Af rica is seeing a surge in oil and gas and mining equipment demand alongside an upswing in the perishable goods market. These trends have resulted in a f lurry of activity in concrete trade lanes across the continent, signalling promising economic prospects for the region and boding well for the airfreight sector, according to Paul Danvers, commercial director for Groupair SA. Additionally, increased capacity and price reductions are poised to bolster South African goods and produce, enhancing their competitiveness on the global stage.He told Freight News that high rates of exchange were continuing to pose challenges to importers, but they simultaneously benefited exports. “The decrease in sea freight rates has led to a partial shift in the preferred mode of transportation, impacting the airfreight sector.”According to the International Air Transport Association (Iata), there has been lower global demand for airfreight. “Combined with a worldwide economy in f lux, we have also seen this in South Africa. Demand is down. High inf lation continues to affect the world economy and trade.Significant opportunities, however, arise from these restrictions for wholesalers, such as ourselves, who provide small and medium-sized (SME) forwarders with access to a robust global network for their customers.”Danvers said carriers were gradually restoring their network capacity, alleviating the previous high rates, but direct f lights remained payload restricted, posing some challenges to the industry. “Economic demand will, however, always be our key driver locally, along with South Africa’s traditional perishable and manufacturing industries. Rate stabilisation and access to available capacity have played an important role in balancing the market, and we have seen the largest growth in capacity this year since 2019.”According to Danvers, Groupair has launched several new products over the past year.“Our online express business has experienced significant growth, granting our customers the convenience of logging in and creating their shipments. We have established regular consolidations from Europe and Asia to cater for import cargo, while securing a leading position in the export market for several crucial African destinations. Additionally, the expansion of the Groupair brand has led to the establishment of our UK office, and we are actively pursuing similar ventures in the US and the Middle East, while also fortifying key partnerships in Hong Kong and China .”At the same time, he said, demand in Africa was continuing to grow, as was the need for perishable products in other international markets.“We are diligently focusing on expanding the trade lanes to and from Asia and Europe, capitalising on our extensive network of offices that provide us with excellent products for our South African customers.” Danvers said he was optimistic that the fourth quarter of the year would bring a resurgence in airfreight due to a surge in demand leading up to the year-end. “This revival will be driven by the urgent need for order fulfilment, among other contributing factors. At GroupAir, we are already preparing for 2024 by deploying our bespoke operational software that will link to the legacy systems we use. This will allow our overseas teams to quote faster, while we can also update our operational information regularly, ultimately driving growth. We also aim to give customers the ability to do their rate look-ups, allowing them to re spond fa s t er."
