SkyCell completes first pharma freight shipment from Beijing to New York

The first collaboration between SkyCell and Beijing Chemfast International Transportation was a great success, according to a report from the company based at Technopark Zürich. The Chinese freight forwarder, which specializes in temperature-controlled logistics, used a SkyCell 1500X hybrid container for the first time to transport air freight from Beijing to New York. The pharmaceutical products sent in the container required a constant internal temperature of 15 to 25 degrees Celsius. During the five-day journey, the freight forwarder monitored the shipment in real time via SkyCell’s SkyMind platform.

The platform had predicted that external temperatures could reach up 33 degrees. The container door was unexpectedly opened by Beijing customs at an ambient temperature of 28 degrees, which subsequently fell to 22 degrees during the following customs clearance process. After three hours on the runway, it rose to 30 degrees. During the entire flight, it fell to as low as 15 degrees. On arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport, the temperature was 28 degrees, before rising further to 30 degrees en route to a warehouse via truck. Nevertheless, during the entire journey, the interior of the container maintained a constant temperature of between 19 and 21 degrees.

Chris Cao, Airfreight Manager from Beijing ChemFast, expressed her happiness about the first collaboration with SkyCell on the news platform WeChat: “We are quite amazed by SkyCell’s container performance. And the real-time visibility of SkyMind gives us peace of mind during the whole shipment journey. We, as the freight forwarder and the pharma client, are both very satisfied with the first shipment”. The two are keen “to use more services from SkyCell in the future”. ce/mm