Asia-Europe air freight rates soar, but freight rates show signs of easing
Last week, air freight rates between China and Europe rose rapidly, but freight rates to North America declined.
The latest data from the TAC index shows that the average price from Shanghai to Europe rose by 42.3% last week, reaching US $ 7.33 per kilogram.
This is a new record set by the index launched in March 2015.
The price of freight from Hong Kong to Europe also rose by 27.4% from last week to 5.11 US dollars per kilogram, which also set a record for the trade route of the index.
However, the service situation from China to the United States began to show signs of easing.
The TAC index shows that from Shanghai to North America, the weekly decline is 3.5% to US $ 6.36 per kg, although this is still the second highest record for the index.
Also showed signs of slowing economic growth from Hong Kong to North America, with interest rates raised by 6% to US $ 5.30 per kilogram, which is the smallest weekly increase since the beginning of March.
However, this is still one of the highest levels recorded in the lane.
The freight rate on the westbound Atlantic route also decreased, and the freight rate per kilogram from Frankfurt to North America decreased by 18.9% to US $ 3.39. Freight from Chicago to Europe rose 15.9% to US $ 2.70 per kg.
Due to the drastic reduction of services by passenger airlines, global air cargo capacity dropped by about 35%.
Freight Investor Services (Freight Investor Services) derivatives broker Peter Stallion said that the Asia-Pacific region's medical equipment demand and container capacity shortages are maintaining high capacity.
Said: "As medical equipment and medicines flooded into Europe, causing prices to soar to unprecedented highs, the weekly fluctuations in a basket of currencies illustrate an interesting phenomenon.
"This is in sharp contrast to the United States. At least for now, the price increase in the United States has been frozen. Of course, the prices of these two lanes are very high.
"From a price point of view, the traffic from Europe to the United States also seems to have begun to slow down, because freight rates on most major routes (including Frankfurt from London to the United States) are falling.
"Because more container capacity is restricted, forcing emergency cargo to be sent only by air, the strong air freight prices in the Asia-Pacific region still exceed the overall situation."
Freight forwarder Jelida said that China's outbound travel and entry are still under pressure, but there are some signs of recovery.
"As production resumes and passenger flights are cancelled, the export air capacity of all export markets in mainland China is under great pressure."
"The trend of sea-air conversion has intensified the pressure on China's overseas shipping capacity. However, more and more cargo ships are entering this market."