PACTL has its best year ever for cargo

Although manufacturing in China was down in 2015 and world trade was stagnant, Shanghai Pudong Int’l Airport Cargo Terminal, Co., Ltd. (PACTL) set a new record for freight handled in 2015. Throughput grew by about 6.5 percent, year-over-year, with nearly 1.6 million tonnes of cargo processed, beating its previous annual record set in 2014.

Import volume increased by nearly 9 percent, compared to 2014, to more than 651,000 tonnes of air cargo. International imports did very well, increasing 9.4 percent to 602,000 tonnes, while domestic imports increased by 4.3 percent to just shy of 50,000 tonnes.

Export cargo volumes grew by 4.8 percent over 2014 figures to nearly 948,000 tonnes total, with international exports growing 4.4 percent to 892,000 tonnes. Domestic exports increased by 11.5 percent to 55,000 tonnes.

“Despite difficult market conditions, we were able to develop our business fully in line with our expectations. This is evident, for example, in the ongoing growth in international imports, which was caused by the rising demand for imported consumer goods, such as perishables, pharmaceuticals and other high-value articles” said Lutz Grzegorz, vice president of PACTL.

PACTL processed just under 50 percent of the air cargo handled at Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) in 2015, an increase of 1.4 percent in comparison with 2014. Right now, PACTL is in the final steps of testing a new end-to-end cool chain facility. Trial operations started in November 2015.