With airfreight in Europe in high demand, wait lists growing and bad weather grounding flights and causing delays, shippers (with the exception of high-margin pharma and tech) are said to be considering ocean shipping as an alternative for some consignments.

Freightos WebCargo ceo Manel Galindo says airfreight rates are becoming unrealistic, with forwarders paying more than US$20 per kilogram for capacity from Europe to South America. 

Air cargo demand is expected to remain a problem till mid January, to ease and then start to rise again ahead of the Chinese New Year in mid February.

 

Meanwhile, the Tac Index, which publishes weekly average general cargo prices on major global origin-destination (OD) pairs, says airfreight rates on services from Hong Kong to North America and to Europe remain high.