Air cargo tonnages rebound in July: WorldACD
According to WorldACD Weekly’s Air Cargo report, the month of July ended with a 2% drop in global air cargo volume during week 31 (from July 28 to August 3) compared to the previous week. This continues a pattern of marginal week-to-week changes that kept total chargeable weight relatively steady throughout the month.
However, month-on-month growth in tonnages jumped +8%, returning volumes to a year-on-year (YoY) expansion of +6% in the same month which is more in line with the YoY growth seen between March and May, after a slowdown to +1% in June.
All regions showed YoY volume growth in July, led by Asia Pacific (+9%), followed by North America and Central & South America (both +5%), Middle East & South Asia (+4%) and Europe (+3%), while Africa remained stable.
The momentum was slower towards the end of the month. A comparison of the last two weeks with the preceding two weeks (2Wo2W) based on the more than 500,000 weekly transactions covered by WorldACD’s data shows a stable volume in total, with all origin regions experiencing a decline between -1% and -3%, except Europe (+3%).
Trends differed considerably by origin region, showing a -11% drop from its exceptionally high level last year for Middle East & South Asia (MESA), while the rate decline from Asia Pacific worsened to -4%. Pricing from North America was flat, but rates out of Europe and Africa rose by +5% and +6% respectively. Notwithstanding a week-on-week (WoW) rise of +1%, spot pricing from the Asia Pacific region to the US was -15% below 2024 levels, continuing a seven-week run of double-digit annual decline.
It is believed that with tariffs largely falling into place in August, shippers will have better visibility to allow forward planning.
Rates from China and Hong Kong to the US inched up +2% WoW, but remained -15% down year on year, while chargeable weight in the sector sank -4% WoW, reversing the previous week’s gain following the post-Typhoon Wipho recovery. This expanded the YoY gap from -6% in week 30 to -10% in week 31.
Meanwhile traffic from Asia Pacific origins to the US contracted -6% WoW, led by lower volumes out of Indonesia (-22%), Malaysia (-19%) and Thailand (-17%).
Chargeable weight from the region to Europe continued to contract, slipping -4% WoW. South Korea and Taiwan showed the biggest decline with WoW drops of -8%.
Spot rates from the region to Europe slipped -1% WoW, with only China and Thailand showing increases (+1% each). Markets are optimistic to revive in the coming months.
