WorldACD, Drewry June figures snap dismal picture of 1H2019  

Following the challenging political and economic conditions experienced over the first half of 2019, WorldACD released its report indicating a decrease of 9% in international airfreight volumes year-over-year for the month of June. Meanwhile, Drewry said airfreight prices are continuing to rise. 

According to WorldACD, airlines suffered a y-o-y decrease of almost 15% in revenue, combined with a decrease in y-o-y yield of 6.3% in USD. Only high tech, pharmaceuticals, flowers and fish and seafood saw y-o-y growth for the month of 3.7%, 5.2%, 4.6% and 4.5%, respectively. However, WorldACD also said that high tech and pharmaceuticals saw yields fall more than volumes increase for the month. 

Drewry’s East-West airfreight price index was also released this week, showing rates increased 1%, or 2 cents, from the previous month in May, to reach $2.54 per kilogram, following a fall of 8 cents from April to May. Prices for June 2019 remain 4% lower than the same month the year prior. Drewry said it expects rates to remain equable in July. 

While last month, WorldACD implored the air cargo industry to maintain a more “realistic” view of the market given the extraordinary growth in 2018, the firm now says that the first half of 2019 actually saw a worldwide decrease of 0.6% when compared to the same period in 2017. North America was the exception among the larger regions, as it saw an outbound weight growth of 2% as compared to first half of 2017. 

While the macro-economic environment saw a contraction for the first half of 2019 compared to the first half of 2018, there was still some growth in sub-regions’ volumes.  Australasia, East Africa, Northern Europe, North Africa and Central Asia saw growth of 0.4%, 2.6%, 10%, 3% and 20.1%, respectively, y-o-y for the period. Of the larger regions, only the origin Africa showed a modest y-o-y increase in volumes of 1.2%. 

To sum up the experience for air cargo this year thus far, WorldACD said “the further we get into 2019, the poorer the results get.”