Air Freight Forwarding Growth Outpaces Ocean

Air freight forwarding grew at nearly triple the rate of ocean forwarding in the first half of 2010, a sign of volatile swings in capacity following last year’s contraction in shipping volume, according to a new report on global freight trends.

The air freight forwarding market grew 38 percent in the first six months of the year over the same period a year ago, according to London-based Transport Intelligence, while ocean forwarding expanded 13 percent from last year’s depressed levels.

The research group said the sharp shift in international shipping trends followed “drastic steps by air and sea carriers” to reduce capacity, pressuring shippers and their logistics providers to seek more expensive space.

The increase in volume this year followed a 23 percent year-over-year decline in the overall global forwarding market in 2009 and a slim 2.4 percent increase in 2008, Transport Intelligence said in its report on the forwarding market.

This year, “forwarders who only six months earlier had been contending with a crisis in volumes now faced a high demand/low capacity environment in which their gross profits were being undermined,” Transport Intelligence said.

The group expects the market to settle into a period of lower growth, however, and less volatility.

“The surge in volumes seen in the first half of this year has been caused by a correction in supply chain inventories,” said Transport Intelligence analyst John Manners-Bell. “We expect volumes to moderate in the next six months, followed by a period of lower growth. This means that, across the period as a whole, some air and sea forwarding markets – most notably Europe – will not return to 2008 pre-recession levels until after 2013.”