Airfreight rates return to growth in September

Airfreight rate growth on major trade lanes picked up again in September after a slowdown in improvements in August.
The latest figures from TAC Index show that average prices on services from Hong Kong to North America increased 29.4% year on year in September to reach $3.78 per kg.
Rates were also up on August when carriers were able to achieve $3.21 per kg, and were 17.8% up on the same month in 2015.
There was a similarly good performance on rates between Hong Kong and Europe, where carriers were able to achieve $2.43 per kg in September compared with $1.99 per kg last year.
Prices on the trade were also up on August when they stood at $2.21 per kg and September 2015 when they reached $2.37 per kg.
Click on chart for interactive version

There were also improvements on the transatlantic trade, although not to the same extent as on trades from Asia.
The index covering Frankfurt to North America increased by 3.4% year on year to $2.42 per kg, which is up 3.4% year on year and also ahead of August, when prices stood at $2.31 per kg.
The improvement in rates comes after a slight slowdown in growth in August as carriers added belly capacity for the peak tourist season, reflected by IATA’s cargo load factor slipping to 43.3% compared with 43.7% in July.
With the industry heading into the cargo peak season, load factors are expected to start picking up again over the coming months to boost rates.
Yesterday, IATA said it was hopeful that rates would begin to pick up as demand growth outstrips additional cargo capacity.
Read more air cargo data news