Slower growth than previously expected on the cards

A depressed market with a slower growth than was previously expected is what airfreighters have to contend with at present. According to Alwyn Rautenbach, managing director of Airlink Cargo, the slower growth in the economy is definitely being reflected in the express market at present. “Everyone is more cost conscious at the moment and that is evident in the market,” he told FTW. “Although the express business is very sound, we are not achieving the volumes we had expected.” He said a saving grace at present was the high price of commodities as the mining sector was still one of the biggest drivers in the express industry. “In Southern Africa the mining sector is definitely a growth driver with anything from spare parts to documents being transported with airfreight. The courier of products from the manufacturing sector on the other hand has slowed down quite significantly.” He said much hope was however being placed in the market that as manufacturing picks up towards the end of the year to make up for the December close down that it would also boost volumes in the airfreight sector. “As summer starts manufacturing usually increases its output,” said Rautenbach. “So we are hoping this will see some major increases in our industry.” But, warned Rautenbach, it was extremely difficult to make any predictions. “There have been numerous disruptions this year from municipal to manufacturer strikes that have impacted on the airfreight business. We are hopeful that things will normalise through the last quarter of the year, but we don’t expect any high growth figures.” In July this year the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said air cargo as an industry remained flat. In a statement at the time the organisation said freight volumes had not grown since July-August 2010. May 2010 was the post-recession re-stocking peak, compared to which the June 2011 international freight market was 6% smaller. While world trade is expanding at 7% a year, the benefit is being realised more by modes of transport other than air.