News

Fracht Group Australia Logistics News - November 2025

3/11/2025

FRACHT GROUP NEWS

PROJECT LOGISTICS PROVIDER OF THE YEAR – FRACHT GROUP!!!!  Our CEO in Switzerland, Ruedi Reisdorf recently announced – “We’re proud to share that Fracht Group has been awarded ‘Project Logistics Provider of the Year’ at the Heavy Lift Awards 2025 in London. The event brought together more than 400 guests from across the global project logistics and heavy transport industry, recognizing companies that push the boundaries of what’s possible in our field. A big thank you to Heavy Lift magazine for hosting such a great evening and to all our colleagues worldwide, our customers and suppliers, whose commitment and passion make achievements like this possible. Together, we keep the world of logistics moving.”  For any assistance or enquiries regarding Projects here in Australia, please contact our Project Team at projects@frachtsyd.com.au

AROUND THE WORLD

• NEW US TARIFFS on key transpacific cargo will crush hopes of rate recovery. US president Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs of up to 50% on cabinet and upholstered furniture imports could derail hopes of a recovery in transpacific freight rates. Late September he announced a 10% tariff would be imposed on imported softwood and other timber used to make building materials, as well as a 25% tariff on kitchen cabinets, vanities and upholstered wooden furniture. But on 1 January the tariffs on cabinets will rise to 50%, and on upholstered furniture to 30%. The president said the tariffs aimed to revive US furniture manufacturing and improve national security.
• DELAYS, DISRUPTIONS AND ADDED COSTS loom as US shutdown hits supply chains. Asked what this meant for not just trade with the US, but global trade, one industry source advised The Loadstar: “Global logistics is extremely vulnerable to a US government shutdown. “With fewer inspectors and air traffic controllers, flight delays and bottlenecks at American airports quickly ripple through international cargo networks. The US is a central aviation hub, so any disruption there disrupts connections across Asia, Europe, and Latin America.”
• CARRIERS ARE RAISING SHIPPING COSTS to and from Chittagong – an effort to recoup costs following the port authority’s decision to slap a 70% tariff on service charges last month. CMA CGM said starting 26 October, customers could face paying between USD45 and USD145 for a dry bulk container, up to USD245 for out-of-gauge boxes, and up to USD305 for containers holding hazardous material, as emergency cost recovery surcharges.
• ANTWERP AND ROTTERDAM PORT STRIKES in mid-October severely disrupted European supply chains. Rotterdam's lashers demanded a pay rise, while Antwerp's pilots protested pension reform. These simultaneous actions severely strained cargo flow and created extensive vessel backlogs, threatening broader supply chain disruption across the continent.
• CHINA AND THE US have agreed to suspend port call fees on each other’s ships – but only for a year. The news follows a meeting in South Korea today between presidents Trump and Xi Jinping, after which China’s Ministry of Commerce said the US would pause its Section 301 fees and China would suspend its retaliatory measures, for 12 months. Fine detail, such as the date of the fee suspensions, has yet to be announced. The yo-yo-ing over port fees and 365-day deadline has again highlighted the uncertain trade environment stakeholders have to contend with when making operational decisions – some carriers had already prepared for penalties and adjusted accordingly.
• TRUMP CLAIMS A WIN-WIN as China-US trade tariffs are reduced. Aboard Air Force One, President Trump confirmed that tariffs on imports from China would be reduced from 57% to 47% following his decision to halve 20% fentanyl-related levies, noting he believed China “can help us with the fentanyl situation”. China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed that after the 100-minute talks between the US commander in chief and President Xi: “The 24% equivalent tariff imposed on Chinese goods will continue to be suspended for one year.” As President Trump touts a win in China, the US Senate has undermined his tariff policy at home by voting against the duties imposed on Brazil. And Congress’s higher chamber is set to vote on Canadian levies in the coming days. 

SEAFREIGHT NEWS

• THREAT OF ‘SUSTAINED OVERCAPACITY’ adds to rates gloom for carriers. With shipyards so full that the average time between a carrier placing an order and the vessel hitting the water is now around four years, there are concerns that container shipping is facing a period of sustained overcapacity. Research by Sea-Intelligence indicates that the structural demand-supply balance is only set to worsen over the next two years, as significant numbers of new vessels are delivered.
• NEMO FINDS EXTRA SHIP for reliability boost. An eighteenth ship is to be added to the MSC Australian Express Service / CMA CGM NEMO between Europe and Australia to improve schedule reliability. The weekly service, which has been obliged to sail the long way around the Cape of Good Hope since soon after the outbreak of the Gaza war and rebel Houthis’ targeting of vessels transiting the Red Sea, has been battling to stay on schedule for some time and regularly omitting calls in Europe, Australia and ports in between. The 9,176 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) MSC Lisbon has been phased in at London Gateway on 15 October.
• FRENCH CARRIER CMA CGM is set to resume container services to the Russian Baltic gateway of St Petersburg, according to Alphaliner. The report noted that a fortnightly call at St Petersburg has been inserted into the forward schedule of the carrier’s Finland Express FLX service, which currently runs on a port rotation of: Bremerhaven-Hamburg-Kotka-Helsinki-Tallinn-Gdansk-Bremerhaven. Forward schedules of the Marseille-headquartered line suggest that the1,436 TEU North will make the first appearance at the Russian Baltic Seaport on 17 November.
• MELBOURNE AND SHANGHAI SEAL GREEN LINK. The Port of Melbourne has inked an agreement with China’s Shanghai to establish a Green Shipping Corridor between the two ports. The agreement was formalised at the 2025 North Bund Forum in Shanghai on 19 October and is a joint initiative, supported by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40). It brings together Port of Melbourne and Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission (SMTC) in response to the Clydebank Declaration and the broader decarbonisation of the maritime supply chain.
• MSC TO LAUNCH ASIA-MOZAMBIQUE SERVICE as East Africa Trade matures. MSC has announced plans to launch a service between Asia and Mozambique, representing the next step in the evolution of the Asia-East Africa trade. The Cheetah service will launch with the departure of the 2,500 TEU MSC Sheffield IIIfrom Shanghai on 3 November on a port rotation of Singapore-Colombo-Beira-Nacala-Singapore. MSC has yet to advise how many vessels will be deployed on the service, but said it would complement its Oryx service between Asia and Kenya and Tanzania, which deploys five ships on a Singapore-Mombasa-Dar Es Salaam-Singapore rotation.
• INDIA’S BOOMING AUTO INDUSTRY drives opportunities for RoRo (roll on roll off) operators. India is now regarded as the world’s third-largest automobile market by sales, and the fourth-largest producer of vehicles, according to industry data – providing a boost for RoRo vessel operators. The country has cemented its auto manufacturing footprint in recent years, thanks to the growing investment interest from global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and strong local demand. The latest Indian auto export data has bred a buoyant outlook, despite US tariff issues clouding overall market sentiment, as exports in H1 of fiscal 2025-26 soared 24%, year on year, and exports, by volume, estimated at some 3.14 million units.
• HAPAG-LLOYD AND COSCO have sailed ahead of average container market growth, leaving their liner counterparts in their wake. Against Container Trade Statistics’ (CTS) global volume growth figure of 4.4% year on year in August, the two were the only major carriers to beat the market average, reported maritime analysts at Alphaliner. The German carrier lifted volumes of 6.7m TEU over the first half of 2025, an 11% increase on H1 24. Meanwhile, Cosco carried 13.3m TEU in H1 25, which gave it a jump in lifted volumes of 7% year on year, adding more than 800,000 TEU. “Cosco’s mainland China business was again a major driver, bringing in an extra 250,000 TEU of cargo year on year,” said Alphaliner. 

AIRFREIGHT NEWS 

• AIR CARGO DEMAND GROWS 4% in August which marked the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year growth for the air cargo market, helped by a sea-air shift and growth away from North America in the face of US tariffs. Total demand, measured in cargo tonne-km (CTK), rose by 4.1% compared with August 2024 levels, said IATA. Although growth slowed from the 5.5% rise in demand seen in July, IATA noted that "cargo demand still shows resilience in a challenging global economic context". Looking at regional performance, African airlines registered an 11% year-on-year increase in demand for air cargo in August, the strongest rise of all regions. Unsurprisingly, Asia Pacific airlines saw a 9.8% demand growth and capacity increased by 6.9%. European carriers saw a 3.2% increase in demand, Middle Eastern carriers saw a 2.7% demand increase and capacity. Latin American carriers saw a 2.1% increase, while capacity increased by 5%. North American carriers saw a 2.1% decrease, the worst performance of all regions.
• LUFTHANSA CARGO BUSINESS ROBUST amid challenging airfreight market conditions. Lufthansa Group has stressed that the current air cargo market holds opportunities for Lufthansa Cargo despite geopolitical and economic uncertainty. The German airline group outlined how Lufthansa Cargo is making the most of the operating landscape in a release covering its strategic planning and medium-term financial targets, as announced at its Capital Markets Day on 29 September in Munich. "Lufthansa Cargo is benefiting particularly from growing demand in the e-commerce business and opportunities arising from the volatility of global markets," said Lufthansa Group.
• AUSTRALIA MANDATES AIR CARGO ULD RESTRAINT TRAINING. Australia has become the first country to mandate load and restraint training for freight forwarders who build their own unit load device (ULD). This follows a mail vote by airlines and a proposal earlier this year endorsed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA). Freight forwarders not intending to build their own ULD are to be exempt from the training and will be able to advise IATA of this by ticking a box on their applications as they do for dangerous goods.
• FREIGHTER FLEET TO EXPAND 2.5% annually through 2044. Almost 3,300 freighter aircraft will be added to the air cargo market over the next 20 years, according to the 2025-2044 Cirium Fleet Forecast. The freighter fleet is predicted to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2.5% to some 4,100 by 2044. Freight capacity (available tonne kilometres or ATKs) is forecast to grow at 3.5% annually, slightly reduced from Cirium's 2024 forecast, as global trade flows are impacted in the short term by new tariff regimes.
• TARIFF UNCERTAINTY has seen high air cargo demand, constrained capacity and rising rates out of North China to the US this month, despite the shift of volumes from China-US to China-Europe that emerged this year. The latest global logistics update from Flexport highlighted that increased demand out of China to the US is being driven by concerns over President Trump's threat to impose a new 100% tariff on China beginning 1 November. 

OCEANIA PORTS AND AIRPORTS 

• NEWCASTLE MAINTAINS 5-STAR sustainability rating. A “TESTAMENT to the efforts of the Port of Newcastle team” is how chief executive Craig Carmody has described the port scoring 100% in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB). The port not only earned top GRESB honours but also maintained its 5-star rating for a fifth consecutive year and was also ranked first in the world for its management score, recognises approaches to environmental, social and governance management.
• WESTERN AUSTRALIA SIGNALS RAIL FREIGHT UPGRADE as the WA Government opened tenders to progress planning for rail freight improvements to support the transfer of container trades from Fremantle’s Inner Harbour to the new Westport at Kwinana. The Request for Proposals invites companies to form an integrated project team to undertake the definition phase of the work, which will see new freight rail connections into the future Kwinana container port, duplication of freight rail between Kwinana and Cockburn, including removing existing rail level crossings, and replacing the existing North Lake Road rail level crossing in South Lake with a new bridge.
• EXPORTS STAR in Australian first half container trade. The first half of the 2025 calendar year saw Australian container volumes ratchet up by 0.9% compared to the prior year, according to figures from Container Trade Statistics. CTS, which warns its numbers are preliminary and may be subject to revision, recorded 3,505,400 TEU for 1H25, compared to 3,474,000 TEU for 1H24 and 3,080,300 TEU for 1H 2023. While imports continue to outdistance exports, it was the latter that registered 2.2% growth to 1,379,100 TEU (up 29,300 TEU) while imports rose by 0.4% to 1,976,100 TEU. The intra-Australasia trade dropped by 4.1%, according to CTS.
• PILBARA PORTS AUTHORITY has reported a year-on-year throughput growth of 3% for September, boosted by shipments from Onslow Iron’s Ashburton operations, which resulted in the Port of Ashburton delivering a total throughput of 4.1Mt (million tonnes), which was an increase of 179% compared to September 2024. The total monthly throughput the Pilbara Ports for September 2025 was 68.5 Mt, of which Port Hedland accounted for 49.4Mt, and 48.6Mt of that was iron ore exports, a 1% decrease compared to September 2024.
• THE NSW GOVERNMENT WANTS FEEDBACK and has launched a six-week public consultation period on proposed changes to state port regulation and Port Botany’s landside performance. The update to the Regulation and current Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy Mandatory Standards, and new Performance Benchmarks Mandatory Standards, follow recommendations from the Independent Review of the Ports and Maritime Administration Act and Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy (PBLIS), that require regulatory changes. The consultation period began 20 October and extends until 28 November.
• TOTAL CONTAINER TRADE at the Port of Melbourne has risen slightly for the September 2025 quarter compared to the three months to September 2024, but the biggest contributor to growth has been transhipments, followed by the empty container trade. The Port reported total container trade of 871,000 TEU for the financial year to date, up 3.6 per cent compared to the three months to September 2024, while full exports over the same period, excluding Bass Strait trade, fell by 3.5% to 178,000 TEU, a fall of 6,400 TEU. The biggest growth contributors have been full transhipments, excluding Bass Strait trade (up 23% to 44,000 TEU), empty containers (up 10.8% to 243,000 TEU) and full imports (up 1.5% to 348,000 TEU). Full Bass Strait trade for the financial year to date compared to the three months to September 2024 is little changed, up 0.2% to 59,000 TEU. 

CUSTOMER SERVICE 

If you would like further information about any of the above items, please contact one of our friendly Fracht Team members at fracht@frachtsyd.com.au