Expedited : Spotlight on Air Cargo
Special Report
“ We see it on the South American and India trades ,” Angel Rodriguez , president of Charleston-based ASF Air , told the Journal of Commerce . “ Unfortunately , China – US and China – Europe outweigh any trade with South America regardless of route , so it ’ s somewhat of a no-brainer .”
Air freight rates from Shanghai to North America in the traditionally slow month of August were almost 30 % higher compared with the same month last year , according to the Baltic Air Index ( BAI ).
“ China – US and China – Europe outweigh any trade with South America , so it ’ s somewhat of a no-brainer .”
Holding the rates at elevated levels are load factors that rate benchmarking platform Xeneta estimated were at 87 % on Asia-North America flights in early September and at 86 % on both Asia-Europe and Asia-Middle East flights , which is effectively full for head-haul routes .
Demand is expected to strengthen even further during November ’ s e-commerce shopping promotions such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday , which will follow the highly anticipated iPhone 16 launch , with capacity already tightly constrained , said Rob Veltman , vice president of cargo in Europe for Qatar Airways .
“ With the seasonal patterns and the way the market is being treated , conventional shippers like Apple or HP will struggle to find capacity because e-commerce is so demanding ,” Veltman said at the EU Cross Border E-Commerce Forum in Liege , Belgium in mid-September . “ The top four e-commerce players in China need around 150 freighters per day to move the cargo out .”
Tom Owen , director of cargo at Cathay Pacific , said the Hong Kong-based carrier was adding five freighters per week to its Asia-North America network in the fourth quarter to try to cover the demand .
“ We are a scheduled carrier , so 40 % of our freight goes on our widebodies [ passenger planes ], and that capacity doesn ’ t change ,” Owen told the Journal of Commerce . “ But for our freighters , we move capacity around where it is needed .”
Jeffrey Van Haeften , senior vice president at Emirates SkyCargo , warned at the Liege forum that capacity was already in short supply and would tighten further through the rest of the year , even with the widespread repositioning of capacity .
“ We are already full ,” he said . “ All the second legs into Europe [ from Asia ] serving 40 cities , some of them up to eight flights a day , are all full .”
‘ Ongoing volatility ’
DHL Express has announced plans to deploy eight new Boeing 777 freighters on the trans-Pacific and routes between Asia and Europe as it moves to capture soaring demand for e-commerce and business to business cargo .
12 Journal of Commerce | October 7 , 2024 www . joc . com