European air freight forwarders have become significantly more optimistic about future volumegrowth during the last two months, despite continuing sluggish volumes so far this year, according
to the latest survey by Danske Bank.The Expected Situation element of its European Freight Forwarding Index rose from 58 to 64, withthe Airfreight Index rising from 58 to 68. This measures the expectations of respondents for thecoming two months compared with the previous two months, adjusted for seasonality, with a figuregreater than 50 indicating expansion among participating companies – a greater number ofrespondents expect volumes to increase than those expecting volumes to decline.
These expectation figures compare with 45 in January and 39 in December. The Current Situationelement stood at 40 and 43 in January and February, respectively, indicating that more respondentshad seen volumes decrease from the volumes in the previous two months, seasonally adjusted.
Danske Bank analyst Kristian Godiksen said: “Our proprietary European Freight Forwarding Indexfor February indicates that current volumes are slightly down compared to two months ago. However,participant expectations improved further and suggests a volume increase in the coming twomonths.
“Current volumes for the Airfreight index improved slightly, but the index is still below theindex value of 50, and is hereby still indicating lower volumes handled compared to two months ago.Expectations for the Road (scoring 70 in the index) and Airfreight (rising to 68 on the index)segments increased further, indicating upcoming growth in volumes.”
The February-March survey was based on responses from 127 freight forwarding companies based innorthern Europe.
