News

REVISION OF THE COMBINED TRANSPORT DIRECTIVE ON ITS WAY

On 19 August, the European Commission published the inception Impact Assessment for the revision of the Combined Transport Directive (Directive 92/106/EEC). The revision of the CT Directive will be carried out in an integrated approach with a number of other policies, including, inter alia, the planned revisions of the TEN-T Guidelines and the Rail Freight Corridors Regulation.

NINGBO TERMINAL SET TO REOPEN NEXT WEEK

The port authority in Ningbo, China announced this week that it is planning a phased resumption at Meishan Terminal, which was closed on 11 August after a dock worker tested positive for coronavirus. Since then, no new cases have been detected, according to health authorities. Nevertheless, the delays and rerouting that ensued from the shutdown will continue to reverberate throughout other ports and continually cause congestion in the global supply chains.

PROFITEERING CONTAINER LINES RISK A POLICY BACKLASH IN COMPETITION, CLIMATE AND TAXATION

Chris Bryant from Bloomberg Opinion reported on 19 August about the current situation in liner shipping, the potential long-term consequences and what can be done by the carriers to improve their image towards consumers and policymakers. The article recalls the extraordinary financial results shipping lines will realise this year, thanks to ever-increasing freight rates: container lines could collectively make $100 billion in operating income in 2021, according to Drewry.

DREWRY WORLD CONTAINER INDEX

Ocean freight rates are still rising and are not expected to decrease any time soon. According to analyst Drewry, their World Container Index increased by 2% or $192 this week, to $9,613 per forty-foot container. Compared to the same week last year, this represents a 360% increase, and marks the 18th consecutive week of increases.

ROAD FREIGHT RATES ON THE RISE DUE TO CAPACITY SHORTAGE

Transporeon published last week its latest Transport Market Monitor which shows that shortage in capacity is driving European road freight spot prices close to a three-year high. The analysis is based on road transportation data of more than 1.8 million freight loads on the spot market per year which was updated earlier this month.

NORTH SEA - MED CORRIDOR OPERATIONAL AGAIN

Following a closure of multiple weeks due to damage that occurred on its Belgian section during the floods of July, the North Sea – Mediterranean rail freight corridor has become operational again on 16 August.

CLECAT Meetings

CLECAT Board Meeting
7 September 2021, Online

CLECAT Road Logistics Institute
9 September 2021, Online 

CLECAT Air Logistics Institute
14 September 2021, Online

CLECAT Security Institute
17 September 2021, Online

Events with CLECAT participation

Porto Maritime Week
20-24 September 2021, Porto

Connecting Europe Express Conference on Rail Freight
5 October 2021, Luxembourg/Online           

Market Place Seminar - Multimodality in the year of Rail
14 October 2021, Online 

GreenPort Congress 2021
21 October 2021, Place tbc

EU Meetings

Council of the European Union

Informal Transport Council
22-23 September 2021, Brussels

European Parliament

European Parliament Transport Committee
1-2 September 2021, Brussels

European Parliament Plenary
13-16 September 2021, Strasbourg