June witnessed ease in global air cargo volumes decline

The decline in global air cargo volumes eased again in June but the ‘fear-of-missing-out (FOMO)’ created an irrational airline and freight forwarding market as shippers indulged in a 41% year-on-year fall in the general airfreight spot rate, shows the latest weekly data from industry analysts, CLIVE Data Services, part of Xeneta. Air cargo capacity rose 8% year-over-year in June but despite this surge in availability, the drop in global chargeable weight stayed at -1%, repeating the market performance seen in May. However, the -41% fall in the market average took the global air cargo spot rate down to US$2.31 per kg. Niall van de Wouw, Chief Airfreight Officer at Xeneta, said June’s air cargo data demonstrates the jumpiness in the market. “The surprise in June is the difference between the sentiment in the market and what the actual data is showing us. It is getting pretty nasty out there and stress levels among airlines and forwarders are clearly rising, but we see a clear distinction between market sentiment and market fundamentals and sentiment is more negative right now. “Airlines and forwarders are getting jumpy because of falling rates, not so much the volumes. It’s the fear-of-missing-out that is driving the aggressive drop in cargo rates because no one wants to lose volumes, and they also want to get more of the cargo that’s in the market. We can see forwarders taking big risks,” he said.