Month: September 2019

Autonomous driving took center stage at the Auto.AI Europe conference in Berlin, as experts within the automation landscape spoke on the technology’s potential as a game-changer in the future of mobility. Stephen Janouch, senior manager of business development at Green Hills Software, delineated the importance of security in automotive systems as vehicles become increasingly self-reliant. 

“Automotive security is like the dirty laundry you have in your basement. You hope someone else is taking care of it, but at the end of the day, you may need to take a look at it yourself,” said Janouch. “And it is important to know the difference between safety and security. Safety on one side is making sure that the system is behaving according to what you want it to do. Security is about making sure that no human can harm the machine and make it do something you didn’t tell the machine to do.”

Janouch pointed out that if an autonomous vehicle is not secure, it cannot be 100% safe. Security is a complicated issue, as the processes to make a vehicle secure are never-ending, and require companies to stay ahead of hackers by constantly updating their security policies and testing their vehicle software for chinks in their armor that may not be apparent. 

Prevention, Janouch contended, is about companies approaching security from an “inside-out” perspective. “We propose that you start from the lowest level of a system – the hardware and operating system – and then work your way upwards and apply security measures on each level,” Janouch. 

The complexities around connected vehicles that are in service today make it an uphill task for companies to make them hack-proof, with Janouch pointing out the futility in trying to build firewalls around them. “Where could you actually build your firewall around the system? What does a system mean, is it just the vehicle?” he asked. 

To reduce security threats and vulnerabilities around a vehicle, it is critical to cut down the complexities behind software systems running the vehicle. The problem mushrooms out from the way the code is written. Janouch spoke of a situation he had encountered, in which a client building a vehicle camera system approached his company with issues revolving around a staggeringly long software code. 

“He gave us a video driver with 250,000 lines of code. The supplier probably brought it down to 50,000 lines of code, hoping that could be sufficient. In the end, we rewrote the driver to nearly 100% of the functionality with everything vital for the operation of the system, and brought the length down to 900 lines of code,” said Janouch. 

Reducing the absolute length of code is essential, as the longer it gets, the higher the probability of security concerns creeping in. “Typically, every 1,000 lines of code could end up with two defects. Though that doesn’t sound like a whole lot, a high-end car will have about 100 million lines of code, and that would mean around 200,000 defects in the software. Hopefully, none of it is really affecting safety, but it still is a lot,” said Janouch. 

To make systems more hacker-proof, it will be prudent to identify critical parts of system code, separate them from untrusted code and auxiliary system code, and apply strict access control to the critical systems. This is akin to getting access to an office building. Though nearly all would have access to the building’s main entry door, only certain people would have access to separate floors within the building.

“Communication needs to be separated as well. You want to make sure that information transferred from a signal that directly affects the system’s vital behavior is not affected when someone does a download,” said Janouch. “The key thing here is the operating system, which is the lowest level of software and practically the last line of defense against anyone trying to hack the software.”

Ultimately, security is a never-ending process and automobile software developers will have to comprehensively plan for security firewalls right from the vehicle’s inception and not wait until the vehicle functionalities are fully developed – as it is somewhere between “very difficult and impossible” to add security at the later stages of the development process. 

Air and ground express firm DHL Express announced September 27 a 5.9% general rate increase on shipments moving to and from the U.S., effective January 1, 2020.

The increases are for tariff, or published, rates. Contract rates will differ depending on the specific customer. However, contract pricing in the express delivery business is influenced by the level of tariff rates in effect at the time. In addition, the actual tariff rate charged for transporting a shipment will vary depending on the shipment’s “profile,” such as weight, dimensions, length of haul and any special handling. DHL Express’ 2020 service guide, which will contain more detailed pricing information, has yet to be made public.

DHL serves the U.S. from international markets only. It ceased domestic U.S. pick-ups and deliveries in January 2009. DHL serves more than 220 countries and territories.

Rival FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) has already announced its 2020 rate structure, with the average tariff rate increasing by 4.9%. UPS Inc. (NYSE:UPS), another DHL rival, has yet to disclose its 2020 rates.

Separately, global trade activity is likely to decline from already-muted levels through November, according to the latest version of DHL’s global trade outlook, which was published September 26. The overall index fell by one point from the last version, settling at 47. This indicates that global trade will continue to lose momentum over the next three months.

A reading of 50 is the baseline for growth. Of the seven countries that were canvassed, only Japan and the U.K. showed readings above 50. The United States, China, India, Germany and South Korea all posted negative readings, according to the report. The seven countries, and the 10 industries profiled, account for about three-quarters of all global trade.

Airfreight accounted for most of the overall decline, falling 4 points from the last reading in June to 45. Ocean freight remained steady at 48, the report found. Chinese airfreight activity showed the most glaring weakness, down 8 points to 43. Japanese ocean freight, by contrast, gained 6 points to 55 due to a strong outlook for raw materials exports.

The overall weakness was attributed to the usual suspects: The U.S.-China tariff battle, uncertainties over Brexit, and weakness in European economies, especially those like Germany that rely on exports to China.

The one bright spot is that the pace of decline slowed considerably from June, when the broad index toppled eight points to 48.

It’s going to be a very tough transition to the low sulfur world, ocean shipping experts believe. And that’s because the availability of low sulfur fuel is “uncertain”, the use of scrubbers is unsustainable and ocean going ships will quickly burn through low sulfur stockpiles.

High demand, restricted supply and a run-down of stockpiles equals one sure consequence: a price spike.

“Prices will go through the roof,” one ocean shipping expert told FreightWaves at the side of the Marine Money Week Asia 2019 conference, which was held this week in Singapore.

Oil, sulfur and air pollution

Ocean going ships today normally burn residual fuel oil, which is basically a near-waste material that’s left over after crude oil is refined into substances such as gasoline, kerosene and other petrochemicals.

Burning residual fuel oil releases lots of sulfur dioxide. And it’s very nasty stuff.

Breathing sulfur dioxide irritates the body’s internal air passageways, causing coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath. Inhaling sulfur dioxide makes breathing more difficult and it’s particularly hard on people with asthma.

Sulfur dioxide in the air also leads to the formation of sulfur oxides (SOx) and these react with other chemicals to form super-tiny specs of dust called “particulate matter”. These tiny particles penetrate deeply into the lungs and into the bloodstream. They cause irregular heart beats, inflammation of internal organs, decreased ability to breathe and heart attacks.

Worse, every year we, the human population of Earth, suffer a massive, preventable and tragic disaster because repeatedly breathing particulate matter is deadly.

Scientists reckon that, every year, breathing ship-source emissions causes over 400,000 early, and preventable, deaths.

Sulfur dioxide also gets absorbed into water in the air and falls to the ground as acid rain. That kills forests, kill fish in lakes and streams, and damages crops.

And that’s why the IMO has acted to ban the burning of high sulfur fuel oil. As of January 1, 2020, ships will be forbidden from burning fuel oil with more than 0.5 percent sulfur content. Certain other specially protected and pre-existing Sulfur Emissions Control Areas, such as the English Channel, the North Sea and the entire coast of continental USA (excluding Alaska) will have an extra-low level of 0.1 percent. The Sulfur Emissions Control Areas were set up in July 2010.

Low sulfur fuels

There are a few ways to comply. Ships can use fuel that basically does not have any sulfur in it. One compliant fuel is liquefied natural gas. But, at minus 260 Fahrenheit, LNG is very difficult to handle and it requires a lot of technical skill to do so. There are only about 600 or so such ships in the world fleet, according to David Jordan, regional director Asia at commercial shipping consultancy MSI. And most of those ships are LNG carriers. Although LNG looks like it may be a major fuel type for ocean going ships in the future, it is not today.

Another way to comply is to use low sulfur fuel. Unfortunately for the U.S. trucking industry, refiners that have been producing low sulfur diesel will likely use the same feedstock to create low sulfur marine fuel. There is limited capacity to produce both types of fuel.

“IMO sulphur regulations… have the potential to be highly disruptive to the pricing and availability of compliant fuels,” says analyst company Wood Mackenzie. It adds that a growing demand for distilled fuels could “result in an upward price pressure on fuels such as diesel and jet fuel. Knock-on effects from the upcoming cap on sulphur emissions in marine bunker fuel could even wind up giving you a more expensive plane ticket in 2020”.

Thirsty? Drink up! Drink up… 3.5 million barrels of oil

The potential for disruption is so great because ocean going cargo ships are so very, very thirsty.

In 2018, the global maritime sector had a demand for high sulfur residual fuel of about 3.5 million barrels a day out of a total demand of about seven million barrels a day i.e. the maritime sector accounts for about half of total fuel oil demand.

“And the global refining system is not yet equipped to make this volume of residual fuel oil at 0.5 percent sulfur once the regulation goes into effect,” says independent corporate consultant McKinsey.

There have been a fair few media reports of traders and some shipping companies buying up stocks of low sulfur fuel oil. While traders will probably make a killing on a likely upsurge in low sulfur fuel prices, the source scoffed at the idea that any reserve of low sulfur fuel could bolster supply to, and ameliorate prices for, the maritime industry.

“Any stockpile will evaporate within a month – it’s a tiny, tiny drop vis-a-vis the size of the world fleet,” he said.

High demand plus low supply equals price spike

FreightWaves’ Craig Fuller also notes that the current U.S. consumption of ultra low sulfur diesel is about 4.1 million barrels a day. And, he adds, although only some demand will be met from the U.S., “the demand for refined and low sulfur fuel will be roughly equivalent to 80 percent of the consumption of the U.S. market”.

IMO 2020 will likely lead to a fuel price increase.

“Because of IMO 2020, estimates of an increase in wholesale ULSD prices range from $0.22 to $0.50 per gallon. The current average ULSD wholesale price is $1.89 per gallon; the estimated increases translate to a 12 percent to 26 percent increase in the cost of ULSD diesel from the refineries. Once the ULSD makes its way into the hands of the retail market, which currently sits at $3.05 per gallon, it could drive diesel prices north of the highest prices seen in the U.S. market in the past year – over $3.55 per gallon, and in parts of Northern California $4.60 per gallon,” Fuller writes.

Scrub-up

The third way to comply is to use exhaust gas cleaning systems, which are commonly known as “scrubbers”. Roughly speaking, sulfur in exhaust gases is attracted to seawater, which is alkaline (which is the same as  “basic” as in “acid” and “basic”). The scrubber sprays seawater as a mist into the exhaust gases. The sulfur binds to the seawater and the waste stream is discharged into the sea.

However, ocean going shipping experts do not see scrubbers as a viable solution.

“Scrubbers won’t work,” one executive told FreightWaves at the Marine Money Week Asia 2019 conference in Singapore. He did not mean that they do not physically or economically work, he meant that they are not a long-term solution to the problem of sulfur in fuel.

As at April 1, 2019, there were just over six hundred ships fitted with scrubbers according to data company IHS Markit. And there were a further 1,674 ships due to be fitted with scrubbers. That’s about 2,300 or so scrubber-equipped ships.

In any event, not all of those ships will have scrubbers fitted in time for the IMO 2020 deadline.

Singapore-based Quantum Pacific Shipping is a large ship owner that put a lot of money down on installing scrubbers across its fleet. Kenneth Cambie is Quantum’s chief financial officer. He explained the company’s thinking at the Marine Money Week Asia 2019 conference. Owing to the large number of ships it owns, Cambie explained, Quantum Pacific Shipping had to look ahead.

“We saw scrubbers as a good bridge to LNG. Scrubbers get us through the price and uncertainty of supply… scrubbers work but they’re not a long term solution,” he told the conference.

Cost and the scrubber order book

Scrubbers cost up to about US$5 million, although that will vary depending upon the exact type of scrubber and the type of vessel that it is installed upon. The scrubber price tag is significantly less for smaller vessels. Sebastian Blum, director maritime industries, with KfW IPEX-Bank, told the Marine Money Week Asia conference that about US$500 million has been spent on buying scrubbers between 2015 to 2019.

The number of scrubber equipped ships is tiny as a percentage of the world fleet. While estimates of the size of the world fleet will vary, the number of individual ocean-going ships in the world fleet is in the range of 90,715 (Equasis; 2017) to 94,169 (UNCTAD; 2018) ships.

That puts a rough estimate on the size of the scrubber-equipped fleet as a percentage of the world fleet at about 2.4 percent.

And the latest intelligence suggests that there won’t be an upsurge in scrubber orders. It’s very much the opposite. The number of scrubber orders may have dried up. KfW IPEX-Bank’s Blum provided some insight. He told FreightWaves that “nothing happened” between 2015-2018 and that most of the early-bought scrubbers were installed on ships deployed on routes through the Sulfur Emissions Control Areas.

Eirik Dahlberg is the general manager of Clean Marine, a supplier of scrubber systems. He was on a panel at Marine Money Week Asia 2019.

“It was in 2018 where everything took off. We were at 150 contracts. Then it stopped. Ship owners saw that they could not receive vessels or retrofit ships in 2019. Ship owners then climbed up onto the fence…”.

A good example of that was given by Graham Porter, one of the founders of Seaspan Corporation (NYSE: SSW). He told the Marine Money Week Asia conference: “we’re not a believer in scrubbers so we’ve taken our chips off the table and [we will] wait”.

Why would they, just for you? They wouldn’t!

An insight into how ship owners are thinking was provided by the FreightWaves source. He pointed out the nature of the marine fuel supply chain makes it unlikely that there will even be a continued supply of high sulfur fuel oil to be fed into scrubbers.

“Longer term, low sulfur fuel oil will become the norm, just like unleaded, right? Look at the bunker [marine fuel] supply chain. I’m not talking about the big boys like Shell, I’m talking about the small operators. They’ve got, what, four or five tanks on the land side? And they have a max of a bunker barge, or two, maybe three?

“If you want high sulfur fuel oil delivery for your scrubber system ship, then they [the bunker supplier] have to keep a quarter to a fifth of their capacity separate because you don’t want to mix fuels.

“Why would they block up to one quarter to one fifth of their capacity just for you? Low sulfur fuel will become normal, so why would they keep off-spec fuel just for you? Especially when you, as a market share, represent less than five percent of the market. Why would they? They wouldn’t.

“And don’t tell me that bunker pooling will work. It never will. The bunker people hate each other.

“Ship operators tell me they don’t really care about scrubbers. They just want to get their money back on the scrubber system in five or six years. After that, once it’s settled down, they’ll just switch to low sulfur.

“They’re just trying to avoid the likely price spike for low sulfur fuel… pricing is just going to go through the roof.”

Marine Money granted a complimentary invitation to Jim Wilson to attend its Marine Money Week Asia 2019 conference in Singapore; FreightWaves paid for all travel and accommodation expenses.

Elsewhere around the maritime world

KOGAS eyes LNG terminal in Vietnam
Dredging and Port Construction

Stena Impero released by Iran
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Cosco sanctions send ‘shockwave’ through tanker markets
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EU mulls tariffs on US exports to hit back at Trump threat
The Loadstar

Spot container shipping rates will continue to subside in the coming weeks following a tepid peak shipping season, according to analysis by Alphaliner.

“With Chinese factories due to close for the Oct. 1 Golden Week holidays, marking the traditional start of the container shipping slack season, carriers have slashed rates ahead of the holidays to build their cargo booking pipeline,” said Alphaliner’s latest weekly report.

“Further rate weakness is expected for the rest of the year, with carriers’ capacity management efforts ineffective so far in stemming the rate decline.”

As reported in FreightWaves, World Container Index spot freight rates on the Shanghai-to-Genoa lane plummeted 13% last week, dragging the global composite index down 6% as a result, according to London-based shipping consultancy Drewry.

Alphaliner noted that spot freight rate indices on the SCFI (Shanghai Containerized Freight Index) have slumped to a four-month low and are down 18% year-on-year — evidence, believes the analyst, that while the slew of container line voided sailings may have helped manage seasonal short-term drops in cargo volumes, they have been ineffective in dealing with a “structural deficit” in demand.

“Carriers have limited room to keep capacity out of the market for extended periods, as the cost of keeping ships inactive will be substantial, while a steady stream of new ships is still expected to be delivered in the coming months and the scrapping of older ships remain very low,” said the report.

“The 2M carriers’ decision to withdraw their FE-North Europe AE-2/Swan service in late September will be short-lived, with MSC already suggesting that the service could return by mid-November.

“Although some of the withdrawn 2M ships will be replacing ships that are undergoing scrubber retrofits, a number of ships that have completed their retrofits are already back in service.”

HMM’s decision to withdraw its FE-North Europe AEX service in September also will be more than compensated for in the second quarter of 2020, when 12 of the line’s new 23,000-TEU newbuilds are phased into the trade, dwarfing the 5,000-TEU ships that were deployed on the old AEX, according to Alphaliner.

However, the rush to fit container vessels with scrubbers ahead of the introduction of IMO 2020 low-sulfur fuels at the start of next year is taking some capacity out of the market.

Blanked sailings and scrubber retrofits pushed up the inactive fleet to 148 units totalling 641,259 TEU of capacity as of Sept. 16, or 2.8% of the total fleet.

“Of these, 25 units for 277,611 TEU are recorded to be undergoing scrubber retrofits,” said the analyst.

“The unemployed ships, excluding those ships undergoing retrofits, have increased to 123 units for 363,648 TEU, compared to 111 units for 223,791 TEU two weeks ago.

“The inactive fleet is expected to rise further in the coming month with more blank sailings already announced, while the number of ships undergoing retrofit is also on the rise.”

More FreightWaves articles by Mike

European shippers are woefully unprepared for the supply chain chaos anticipated if the U.K. exits the European Union (EU) at the end of next month, according to Godfried Smit, Secretary-General of the European Shippers’ Council (ESC), a leading representative of the logistics interests of manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers.

As previously reported in FreightWaves, just weeks from a potential October. 31 no-deal Brexit, the U.K.’s political system is close to breakdown with almost every conceivable outcome in terms of EU departure date and trade terms still on the table. Even the September 24 decision of the U.K.’s Supreme Court that the suspension of Parliament by the government of Boris Johnson was “unlawful, void and of no effect” has done little to clarify matters.

What is clear, Smit told FreightWaves, is that ports on the English Channel will be chaotic in the days and weeks after a no-deal Brexit and shippers urgently need to prepare for the worst.

“I think the impact will vary much from sector to sector,” he said. “And there is also separation between big companies and smaller companies [in terms of preparedness]. But we see still a lot of companies that are not fully prepared.

“If you ask companies in France, in Belgium, in the Netherlands, not many of them have looked at how they can continue trading with the U.K. in a no-deal scenario and have applied for the correct authorizations. Some of them are still hoping for the best.”

Even the current U.K. government admits a no-deal Brexit from the EU could see truck flows on English Channel tunnel and ferry routes cut to just 50 percent of current levels for three months, according to recently revealed secret U.K. government documents. Truck drivers could also face delays of up to 2.5 days before crossing into France. 

This will leave some shippers reliant on premium air cargo options, with demand for charter capacity – and prices – expected to spike next month.

While just-in-time trucking and ferry roll-on/roll-off trades are forecast to be devastated, the paperwork involved for simple short-sea container shipper movements will also make load-on/load-off options significantly more complex.

The extent of this expected new logistical and bureaucratic workload was laid bare on September 23 when Ocean Network Express (ONE) issued a customer advisory explaining the extra security filing requirements even for short sea container shipping customers should the U.K. leave the EU without a deal on October. 31.

“The European Commission (EC) has confirmed that as from this date, the U.K. will be treated like any other non -EU country for security filing purposes,” noted the advisory. “EU export cargo that is currently loaded on a service not affected by the EU 24-hour rule, will become subject to ICS ([Import Control System)] filing, depending on the vessel rotation.”

In practice this means that cargo loaded at Southampton and prior EU ports on a vessel rotating Rotterdam – Hamburg – Southampton – Le Havre – Singapore, for example, will require an Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) to be filed in advance of the vessel’s arrival at Le Havre, even if the cargo remained on board during the U.K. port call.

“This is not limited to cargo discharged in an EU port later in the rotation, but also includes FROB cargo ([Foreign cargo Remaining On Board)] transiting the EU and destined for subsequent non -EU ports,” advised ONE.

For shippers, this means filing shipping instructions in advance. For container lines it will likely mean a restructure of service rotations to avoid extra paperwork and possible delays.

For late-movers looking to build up supply chain resilience in the event of a no-deal Brexit, warehousing capacity is also an issue. Many pharmaceutical suppliers and automotive firms reliant on just-in-time supply chains built up stocks ahead of the previous Brexit deadline in late March and have held on to that capacity, meaning availability is now short.

“In terms of preparation, many companies are already too late because to have your distribution organized in a proper way you have to have, perhaps, additional warehouse space in the U.K.,” said Smit. “That’s very difficult to acquire, and if you can acquire it, it’s very expensive.”

Smit continued, “And it’s the same situation if you want to do you own customs declarations. You would need to install your own automated system and there aren’t enough customs software developers and installers.”

He added, “If you don’t want to do it yourself, you need a customs agent, but there are only so many, and most are already working for their long-term customers.” 

More FreightWaves articles by Mike

Container ships are setting new records, but for all the wrong reasons, as the vessels become an increasingly popular way to smuggle drugs.  

As FreightWaves’ Mike King reported, the Maersk Gibraltar, which can carry the equivalent of 5,000 common shipping containers, was the site of the U.K.’s largest drug bust as authorities found about 1.2 tonnes of heroin, valued at $148 million. 

The September bust shattered the previous U.K. record set in August of $50 million worth of heroin found in a shipping container.

That same month, Germany set its own record bust of 4.5 tonnes of cocaine found onboard an unidentified container ship at the Port of Hamburg, while another seizure of 1.5 tonnes of cocaine was made less than a week later at Hamburg.

The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction said in a June 2019 report that the number of cocaine seizures and volumes coming into the continent are at an all-time high. A kilo of cocaine in Europe can fetch 25 times its wholesale price in South America, the report added.

Aside from the smugglers, innocent shippers also get caught up in seizures due to delays and the resulting investigations, said Sherhina Kamal, product director for DP DHL Group’s risk assessment unit Resilience360.

She said shipments coming from South America and other high-risk origins are likely to receive extra scrutiny, as will the carriers are unwitting accomplices in carrying drugs.

“With additional events like these taking place, there might be more checks on ocean freight coming from Latin America,” Kamal said. “The delays are minimal at this point, but given the scale and the frequency of seizures, it may change.”  

The issue of cargo delays will be more critical as trade between the Euopean Union and South America is set to expand, particularly for perishable and time sensitive cargoes such as fresh fruit and agricultural goods. 

The European Union, already the largest importer of fresh fruit in the world, will get even more such shipments from South America as part of a new free trade agreement signed in June.   

Europe is not alone in this problem as demonstrated by the U.S.’ largest cocaine seizure taking place on the MSC Gayane in the Port of Philadelphia in June, netting $1 billion worth of the drug. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Pennsylvania charged its first member of the MSC’s crew, Nenad Ilic of Montenegro, with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. At least five crew members were arrested as part of the bust.  

The seizure caused MSC to be suspended from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s C-TPAT program, which provides expedited cargo processing in return for outlining how they deal with risks such as smuggling. 

MSC has since been readmitted to C-TPAT. But the active involvement of a ship’s crew in smuggling, as opposed to drugs being unwittingly loaded onboard, also heightens the risk for shippers, Kamal said, as those carriers’ vessels then become targeted for increased inspections.

“What is more concerning for shippers is these major carriers being implicated in the process,” Kamal said. “If they have their preferential treatment taken away, that will add to time to clear cargo at the ports.”

CMA CGM caught in Mexico smuggling operation

Mexican navy finds 80 kilograms of cocaine on CMA CGM Mississippi World Maritime News

NYK claims carbon-neutral shipping first

Japanese shipping line buys 5,000 credits from Indian wind farm as offsets. gCaptain

West Coast ports say US is not winning the trade fight

Ports ask President Trump to reach accord with China. gCaptain

Global asset management titan Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX), fresh from a major leap into the U.S. logistics real estate market, has extended its last-mile infrastructure reach into Europe by forming a company called “Mileway” to support pan-European last-mile delivery operations.

The new company will utilize 1,000 logistics ”assets” that Blackstone, which entered real estate in 1991 and today is a major player in virtually all forms of property, has acquired over the years. Mileway will become the largest last-mile logistics real estate firm in Europe, with more than 29 million square feet of space, Blackstone said. More than 80 percent of the capacity is in the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and France, Blackstone said. 

Published reports have pegged the value of the new company’s portfolio alone at around $8 billion in assets, a staggering sum if accurate, said Marek Różycki, managing partner of Last Mile experts, a Warsaw-based consultancy. Blackstone did not include the portfolio’s value in its announcement, and company officials did not respond to requests for comment on September 25.

In June, Blackstone spent $18.7 billion to acquire 179 million square feet of “urban logistics” assets from GLP, a Singapore investment manager, in the largest-ever real estate investment between privately held multinational firms. The acquisition nearly doubled Blackstone’s U.S. industrial logistics footprint.

In its September 24 announcement, Blackstone said logistics, especially last-mile, remains one of its top investment themes.

The European last-mile logistics real estate sector is fragmented. In the U.K., there is a dearth of suitable last-mile assets to meet what is expected to be growing e-commerce demand, Rozycki said. However, given the breadth of the market – the European Union alone is comprised of 28 countries – it is hard to imagine any one company, even one as large as Blackstone, dominating everywhere, he added.

Emmanuel Van der Stichele, previously fund director of the Goodman European Logistics Fund, was named Mileway’s CEO. The new firm is headquartered in Amsterdam.

Urban congestion remains an annoyance to the traveler and a grief to the environment. BlaBlaCar, a Paris-based online carpooling platform, has just offered to acquire Busfor, which would be its second bus fleet acquisition in 2019.

Busfor is the leading bus-ticketing platform in Russia, Poland and Ukraine, employing 150 people. BlaBlaCar sees this acquisition as a unifying opportunity for Eastern Europe’s fragmented market under a single platform to meet a greater diversity of rider needs.

Carpooling and hitchhiking are old concepts, ones that BlaBlaCar’s founder Frédéric Mazzella utilized when the trains were booked at Christmas, and without a car, he didn’t know how he’d make it to his family across France. Once he got a ride with his sister, he began noticing the ubiquitous vacant car seats on the A10 highway. He launched BlaBlaCar in 2006 with a mission to solve this problem.

Using an online platform to connect drivers who have room in their cars with passengers who desire transit in the same direction, BlablaCar has filled a niche as the largest long distance carpool service in the world. 

In June 2019, BlaBlaCar turned its sights on bus fleets. BlaBlaBus launched in Europe and one month later, the company acquired Ouibus’ 70 lines and fleets. Ouibus, founded in 2012, provided BlaBlaBus with an established network in Western Europe. While BlaBlaCar rebranded Ouibus’ fleets, its plan for Busfor inventory is different. 

“Busfor will retain its own brand, product offering and consumer app, but we will be integrating its supply of bus journeys into the BlaBlaCar platform to help bus carriers and stations grow their customer bases while also creating the best user experience for travelers,” BlaBlaCar co-founder and CEO Nicolas Brusson said.

Busfor partners with 7,000 bus carriers, but buses in this region operate mostly offline. Only 10 percent of bookings are made online; BlaBlaCar sees this as an opportunity for growth. Out of the 80 million registered users of Busfor, 25 million are already using BlaBlaCar’s services. 

Rideshare giant Uber also operates in Eastern Europe, but Brusson doesn’t see the companies as having overlapping markets, at least for the short-term. Uber focuses on short trips within cities, rather than BlaBlaCar’s mission of connecting passengers across entire cities or regions.

Blablacar’s mission is to “bring freedom, equity and brotherhood to the world of travel.” It’s hailed as one of France’s top unicorn companies, which are private companies with at least $1 billion valuations. Eighty million members in 22 countries use the online platform, spanning Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. Its website touts 25 million travelers per quarter, an average of 3.9 people per vehicle, and 1.6 million tons of CO₂ saved each year.