Strong start for air freight out of Asia

Forwarders and carriers anticipate relatively tight capacity and firm rates over the coming months
Air freight out of Asia has seen a strong start to the year, with forwarders and carriers anticipating relatively tight capacity and firm rates over the coming months.
Although volumes and rates have dropped well below their levels during the extraordinary peak – and scramble for capacity – experienced in the fourth quarter of last year, capacity since the start of the year remained extremely tight up until the new year shutdown in China in mid-February.
Forwarders say rates from Asia to the US east coast peaked at around US$5/kg in the weeks leading up to Chinese new year (CNY), with slightly lower rates to the US west coast and between $3 and $4 to Europe.
Rates to the US are expected to drop to around US$3/kg for the next few weeks, but then move upwards in the second week of March, as part of a pre-Easter mini-peak.
“Rates to Europe are also coming down [compared with the pre-CNY peak], but my personal expectation is that space will again be rather tight in the second half of the year,” says Hardy Haenisch, director of Hong Kong-based forwarder On-Time Express.
He expects rates to Europe to be slightly lower than those to the US. “But it is difficult to say right now how it will develop, as all the airlines are talking about [rate] increases,” he adds.
He says a lot of the new agreements between forwarders and carriers will take effect in April, although during the May to July slack season, rates will drop again.
“But generally, it seems this will be a tight year and carriers will do their best to make sure there is no excess capacity in the market,” he says. (source IFW)

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