Cargo Breaking News
According to a latest analysis from WorldACD Market Data, “The growth of ‘general cargo’ air freight tonnages is outpacing that of ‘special cargo’ products so far in 2024. The demand from air cargo shipments requiring special handling and shipping, has broadly outperformed general cargo in recent years, reveals data. Analysis of the first five months of 2024 by WorldACD, based on the more than 2 million monthly transactions recorded via its database, indicates that total worldwide chargeable weight from January to May 2024 was up +12% compared with the equivalent period last year, with general cargo demand up by +13%, year on year (YoY), and special cargo growth trailing at +10%. “This contrasts with findings late last year by WorldACD that in the first eight months of 2023, general cargo tonnages fell by -12%, YoY, whereas tonnages of special cargo products as a whole grew by +3%, on a worldwide basis, at a time when the market as a whole was down by -7%, YoY,” states WorldACD. According to the analysis, “one factor for this is the strong growth since the start of last autumn in cross-border e-commerce traffic, which often flies in bulk as general cargo rather than within a special product category, as well as conversion of sea freight to air cargo and sea-air resulting from disruptions since last November to container shipping due to the attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. These two factors have contributed to significant YoY rises in chargeable weight in the five months to May 2024 (year-to-date May, or YtD May) from Asia Pacific (+20%) and Middle East & South Asia (MESA, +22%).
