-related work that will be required from January 1st 2021. Following a survey of its members, the British International Freight Association (BIFA) r... Read more