THE rapid rise of fast-fashion e-commerce retailers is upending the global air cargo industry, Reuters reports.
Outfits such as Shein and Temu increasingly vie for limited air-cargo space to wow consumers with rapid transits, sources say.
According to Cargo Facts Consulting, Temu ships 4,000 tons a day, Shein 5,000 tonnes, Alibaba.com 1,000 tons and TikTok 800 tons. That equates to 108 Boeing 777 freighters a day.
Shein, PDD Group's Temu and ByteDance's TikTok Shop, which recently began online shopping in the US, ship most of their output directly from factories in China to shoppers by air in individually addressed packages.
Alone, Shein and Temu together send some 600,000 packages to the US every day, according to a US Congressional report last year.
Trouble is, this boosts air freight costs from Asian hubs like Guangzhou and Hong Kong, making off-peak seasons almost disappear and causing capacity shortages, say industry sources.
Said Bollore Logistics China chief Basile Ricard: 'The biggest trend impacting air freight right now is not the Red Sea, it's Chinese e-commerce companies like Shein or Temu.
Driven by robust demand for their low-priced apparel like US$10 tops and $5 biker shorts, Shein alone accounts for one-fifth of the global fast-fashion market, measured by sales, and has fuelled growth of China's e-commerce industry, according to Coresight Research.
fast fashion now accounts for half of China's total cross-border e-commerce shipments and takes up about one-third of global long-distance cargo aircraft, according to cross-border transportation media firm Baixiao.com.
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Outfits such as Shein and Temu increasingly vie for limited air-cargo space to wow consumers with rapid transits, sources say.
According to Cargo Facts Consulting, Temu ships 4,000 tons a day, Shein 5,000 tonnes, Alibaba.com 1,000 tons and TikTok 800 tons. That equates to 108 Boeing 777 freighters a day.
Shein, PDD Group's Temu and ByteDance's TikTok Shop, which recently began online shopping in the US, ship most of their output directly from factories in China to shoppers by air in individually addressed packages.
Alone, Shein and Temu together send some 600,000 packages to the US every day, according to a US Congressional report last year.
Trouble is, this boosts air freight costs from Asian hubs like Guangzhou and Hong Kong, making off-peak seasons almost disappear and causing capacity shortages, say industry sources.
Said Bollore Logistics China chief Basile Ricard: 'The biggest trend impacting air freight right now is not the Red Sea, it's Chinese e-commerce companies like Shein or Temu.
Driven by robust demand for their low-priced apparel like US$10 tops and $5 biker shorts, Shein alone accounts for one-fifth of the global fast-fashion market, measured by sales, and has fuelled growth of China's e-commerce industry, according to Coresight Research.
fast fashion now accounts for half of China's total cross-border e-commerce shipments and takes up about one-third of global long-distance cargo aircraft, according to cross-border transportation media firm Baixiao.com.
SeaNews Turkey