Air Cargo Forwarder News

Chartered flights from China to the US have been canceled and air freight traffic has declined as Washington prepares to scrap the duty-free exemption for low-value goods shipped from China and Hong Kong.

If regulatory approval is achieved, the deal will nearly double the size of CMA CGM subsidiary CEVA Logistics’ footprint in a rapidly expanding region.

The closure of freighter slots at the airport beginning in August is expected to last several months because of an estimated $1 billion investment plan launched by port operator Adani Airport Holding.

US tariffs on China and the 90-day pause on tariffs imposed by Washington on a host of other countries made it difficult to assess how the market would develop this year, according to the forwarder’s CEO.

With the integration now set to begin, DSV has announced a round of executive appointments with candidates promoted from within both DSV and DB Schenker.

An initial flurry of activity will be followed by a drop in demand after e-commerce from China and Hong Kong no longer enjoys duty-free treatment, the head of the air cargo group tells the Journal of Commerce.

But any shipper celebrations over potentially lower rates in a cooling market will be tempered by concerns about border congestion as US customs will now be tasked with processing millions of de minimis imports every day.

Price and volume increases are being seen across trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trade lanes, but there is little clarity on whether underlying demand is enough to prop up spot rates once the tariffs have been implemented.

Air cargo operators out of Europe’s busiest airport will face at least a week of turmoil as airlines, forwarders and terminals start clearing the rapidly building backlog of freight when flight operations restart at midnight Friday.

The automotive sector is driving the unseasonably strong volumes as manufacturers expedite shipments from Europe to the US to avoid new duties coming in April.

The ability to shift capacity to alternative growth markets combined with a diversified cargo mix will insulate the airline from US moves to target e-commerce imports from China, according to its chairman.

While strong e-commerce demand last year filled all available air freight capacity out of China and kept the industry in peak season mode, recent US moves to clamp down on low-value Chinese imports have rattled the market.

The sector is off to a strong start to the year, but tariff-driven trade tensions and other concerns could have a negative impact on the global air freight market, according to industry groups.

The forwarder reported solid results to close 2024 as unknowns linked to US longshore labor, tariff policy and changes to de minimis rules fueled trans-Pacific freight demand.

The first in a series of “development flights” loaded with packages from Hong Kong landed at the Scottish west coast airport this week with a view to launching scheduled weekly services in March.

The European Commission wants member states to exert greater control over low-value imports, while its consumer watchdog has launched an investigation into e-commerce giant Shein.

Average rates hit a 2024 high in early December but have declined steadily since, with not even an early Lunar New Year able to prevent the slide.

Capacity will continue to be the greatest challenge facing cargo owners moving goods from Asia by air this year.

As the supply-demand imbalance drives air freight rates to levels not seen in two years, forwarders are trying to balance the contractual requirements of airlines while securing capacity at reasonable rates for customers.

Advent eModal, a three-decade landmark provider of fee collection and appointment scheduling at container terminals, has been sold by private equity group Blackstone to air cargo software specialist CargoSprint.

While cargo volume is expected to grow 5.8% next year, the airline association is warning that aircraft supply chain issues will raise costs, possibly limiting that growth.

Airlines repositioning freighter aircraft from the trans-Atlantic to the more profitable Asia market combined with a seasonal decline in belly cargo on the Europe-US route have pushed rates on the trade lane near a two-year high.

Air cargo is seeing a greater volume of non-essential products to get around container shipping challenges, a move that comes at a substantial cost to shippers.

The first week of December is traditionally when demand for air cargo reaches its highest level, and this year a wide imbalance between demand and available space is pushing up already elevated prices.

By connecting to forwarder-customers of software vendor e2open, Freightos is continuing its push to develop electronic booking capability in the air freight industry.

Volume and rates on the Asian export corridors to the US and Europe have been high all year and online shopping promotions in November are further stoking the market.

The recent rise in volume to Europe contrasts sharply with China-to-US tonnage that in the second half has fallen far below year-over-year levels following greater scrutiny by US authorities on e-commerce imports.

Jens Lund this week emphasized the earnings potential of the takeover, pointing to greater scale and a wider portfolio of services that would increase the combined entity’s reach.

Rising competition and tough negotiations with customers are believed to be behind the narrowing profit margins that were plainly displayed in the financial results of the two forwarders.

A year of disruption has been on-the-job training for air freight shippers that are now battle-hardened and prepared for a tough end-of-year peak season.

Deutsche Bahn’s supervisory board approved DSV’s $16 billion acquisition of rival forwarder DB Schenker despite opposition from union members on the board.

The integration of two large companies in similar industries is “particularly challenging,” according to Tobias Meyer, who withdrew DHL’s interest in DB Schenker earlier this year.

While there are still regulatory hurdles to clear, a spokesperson for DSV told the Journal of Commerce the combined company “will continue under the DSV brand” going forward.

Eight straight months of double-digit volume growth and a massive increase in trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe e-commerce volumes, mostly shipped from China by air, has left air cargo capacity in short supply.

Sustained demand for air cargo on the trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe trades and the promise of rising rates through the end-of-year peak are encouraging airlines to pull capacity from less-lucrative lanes.

Still, the buoyant mood of carriers contrasts with global forwarders that have low levels of exposure to e-commerce shipments and are under pressure to find capacity for traditional customers.

Eight straight months of double-digit volume growth in global air freight markets has kept freighters full and flying at peak utilization, and continued demand is expected to outstrip available capacity through Q4 and beyond.

The extent of the disruption to air freight schedules is not yet apparent, but the loss of the belly cargo space, even for a short period, comes at a particularly inconvenient time.

Chinese online marketplaces have hit on a rich vein of business-to-customer volumes, with the current boom in international air freight driven by cross-border e-commerce rather than a recovery of traditional manufacturing.

Peak season has come early to air freight markets and with ocean shipping disrupted and e-commerce filling planes out of Asia, the demand is set to extend through the second half and beyond.