Asia Pacific tonnages close to pre-Lunar New Year levels

Air cargo tonnages from Asia Pacific origins have continued to rebound towards their pre-Lunar New Year levels, with rates edging back upwards and remaining above their level this time last year, according to the latest weekly figures from WorldACD Market Data.

"Following a +20 percent rebound in week seven from their Lunar New Year dip, chargeable weight flown from Asia Pacific origins regained a further +six percent in week 8 (February 17-23), taking them close to their levels in mid-January, based on the more than 500,000 weekly transactions covered by WorldACD’s data."

Asia Pacific to Europe tonnages gained a further five percent following a +30 percent rebound the previous week, with China to Europe tonnages adding a further five percent. "Japan to Europe demand bounced back strongly with a +19 percent week-on-week (WoW) increase, close to its highest level this year. There were further WoW tonnage gains from South Korea (+seven percent), Vietnam (+ eight percent) and Thailand (+18 percent)."

Demand from Asia Pacific to the U.S. gained another five percent following a +28 percent rebound in week 7, taking tonnages back to their levels of mid-January, the update added. "Demand from China was fairly stable (+two percent WoW), but tonnages from both Hong Kong and Japan increased by +11 percent and there were similar rebounds from South Korea (+nine percent), Taiwan (+nine percent) and Vietnam (+10 percent)."

Average spot rates from Asia Pacific to the U.S. gained four percent, taking them back close to $5 per kilo ($4.99). China to U.S. spot rates were up nine percent following three consecutive weeks of declines at $4.08 per kilo in week 8, the update added.

Global tonnages, rates stable
Worldwide tonnages flown in week 8 were up by one percent WoW, with the six percent rise from Asia Pacific origins cancelled out by decreases from Central & South Asia (- six percent) and North America (- two percent).

On the pricing side, average worldwide rates, based on a full market average of spot rates and contract rates, edged upwards by two percent to $2.32 per kilo, thanks mainly to a two percent increase from Asia Pacific, the update added.

"Compared with last year, average worldwide rates are up by eight percent and tonnages up by nine percent, although comparisons are distorted by the different timings of Lunar New Year.”