Fed up with the congestion problems in Mumbai airport—and of late, the situation has gone from bad to worst—freight forwarders and air cargo stakeholders can look forward to air cargo services at the Ojhar airport in Nasik in Maharashtra. The airport initially expects about 20-25 percent of the 40,000-ton monthly cargo handled at the Mumbai airport to come to it.
The ACAAI and the Bombay Custom House Agents Association meeting in progress. ACAAI President Bharat Thakkar is seen addressing the members of the two trade bodies.

    At the beginning of September, in a move that could only be the result of frustration and delays, the Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) along with the Bombay Customs House Agents Association of India held a joint meeting to let the authorities know about their problems. ACAAI President Bharat Thakkar detailed the long list of grievances faced by air cargo stakeholders. He said that the Mumbai International Airport had taken over the Air Cargo Complex from the government-controlled Airports Authority of India in 2006.
     “Since then,” he told ACNFT, “there has been a manifold increase in the volume of cargo. However, there has been no improvement in the infrastructure, manpower, equipment being provided to the trade.”
     Over the last five years, many suggestions to enhance and upgrade the infrastructure have been made, but little has been done. “The trade was promised state-of-the-art cargo facilities, but even until today, that promise remains a distant dream,” said Thakkar.
     He also said that while the airport handled 30,032 tonnes in March this year, from April onwards there was a fall: 27,092 tonnes in April; 28,936 tonnes in May; 26,179 tonnes in June; and 28,394 tonnes in July. All this pointed to the fact that cargo was going away to other airports.

Announcing the start of cargo operations from Nasik's Ojhar airport: (L-R) Ganesh Krishnan, CEO, Clarion Solutions (Clarion is a subsidiary of Transworld Group, a leading coastal shipping operator in the country); V. Ramnarayan, Vice-Chairman, Transworld Group of Companies; and P. V. Deshmukh, MD, Hindustan Aeronautics.

     It is apparent now that exports and imports will need to move barely 200 km to go from Mumbai to Nasik’s Ojhar, which is being promoted primarily as a cargo airport. Begun by HALCON, a joint venture working group between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and the Container Corporation of India (Concor), along with terminal operator Clarion Solutions, Ojhar’s cargo services were announced recently. The airport is well equipped and capable of handling heavy aircraft like the Russian AN-124. The infrastructure, developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) at Ojhar, will now be utilized for export and import activities by facilitating air cargo services.
     Speaking at the commencement of air cargo services, Ganesh Krishnan, CEO, Clarion Solutions, pointed out that Nasik had the potential to develop as a hub for air cargo services in western India. Situated at the center of various industry verticals and its proximity to the main highway linking Mumbai and Delhi, Ojhar airport could be a viable alternative solution for the export-import trade, he said. “Ojhar going operational for air cargo services will act as a cost effective and single-window clearance facility for the importer and exporter community. It will also help in decongesting the existing air cargo complexes that are presently struggling for the desired space in and around the state,” Krishnan added.
     According to P. V. Deshmukh, Managing Director, Hindustan Aeronautics, HAL had invested nearly Rs 70 crore to upgrade the existing infrastructure—the airport has been in existence since 1964 primarily for HAL, which manufactures small aircraft and helicopters—like creating additional parking space and making it a desired destination for air cargo services. Along with night landing facilities, Ojhar comprises a full-fledged air cargo complex, warehousing, integrated packing center for perishables, cold storage, screening, unitizing/palletization, comprehensive ground handling services for airlines, CCTV surveillance, bar-coding, labeling and Customs with EDI linkage. Deshmukh also said that Ojhar airport would be dedicated for air cargo services and help decongest the traffic at Mumbai airport. It would help exporters of vegetables, flowers, fruits, automobile, pharma, and engineering products. All in all it would benefit the large number of industrial giants situated in the region.
     With better road and rail connectivity, Ojhar airport will act as a cost-effective platform for the importer and exporter community from industry segments such as agriculture, manufacturing, pharma, engineering, automobile, FMCG, etc., operating in the western belt of the country. These industry segments will now be able to utilize the air cargo services at Nasik, reducing the uncertainties, like delivering the goods in defined timelines, while using road and rail transport. Through Ojhar airport, customers (importers, exporters) can optimize on costs, as they need not wait at the borders and deal with restricted movements and congested roads.
Tirthankar Ghosh

Keeping Tab On Economic Indicators

     As Autumn 2011 begins—An ill wind blows in, with a poorer macroeconomic outlook for 2012 than many hoped possible.
    Now the idea is to stay in front of capacity, but allocate expenses wisely as the pace of expansion in the manufacturing industry is looking to slacken in many nations.
    Several sectors have already started to show indications of slowing activity.
    For example, in Germany, according to the following created by Deutsche Bank Research, output of the chemicals sector was already more than 1 percent lower in June than in March, the month with the strongest performance, and new order intake continues heading south.
    Which sectors are impacted first by the cooling of the economy is determined partly by their position in the value chain.
    Examining the correlation between the production figures of selected sectors with those of manufacturing as a whole for the 2000-2011 period, the aim is to establish at which phase the shift is highest.
    The chemicals sector, which mainly produces intermediate goods, correlates most closely with the manufacturing cycle with a lead-time of two months.
    This makes chemicals an early-cycle industry – that is, it passes its turning points in the economic cycle earlier than manufacturing as a whole.
    This holds similarly for the rubber and plastics segment.
    Mechanical engineering, by contrast, is a cyclical laggard, since an economic upswing initially results in existing (machine) capacities being utilized and new machinery not being ordered until later in the cycle. The correlation of the production data shows that cyclical developments reach mechanical engineering with a time lag of two months. Moreover, the month-on-month production declines following a cyclical peak are smaller here since mechanical engineering orders often have long completion times. The mechanical engineering sector consists of roughly 30 segments, though, with machine tool production, for instance, a leader in the cycle and plant construction a laggard.
    Other transport equipment is also a late-cycle sector, whose activities include the building of rolling stock, airplanes and ships.
    Its cyclical turning points lag the industry average by about ten months.
    The non-cyclical development of the food and animal feed sectors (as well as beverages) can also be seen from the data. Food production continues largely independently of cyclical factors thanks to stable demand.
Among the sectors under review, the food sector has one of the lowest correlations with the manufacturing cycle.
    Most of the major sectors – such as metals production, electrical engineering and car manufacturing – are in step with the manufacturing cycle, though. Of course, part of the reason is that these sectors, taken together, generate a very large proportion of added value and thus have a major impact on the cycle.
    Moreover, the findings ought to be viewed in perspective, insofar as not every cycle in industry proceeds uniformly.
    When comparing economic cycles it emerges that the respective intervals of the turning points can fluctuate substantially.
Geoffrey Arend

FT100511