April 2 2018
|
The Journal of Commerce 15 www.joc.com
International Maritime
ALIGNING CAPACITY WITH fluctuating
demand and sticker-shock pricing is
always a tough dance in the air cargo
spot market, but sharply rising volumes
and lift constraints today are buffeting
shippers and forwarders, with no swift
solution in sight.
Historically, a full 50 percent of this
volatile "boom-bust" marketplace has
been driven by emergency shipments
plus business cycle or seasonal demand
factors, Mike Piza, senior vice presi-
dent of Apex Global Logistics, said last
month at 18th Annual TPM Conference
in Long Beach, California.
"But there's a whole new paradigm
in the air market today," he added. "A
few years ago, it was too much capacity
and low volume, 'just in time' and
emergency shipments. Now, it's speed
to market that is straining capacity
everywhere, especially in peak seasons
that seem to be getting longer."
Sanne Manders, chief operating of-
ficer of Flexport, a San Francisco-based
digital freight forwarder and customs
broker, said demand growth in 2017 was
stronger than anticipated. "You saw a
rise in e-commerce and in freighters fly-
ing full directly from China to the US."
But while volumes were large, actual
tonnage was not, Manders contends.
"When you get a parcel from Amazon,
there's a lot of air in that parcel, so air
is filling up the plane very quickly with
volumetric cargo."
Adding to the demand for air cargo
capacity last year, Manders said, were
a series of new product launches of
electronic goods manufactured in
China, most notably the suite of Apple
iPhones. On the supply side, capacity
Pressure
rising
E-commerce adds to
speed-to-market demand
and leads to ascending
air cargo rates
By Chris Barnett and Greg Knowler
Shutterstock.com
Importing & Exporting | Ports | Carriers | Breakbulk | Global Logistics
