Recently, several maritime transport enterprises, such as MSC and Maersk Group, have invested in the air cargo market.

Mediterranean Shipping Company is the largest container shipping company in the world. At the end of September, the company announced the establishment of MSC Air Cargo, which increased its Cargo aviation sector as a complementary service to its container transport solutions, improved its diversified service capabilities, and competed with other major container freight companies such as Maersk and CMA CGM. MSC Air Cargo plans to be put into operation from the beginning of 2023, using 777-200F aircraft and operated by Atlas Airlines, a subsidiary of Atlas Airlines Global Holdings. MSC has not disclosed its air cargo company's base location and operating routes.

Another Danish shipping company, Maersk Group, recently announced the opening of a new Chicago air cargo gateway near Chicago O'Hare Airport in the United States to provide a one-stop flexible supply chain solution to achieve rapid cargo transfer. This facility covers 70% of the overnight truck transportation range in the United States, which enables the rapid transfer of important goods from Asia and Europe. In addition, the new facility will also serve Maersk's all-weather air cargo hub at Rockford International Airport. Maersk's new facility in Chicago is also a bonded area freight station (CFS) that it cooperates with the U.S. Customs, and operates as a cargo inspection facility (CCSF) certified by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which can give priority to handling and sorting import and export goods.

Maersk Air cargo, a freight airline owned by Maersk, is currently preparing for commercial operation and is expected to be launched before the end of this year. Maersk Air Cargo will initially operate three leased Boeing 767-300 freighters, two of which will be delivered in the fourth quarter of this year and serve its flights between the European hub of Denmark Pylon and China, and the third will be delivered in the first quarter of 2023.

At the end of August, the company realized a test flight from Incheon, Seoul, South Korea to Spartanburg, Greenville, South Carolina, the United States. The flight was carried out by Amerijet, a cargo company headquartered in Miami, using one 767 of the three new aircraft delivered by Boeing to Maersk Air Cargo. In June, Maersk acquired Senator International, a German freight forwarding company, which has operated regular charter flights to and from Greenville Spartanburg for many years, initially to transport the goods of BMW's factory in Spartanburg.

The recent negotiation between CMA CGM and Air France KLM has been in an in-depth stage, and the long-term global air cargo cooperation will be finalized. The cooperation is expected to start in early 2023. In May this year, the two enterprises signed a 10-year agreement to share network and freight business, so as to increase the commercial coverage of the brand and optimize the product structure.

According to the terms of the agreement, Air France KLM Cargo Company and Delta Air Cargo Company will exclusively operate all cargo aircraft of both parties, initially including 10 existing aircraft and 12 additional aircraft ordered. The 10 aircrafts include 4 cargo aircrafts operated by Delta Air Cargo, and 6 cargo aircrafts operated by Air France KLM Cargo at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. This cooperation also includes the use of the belly cargo capacity of more than 160 Air France KLM long haul aircraft. In addition, Dafei is preparing to acquire 9% equity of Air France KLM.

In September, Delta Air Cargo launched five direct flights to Paris, France and Hong Kong, China every week. The company plans to launch services from Paris to other Asian destinations, including Seoul, South Korea, Shanghai, China and Bangkok, Thailand, on winter flights starting at the end of October.

In addition to expanding air cargo service capacity, Maersk and other shipping companies have recently taken further measures in terms of continuous integration and end-to-end logistics solution strategy. Recently, JCB, one of the world's largest manufacturers of construction and agricultural equipment, has reached a cooperation with Maersk and designated it as the world's leading logistics supplier. Maersk also expanded its warehouse layout in Britain, Ireland, India, the United Arab Emirates and Brazil.

Dafei has also made great progress in the broader logistics field. Five lithium battery transport stations have been added to the aviation network of its logistics subsidiary. Five stations have been added to the air cargo network certified by the CEIV lithium battery project. CEVA Logistics also recently won a new contract for BestSecret's e-commerce fulfillment center in Poland to manage its clothing products.

It is understood that despite the economic uncertainty, European ocean shipping enterprises have not weakened their efforts to enter the air cargo and broader logistics fields, including e-commerce, and have been expanding diversified businesses in the past few years.

A key driving force of this diversification strategy is the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, which also makes people more clearly realize that global cargo transport needs to improve the capacity of air sea intermodal transport. In addition, ocean freight has been at a high level for a long time, and the shipping group has sufficient funds to implement the above strategies.