Global air cargo volumes have been dealt a blow following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, with the industry recording a 4% year-on-year decline for January, according to the latest ‘dynamic load factor’ market intelligence from CLIVE Data Services.
CLIVE MD Niall van de Wouw said that although cargo volumes were expected to decline during the Chinese New Year holiday, the recent coronavirus outbreak could have an even more severe impact on global trade.
“The big unknown now is the impact of the coronavirus at the start of a year where there was previously slight optimism for a modest recovery in air cargo volumes,” said Van de Wouw.
He added that the industry would only be in a position to determine the full extent of the outbreak once China returned to operational capacity and re-opened some of its supply chain routes.
“The impact of the coronavirus will become clearer in the weeks to come when the factories reopen and their supply chains are brought up to speed again. How quickly that will happen – and what knock-on effect it will have for the global air cargo industry – will be a strong indicator for the year ahead,” he said.
