Along with many other airports around the world, Changi Airport is looking to perishables, pharmaceuticals and high value goods such as gold to boost volumes, hoping that rising wealth in Asia will contribute to this goal. In the first quarter, volumes fell 2.2%, but the airport is hoping to attract more cargo through its Coolport facility, while Dnata’s new perishables centre will open later this year. It has already seen a rise in seafood transhipment, from Indonesia to Japan, while it expects to see a capacity rise in handling valuable goods of some 16%.

Detailed analysis of the pros and cons of international manufacturers looking to leave China and move production to cheaper locations elsewhere in Asia, in a bid to reduce exposure to China and take advantage of lower costs. But much of the evidence remains anecdotal at best. “People are coming in and kicking tyres,” says one lawyer that helps companies set up new production facilities, and mostly it is restricted to low-end manufacturing.

As a barometer of the state of the UK high street, you can’t do much better than its largest apparel retailer Marks & Spencer, which this week unveiled weak annual results, and has announced that it will not now open any new general merchandise stores in the country. With 766 stores across the UK it believes it has reached “saturation point”, and will instead focus on developing its e-commerce capabilities, supported by the recently opened national distribution centre, as well as its smaller food-only stores. “M&S.com is our new flagship store. Marble Arch [in London] is not the flagship store anymore,” said chief executive Marc Bolland.

The southern Indian airport of Chennai had started to become popular with manufacturers – Hyundai, Ford and Nissan are all present in the region, as are Nokia, Dell, IBM and HP. But this year, numerous strikes from handling agents, lack of sufficient numbers of Customs officials and ‘go-slows’ have resulted in a heavily congested airport. Shippers are wondering why they bothered to air freight their goods at all, when imports can take seven days to get cleared. A mess.

A short but interesting point about the lack of logistics staff in China. Not only does the education system fail to prepare students, but there are few people able to fulfill lower level roles. Meanwhile, Unipart Logistics revealed that staff turnover in China is very high – and that they will leave for as little as a 30p pay rise.