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German and Dutch ports braced for strike action

Seaports in Germany and the Netherlands are braced for industrial action this week, with German dockers set to strike from later today (2 September) and their Dutch colleagues joining in on the action on Friday. German trade union ver.di has issued a strike call, its members having yesterday rejected the latest pay offer from the Central Association of German Seaport Operators (ZDS) in what it described as an "escalating" dispute . Contacted by The Loadstar this afternoon, ver.di said it was once again calling on workers at ports in Lower Saxony, Bremen and Hamburg to take part in a warning strike from the Wednesday evening night shift (2 September) to the end of the Friday evening night shift on 4 September. The union staged similar action on 18 August. "The feedback is clear: the offer is not enough," commented one of ver.di's lead negotiators, Sylvi Krisch. In a statement earlier today, Christian Warnke, a ver.di union spokesperson who works at the Port of Hamburg's Burchardkai said: "More than 6,000 employees took part in the feedback round, which lasted just under a week. A large majority voted against accepting the employers' offer. This means that negotiations must continue. We are still waiting for a new date for negotiations. But there has been radio silence from the employers. Anyone who does not want to come to the negotiating table must feel the pressure from the streets. That is why we are now going on strike." In a message issued to customers this afternoon, Kuehne + Nagel (K+N) said that "according to current information, the strike is due to begin today, 02 September, with the start of the late shift at approximately 2200 local time, and it is expected to continue for 48 hours". During this period, container terminals are expected to suspend operational activities. Container deliveries and pick-ups will not be possible while the strike is in effect, it warned. "The disruption may result in delays, cancellations and handling interruptions at port terminals. These developments come at a time when German ports and transport capacities are already heavily utilised, while terminal utilisation remains high," K+N added Meanwhile, tri-modal transport operator Contargo is warning customers of potential disruption to freight traffic and intermodal services on 4 September due to strike action at seaports in the Netherlands, notably Rotterdam. The industrial action is understood to form part of wider union opposition to plans by the Dutch government to reduce social welfare spending. "A strike has been announced in the Dutch seaports for 4 September. Based on the information currently available, we expect terminal operations in Rotterdam to be severely restricted or completely suspended between approximately 1030 and 2000 local time," Contargo said. In addition, a nationwide 24-hour stoppage has been called in the rail sector for 9 September 2026.

AI and semiconductor demand continues to fuel demand out of Taiwan

Air cargo capacity out of Taiwan remains tight and rates are rising on every lane due to continued AI and semiconductor demand, new research from Dimerco has found. The freight forwarder's Asia Pac Freight Report for September found that Asia-US demand in particular is being propelled by AI-related goods flown out of Taiwan. "Asia-US demand still leans heavily on AI-related products out of Taiwan," said Dimerco. Additionally, South Korea's load factors to the US are nearly at 90%. The freight forwarder added that in comparison, "ex-China volumes into the US remain soft with no meaningful pickup". Meanwhile Asia-Europe demand and rates continue to be subdued due to the EU's removal of its de minimis exemption on 1 July. The seasonal summer holiday slowdown has added to this issue, said Dimerco. "September should bring a modest recovery on quarter-end shipping and pre-Golden Week bookings, but the e-commerce base has not returned," commented the forwarder. Looking at Asia specifically, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore remain the tightest airfreight markets. Within Asia, Dimerco said "traffic is running below the same period last year, and some China-Vietnam and China-Thailand volume has shifted to road freight on cost and lead-time grounds". The company added that "Middle East re-routing is still stretches long-haul sectors, while typhoons at Chinese gateways and India's monsoon add ground-side friction". Economic signs were positive and global manufacturing logged a twelfth straight month of expansion in July, though the pace was the softest since March.

AOG logistics: the operational decisions behind an onboard courier shipment

A hand-carry can look like the simplest product in time-critical logistics. But there are many operational checks behind an AOG shipment, from baggage feasibility and passenger-flight routing to customs, connections and final delivery. An onboard courier shipment looks simple from the outside: a courier accompanies an urgent part on a passenger flight, as cabin or checked baggage where permitted, and hands it over at the other end. I spent around six years doing that work, much of it out of Manila in the Philippines and other parts of Asia, before moving into management, and the flight itself was usually the easy part. Most of the decisions that shape the job are made earlier, during planning. An AOG situation leaves little room to design anything. The part becomes available at short notice, often somewhere inconvenient. Origin and destination are fixed by where the component is and where the aircraft is stuck. The plan has to be built from what exists that day: the real release time, the flights actually operating, the paperwork in hand. Before the courier is booked A few facts need to be established rather than assumed. The first is when the part will genuinely be ready for collection, with its paperwork. "Ready" and "ready with export documents" are not always the same thing. Exact dimensions and weight come next, measured rather than taken from a part number. Those figures decide whether the piece fits within the baggage rules of the airlines on the itinerary, and whether it travels in the cabin or in the hold. Some aircraft components fall under dangerous goods provisions, and some cannot fly as passenger baggage at all; that has to be known before an OBC is confirmed, not discovered at check-in. Someone also has to reach the origin in time for the flights that work, and quite often the flight options are being compared while the courier is still travelling to the collection point. Timing around the airport matters as well. Depending on the airport and the airline, passenger check-in can still be open after cargo acceptance for the same flight has closed, which is one reason hand carry comes up for parts released late in the day. It is not universal, and deadlines still have to be checked against the actual itinerary. Customs belongs at this stage too. An international hand-carry still goes through export and import formalities, and a fast flight does not help if the shipment cannot proceed after arrival. Choosing the passenger itinerary The flight with the earliest scheduled arrival is not automatically the right one, and this is where hand-carry planning differs most from a quick flight search. A connection has to work for a person moving with a shipment, not just in a booking system. One thing I learned quickly as a courier is that a connection that looks comfortable on screen feels very different when a checked bag has to be collected and rechecked partway through the journey. Terminal changes take time. Immigration takes time. If two airlines are involved, their baggage requirements can differ, and a piece that was fine on the first sector may be refused on the second. The courier is part of the calculation too. Visas, transit permissions and immigration rules apply to the person as much as to the part, and a routing that is open for one courier can be closed for another. There is also recovery to think about. A large hub usually offers more rebooking options if something fails, though it can take longer to move through. A smaller airport may be quicker on the ground but leaves fewer alternatives. Even the distance from the arrival airport to the aircraft belongs in the comparison. What happens when the plan changes Flights get cancelled, connections get missed, checked baggage gets delayed. Hand carry does not remove the normal risks of passenger aviation, and it would be wrong to pretend otherwise. What changes is the response. The courier is on that itinerary and an operations team is following the trip, so a failed connection becomes a rebooking decision rather than a search for a missing shipment. Alternative routings can be considered while the courier is still moving, and the receiving side can be warned early enough to adjust. The risk stays; handling it becomes more straightforward. From the airport to the maintenance facility The scheduled arrival time is not the end of the job. After landing there may still be a bag to recover, customs to clear where required, a handover to whoever is authorised to receive the part at that hour, and the drive to the maintenance facility or the aircraft itself. Each stage takes real time and can be planned in advance or left to chance. The delivery estimate has to cover all of it, not just the flight. Onboard courier is not the right answer for every AOG shipment, and an honest assessment will sometimes say so. Where it does fit, the jobs I remember going smoothly were the ones where the courier, the baggage, the routing, the documents and the arrival plan had been settled before departure. Viktar Toparau is director at Nova OBC, an international onboard courier company founded in 2022. Before moving into management, he spent around six years working personally as an onboard courier, operating from Manila and across Asia and accompanying time-critical hand-carry shipments to Europe, the US and other destinations worldwide.