CHINA-US air cargo shipments have dropped 50 per cent compared to the same two-week period last year, reports New York's Sourcing Journal.
Tariff escalation and the looming end of the duty-free de minimis provision for Chinese imports have been cited as the cause of cancellations of freighter charters in the coming weeks.
This is the word from Taiwan's international freight forwarder Dimerco Express in its May Asia-Pacific air freight outlook.
'Since around April 20, charter flights from china to the US have been significantly reduced-many were either cancelled or re-routed,' said Dimerco vice president Kathy Liu.
'A lot of that capacity has shifted to destinations like Nuevo Laredo in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, where demand has actually gone up, especially out of Mexico,' she said.
The report said that air carriers including Air China, China Cargo Airline and China Southern Airlines are among those planning to cancel freighter services between China and the US. If these cancellations go through, shrinking capacity from China to the US will be further reduced.
With the suspension of the de minimis exemption, retailers with China-heavy supply chains including Temu, Shein and AliExpress will have to pay taxes on all direct-to-consumer packages they ship to the US that carry less than US$800 in value.
This has caused a current drop in air freight demand as companies figure out their tariff strategy. Temu and Shein already have had to adjust by increasing prices, but not every company can afford that luxury.
SeaNews Turkey
Tariff escalation and the looming end of the duty-free de minimis provision for Chinese imports have been cited as the cause of cancellations of freighter charters in the coming weeks.
This is the word from Taiwan's international freight forwarder Dimerco Express in its May Asia-Pacific air freight outlook.
'Since around April 20, charter flights from china to the US have been significantly reduced-many were either cancelled or re-routed,' said Dimerco vice president Kathy Liu.
'A lot of that capacity has shifted to destinations like Nuevo Laredo in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, where demand has actually gone up, especially out of Mexico,' she said.
The report said that air carriers including Air China, China Cargo Airline and China Southern Airlines are among those planning to cancel freighter services between China and the US. If these cancellations go through, shrinking capacity from China to the US will be further reduced.
With the suspension of the de minimis exemption, retailers with China-heavy supply chains including Temu, Shein and AliExpress will have to pay taxes on all direct-to-consumer packages they ship to the US that carry less than US$800 in value.
This has caused a current drop in air freight demand as companies figure out their tariff strategy. Temu and Shein already have had to adjust by increasing prices, but not every company can afford that luxury.
SeaNews Turkey
