The demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) helped to buoy airfreight out of China, without any decrease in volume year-on-year (y-o-y), World Air Cargo Data (ACD) has revealed in its July assessment for the first six months (H-1) of 2020.
Moreover, revenue generated through PPE-related air cargo from China “did not come cheap”, the market data aggregator said.
“Air cargo charges from China rose by an incredible 136% compared to the first half of 2019,” World ACD said.
It added that the y-o-y volume decline in H-1 had been smallest in business originating in the Asia Pacific region. “Volumes from this region to Europe and North America were hit much less (-6% and -11% respectively) than volumes from Middle East and South Asia.”
World ACD’s most recent look at market data also assessed the air freight of flowers, high tech and vulnerable goods, as well as pharmaceuticals.
It said: “As large parts of the world were in turmoil, demand for flowers fell less than average -16%. The volume of high tech and other vulnerable goods dropped by 6%, while the transport of pharmaceuticals, the evergreen in air cargo, grew by +8% y-o-y.”
The demand for increased air freight as more and more countries relaxed Covid-19 lockdown restrictions can be also be seen in freight rates coming down and how this has been reflected in US dollar yields for March and June.
This is in stark contrast to dollar yields from spiking freight rates that resulted in increased revenue of 21% at the beginning of the global pandemic.
World ACD said: “Looking at month-on-month (m-o-m) developments from May to June, we saw worldwide volumes increase by almost 3.5%.
“Coupled with a decrease in USD-yields of 21%, this resulted in a m-o-m revenue decrease for airlines of 19% measured in USD. In other words, the extreme results of April and May (great volume loss coupled with a large revenue increase) diminished somewhat. However, the sector is still far from what it used to be, as June worldwide showed a y-o-y volume decrease of 20% and a yield increase of 76%.”
- See Freight News tomorrow for the last report in our three-part rendition of World ACD’s H-1 assessment for 2020.