Air freight market volumes to 'moderate'

: Latest News; Monday, 16 August 2010

The air freight forwarding sector has been warned the resurgence of demand since Q4 2009 can't be relied on to continue as it is at least partially attributable to firms correcting inventory levels.

This overspilled to the first half of 2010, where double-digit industry growth continued to fuel inventory re-stocking, according to Transport Intelligence (Ti).

Ti's says the air freight forwarding industry grew year-on-year by 38 per cent during the first half of 2010, while ocean forwarding grew by 13 per cent.

Ti analyst John Manners-Bell said Ti expected volumes to moderate in the next six months, followed by a period of lower growth.

Some air and sea forwarding markets - most notably Europe - will not return to 2008 pre-recession levels until after 2013, he added.