News / Lufthansa and Shein eye SAF agreement, as winter cargo schedule is unveiled

Photo: Lufthansa Cargo

An SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] agreement between Lufthansa and fast-fashion giant Shein could boost the German carrier’s Asia to Europe ecommerce volumes and mark the beginning of “a long-term collaboration”. 

Yesterday, Lufthansa Cargo (LC) revealed it had signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with Singapore-based Shein to scale up the use of sustainable aviation fuel on flights for the etailer. 

A spokesperson for LC told The Loadstar that while the MoU showed their intent to cooperate on the use of SAF, it was not a binding contract and details still have to be worked out.  

“Both parties are working within a clear framework and timeline for concluding a legally binding agreement within six months. Shein intends to pilot and gradually expand the use of SAF, both companies see this as a starting point,” the spokesperson explained. 

Shein intends to increase SAF volumes over time, however the Lufthansa Cargo spokesperson noted that this would be evaluated in line with market availability, production scaling and economic feasibility. 

The announcement also indicated that Lufthansa Cargo and Shein were “exploring further areas of cooperation”, which they called “knowledge exchanges”, to “strengthen traceability and reporting of operational and environmental data”.  

Recent TDS analysis of Chinese customs data found that its exports of low-value and ecommerce items grew strongly last month, with the decline in exports to the US – estimated to be 40%-50% May to July – was offset by “strong growth to Europe”. 

This resulted in calls for the UK and EU to edit their de minimis rules to ‘level the playing field’ with the US from local sellers finding themselves competing with additional floods of low-cost Chinese imports.  

However, Frederic Horst, CEO of Trade and Transport Group, told The Loadstar he believed a change in the EU de minimis threshold of €150 would do little to curb the flow of Chinese ecommerce into the bloc.  

“The end to the exemption in the US was accompanied by extremely high tariffs. EU tariff rates are quite low – on average only about 1% of non-agricultural tariff lines incur a duty of more than 15%,” he explained.  

“EU countries already charge VAT on inbound cross border ecommerce. There used to be a €22 VAT-free threshold which was abolished in July 2021. There was a bit of a drop in volume when this was introduced, but that was also during the second Covid year when air cargo capacity was very tight.” 

Meanwhile, Lufthansa Cargo today also revealed its winter freighter schedule, starting on 26 October and will be available to book from 5 October. 

In its B777 freighter schedule, it has added Almaty in Kazakhstan to its range of cargo destinations in Central Asia. And the transpacific flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Los Angeles will have a stopover in Shanghai. 

“This means customers will be able to send cargo directly from Shanghai to North America,” said the carrier. 

LC now offers up to 50 weekly frequencies to 17 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, 28 to 11 North American destinations and four weekly services to four South American destinations.  In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, there are some 37 weekly flights to 20 destinations from the Frankfurt and Munich hubs.  

The carrier’s expanded collaboration with ITA Airways has also added some 20% more capacity to its winter offering.