‘Airfreight market remains unpredictable’

Unpredictable is possibly the best way to describe the airfreight express market at present, said Mark Scott, director of NGL Logistics. “While there are no real shakers at the moment and it has stabilised, it is a very uncertain market. Several of our clients have seen their volumes pick up recently but then there have been others who have seen volumes drop quite drastically,” he told FTW. “It is unpredictable at the moment and possibly very difficult to ascertain any kind of trends.” He said all indications are that current volumes will plateau off at the present rate with no spike as is usually expected at the end of the year. “We have heard that in some cases it is already tapering off with one or two players in the market being really busy.” At the same time there seems to be a return to road freight, said Scott. “We have seen the move to road freight for destinations like Durban and Bloemfontein due to the high cost of airfreight.” And with talk of another recession looming conservatism seems to be at the order of the day. “People are being extremely selective about what they airfreight and are looking at using road more than they would have some months ago,” he said. “And not even the talk of increased costs on road such as toll fees and higher fuel prices are influencing decisions.”