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Phoenix. US shippers are diversifying their mix of inland hubs to better connect with end-customers, said Erin Brenner, US head of first-mile and depot for A. P. Moller-Maersk.“ Inland hubs are becoming strategic nodes for customers,” Brenner told the Journal of Commerce, specifically highlighting Memphis, Tennessee; Dallas; Kansas City, Missouri; and Chicago. Those cities have long been leading inland transit points for international freight, but they are becoming even more important to shippers.“ It’ s about where shippers need additional levers to pull,” Brenner said. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruption has become continual, not cyclical, she said.“ It’ s about having the additional levers based on the disruption we see now.” Across the US, industrial vacancy rates average 7.4 %, according to a report on the US industrial real estate market released by Colliers this month. In the 25 largest US industrial markets, the average vacancy rate is a slightly lower 7.2 %. Industrial real estate developer Prologis estimated the nationwide US vacancy rate at 7.5 %, which it described as“ a rather low level” during a presentation to investors June 2.“ That presents recovery opportunity, but demand is still not up to a normal level,” said Christopher N. Caton, managing director of global strategy and analytics for Prologis.
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Trans-Pacific air cargo flying high on data center demand
Huge US demand for AI-related infrastructure from Asia is filling the equivalent of 46 freighters a day on the trans-Pacific as shipments of high-yielding data center components dominate the eastbound trade lane. In the first four months of the year, the volume of high-tech goods from Asia to North America increased 70 % year over year while general cargo rose 3 % and e-commerce imports fell 12 %, according to data from aviation consultancy Aevean.“ Overall air freight imports into the US are up 11 % January-April, but it is really high tech driving the increase and e-commerce is getting pushed away,” said Maarten Wormer, head of consulting at Aevean.“ It’ s effectively 46 full wide-body freighter flights per day between January and April that are full of high-tech components,” he said, adding that“ this is not going to stop, at least not this year or next year.” Aevean data shows triple-digit increases in high-tech volume out of Asia from January through April. Taiwan recorded 276 % year-over-year growth in volume in the first four months of the year; Thailand’ s exports of AI-related components were up 223 % and Vietnam volume grew 110 %. The increase in demand that has tightened capacity is also pushing up air cargo prices. Most of the volume is being transported in direct freighter flights rather than transshipped through Asian hubs, which is a key factor for shippers and forwarders, according to Wormer.“ The value of those goods is super high, so shippers and forwarders want to avoid touching that cargo too often and want to ship it out as fast as possible,” he said.
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