TRANSPACIFIC ecommerce demand is so high and passenger volume is too low that there is now insufficient bellyhold capacity upon which air freight depends, reports New York's Journal of Commerce.
Air cargo space on China-US trade has seen the rate rising 15 per cent in the first three weeks of October to its current level of US$5.42 per kilogramme, according to the Baltic Air Freight Index.
Load factors on the transpacific out of China were at 89 per cent in the first two weeks of October, which means full, according to Wenwen Zhang, air cargo analyst at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta.
'The load factor is at the same level seen at the peak of the pandemic. Any sudden increase in demand will see space squeezed very quickly,' she told the Xeneta Summit in Amsterdam this week.
The lack of space out of China was highlighted by air cargo industry executives on a panel at the Xeneta event, with Peter Penseel, COO for air freight at CEVA Logistics, attributing the capacity shortage to booming demand for e-commerce.
'The major e-commerce companies in China are buying up space and buying aircraft, and today 60 to 70 per cent of the available air cargo space out of China to North America is occupied by e-commerce,' he said.
Alibaba's Tmall Global is the largest B2C cross-border e-commerce platform in China, with JD.com the largest online retailer in China. November online shopping promotions are looming and much of the available air cargo space will go towards moving sales from China's November 11 'ingles Day, and Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US.
SeaNews Turkey
Air cargo space on China-US trade has seen the rate rising 15 per cent in the first three weeks of October to its current level of US$5.42 per kilogramme, according to the Baltic Air Freight Index.
Load factors on the transpacific out of China were at 89 per cent in the first two weeks of October, which means full, according to Wenwen Zhang, air cargo analyst at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta.
'The load factor is at the same level seen at the peak of the pandemic. Any sudden increase in demand will see space squeezed very quickly,' she told the Xeneta Summit in Amsterdam this week.
The lack of space out of China was highlighted by air cargo industry executives on a panel at the Xeneta event, with Peter Penseel, COO for air freight at CEVA Logistics, attributing the capacity shortage to booming demand for e-commerce.
'The major e-commerce companies in China are buying up space and buying aircraft, and today 60 to 70 per cent of the available air cargo space out of China to North America is occupied by e-commerce,' he said.
Alibaba's Tmall Global is the largest B2C cross-border e-commerce platform in China, with JD.com the largest online retailer in China. November online shopping promotions are looming and much of the available air cargo space will go towards moving sales from China's November 11 'ingles Day, and Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US.
SeaNews Turkey
