Panalpina’s relief flights at the end of the year have become a tradition whereby the company offers its air charter expertise to UNICEF. Same as last year, Panalpina assisted UNICEF by flying relief aid to Africa to help children in South Sudan, where the humanitarian needs after years of conflict remain massive. A Panalpina chartered cargo aircraft landed last night in neighboring Uganda, carrying nearly 70 tons of supplies including emergency health kits. The supplies will be trucked to South Sudan and distributed across the country as the dry season begins.

Panalpina’s Charter Network arranged the flight in support of the respected UN organization. The consignment of relief aid left Belgium on Wednesday afternoon and items such as health and education kits as well as therapeutic milk to fight malnutrition,supplied by UNICEF (the United Nations International Children’s Fund), are now headed for children, women and families in South Sudan.

“The peace agreement signed in August 2018 gives us hope that children in South Sudan can be children once again and look forward to a better future. But the years of conflict have come at an enormous cost and the humanitarian needs remain massive,” says Tim Irwin, chief of communications at UNICEF South Sudan.

The staggering scale of destruction and suffering determine people's everyday lives in South Sudan. 2.6 million children have been born into war. Around 4.4 million people, or 40 percent of the entire population, suffer from food insecurity. South Sudan now also has the world's highest proportion of children who do not attend school. 2.2 million children receive no education.

Essential medicines for 50,000 people

For the flight chartered and donated by Panalpina, UNICEF gathered nearly 70 tons of relief aid, which not only includes teaching material for schools, but also equipment for midwives, reanimation equipment and “Interagency Emergency Health Kits”. The standardized health packs containing medicines and medical supplies cover the diverse health needs in humanitarian emergencies and disasters. The kits ensure a fast, reliable and affordable supply of essential medicines for 50,000 people for three months and also address the need of children for psychosocial treatment in emergency situations.

The Panalpina chartered MD-11 freighter took off from Liège (Belgium) in the afternoon of December 5, and arrived in Entebbe (Uganda) in the middle of the night on December 6. For logistical reasons, and same as last year, it was decided to fly into Uganda from where the cargo is now being transported by trucks to South Sudan. The supplies will then be distributed across the country taking advantage of the upcoming dry season when dirt roads are passable.

“I am very pleased that we have again partnered with UNICEF and donated a relief flight to Africa. We have done this for the sixth time now, instead of making gifts to customers and employees before Christmas. The relief flights have become a tradition whereby we offer our air charter expertise and bring some respite to those who are less fortunate than us, especially children,” says Panalpina’s CEO, Stefan Karlen.

“Panalpina's commitment is unparalleled,” explains Hans Kuenzle, president of UNICEF Switzerland and Liechtenstein. “To even come close to covering the enormous demand for life-saving aid in the world’s crisis regions, we rely on the generous support from companies such as Panalpina that transport these goods free of charge.”

Panalpina already supported UNICEF South Sudan last year. In 2016, Panalpina flew much-needed relief goods to Chad, where malnutrition and natural disasters had led to a health emergency. In 2015, Panalpina supplied a charter flight to Burundi, where a recurring crisis and violence took a heavy toll on society. In 2014, Panalpina supported the fight against Ebola by flying life-saving humanitarian aid to Sierra Leone. In 2013, Panalpina’s first relief flight for UNICEF took goods to the Central African Republic.

A.P. Moller - Maersk aims at having carbon neutral vessels commercially viable by 2030 and calls for strong industry involvement.

Aimed at accelerating the transition to carbon neutral shipping, Maersk announces today its goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve this goal, carbon neutral vessels must be commercially viable by 2030, and an acceleration in new innovations and adaption of new technology is required.

Climate is one of the most important issues in the world, and carrying around 80% of global trade, the shipping industry is vital to finding solutions. By now, Maersk's relative CO2 emissions have been reduced by 46% (baseline 2007), approx. 9% more than the industry average.

As world trade and thereby shipping volumes will continue to grow, efficiency improvements on the current fossil based technology can only keep shipping emissions at current levels but not reduce them significantly or eliminate them.

"The only possible way to achieve the so-much-needed decarbonisation in our industry is by fully transforming to new carbon neutral fuels and supply chains," says Søren Toft, Chief Operating Officer at A.P. Moller - Maersk.

Maersk is putting its efforts towards solving problems specific to maritime transport, as it calls for different solutions than automotive, rail and aviation. The yet to come electric truck is expected to be able to carry max 2 TEU and is projected to run 800km per charging. In comparison, a container vessel carrying thousands of TEU sailing from Panama to Rotterdam makes around 8800km. With short battery durability and no charging points along the route, innovative developments are imperative.

Given the 20-25-year life time of a vessel, it is now time to join forces and start developing the new type of vessels that will be crossing the seas in 2050.

"The next 5-10 years are going to be crucial. We will invest significant resources for innovation and fleet technology to improve the technical and financial viability of decarbonised solutions. Over the last four years, we have invested around USD 1bn and engaged 50+ engineers each year in developing and deploying energy efficient solutions. Going forward we cannot do this alone" adds Søren Toft.

Research & Development is key to take the industry away from today's fossil based technology and by setting this ambitious target, Maersk hopes to generate a pull towards researchers, technology developers, investors, cargo owners and legislators that will activate strong industry involvement, co-development, and sponsorship of sustainable solutions that we are yet to see in the maritime industry.

In 2019, Maersk is planning to initiate open and collaborative dialogue with all possible parties to tackle together one of the most important issues in the world; the climate change.

A path finding algorithm provides extensive coverage between 1,200 ports to and from every corner of the world
Realistic lead times on direct services can be compared with announced transit times from carriers
Data-driven insights unlock new possibilities for a more reliable and sustainable seafreight supply chain planning
Full transparency of quality and sustainability for each operating service loop based on Big Data technology
Customers can leverage real-time service information to make best informed decisions
Schindellegi / CH, November 15, 2018 – Kuehne + Nagel’s Sea Explorer provides digitally enabled service insights to the world’s largest seafreight service network. With the implementation of service connections and transshipments, the company further expands its seafreight platform. Sea Explorer is now offering smart connections between more than 1,200 ports around the globe through an advanced pathfinding algorithm. More than 63,000 port pairs are connected either by 750 direct weekly services or by a multitude of transshipment options.

Otto Schacht, Member of the Managing Board of Kuehne + Nagel International AG, responsible for Seafreight: “This extension takes Sea Explorer to the next level and complements Kuehne + Nagel’s intelligent seafreight offering. It is the smart platform for all liner services in container shipping. With powerful features, like comparing realistic lead times for direct services and an intuitive navigation, customers will be able to unlock new opportunities for their day-to-day operations. For the first time a platform provides full visibility on CO2 emissions across carrier and individual services. Also in the light of the upcoming IMO 2020 regulations this will enable shippers to contribute towards a green economy and sustainable global maritime transportation. Kuehne + Nagel leverages big data technology capabilities and information from operational system to grant unique insights to sea transport options.”

Users can find, compare and visualise shipment options across carriers. Information on services are validated by more than 200 million data sets per day from multiple sources, such as AIS (Automated Identification System) and Kuehne + Nagel’s operational systems.

Sea Explorer is an agile project that will be continuously enhanced, based on close collaboration with customers.

After Bogotá in August, Panalpina has obtained another Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certification, this time for its new logistics center in Singapore, where many of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies have manufacturing facilities. The GDP quality assurance standard includes stringent requirements for the handling, storage and distribution of pharmaceuticals. The number of Panalpina locations globally with GDP certification now stands at 32.


The GDP certificate was issued by Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA) following a rigorous inspection. To be granted GDP certification in Singapore, companies must demonstrate compliance with HSA GDP guidelines, which are based on the most important global guidelines. With the new GDP certification, Panalpina is authorized to store, handle and distribute medicines in the local market and to ship them abroad on behalf of pharmaceutical companies.

“The pharmaceutical sector in Singapore has developed enormously since 2000 and the companies are increasingly outsourcing the logistics for their highly sensitive products,” says Gino Marzola, Panalpina’s managing director for Singapore and Malaysia. “Healthcare supply chains have a zero-fault tolerance, and the GDP certification for our brand-new facility demonstrates that we can meet that requirement. We also give pharmaceutical companies access to a global, quality distribution network for their products.”

The pharmaceutical sector is particularly important to Singapore. According to the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), eight of the top ten pharmaceutical companies have a presence in the city-state, manufacturing four of the top ten drugs by global revenue. In 2016, the sector produced more than S$16 billion worth of products for global markets.

Many pharmaceutical companies demand from third-party logistics providers (3PLs) that the business units that handle their products are certified according to Good Distribution Practice (GDP), a set of guidelines for the proper distribution of medicinal products for human use.

Panalpina realizes that maintaining product quality and safety of pharmaceuticals in the supply chain is highly critical. In line with this, the company has taken strong initiatives to exceed the expectations of healthcare customers. Today, Panalpina has a global coverage of GDP-compliant locations. 32 of the locations, the new logistics center in Singapore included, are GDP-certified and this number is on the increase.

Global transportation management through single point of contact
Greater visibility, speed and productivity via KN ControlTower
Geographical scope expanded to Europe and Asia

Kuehne + Nagel announced a multi-year contract extension with Terex Corporation, one of the worldwide leading manufacturers of lifting and material processing equipment. The relationship between Kuehne + Nagel and Terex started in 2013 and allows Terex to improve transport management control and visibility by leveraging the KN ControlTower capabilities.

The new agreement enlarges this relationship by including all Terex Corporation Business segments, expanding geographical scope to Europe and Asia and embedding the complete supply chain from raw material to end customers. Kuehne + Nagel serves as a single point of contact for Terex.

“This relationship emphasizes the pivotal role our end-to-end logistics solution has in supporting the needs of Terex Corporation’s global business and their customers. Additional digital solutions will allow Terex to include predictive analytics and digital supply chain modelling to create a faster and more predictable supply chain”, said Gianfranco Sgro, member of the Managing Board of Kuehne + Nagel International AG, responsible for Contract Logistics.

KN ControlTower is a Kuehne + Nagel Integrated Logistics product that provides managed services tailored to meet customer needs, simplifying supply chain complexity through integrated end-to-end solutions. It combines the company’s industry expertise, logistics resources and innovative technology to provide essential network coordination that delivers enhanced visibility of the flow of goods, data and payments. This enables customers to optimise logistics operating costs, lead times and inventory levels.