DHL Global Forwarding is securing additional air freight capacity from commercial carriers to avoida capacity shortage between North Asia and Europe throughout the first quarter of 2010. This
follows serious capacity shortages on key routes in recent weeks.“In order to mitigate the shortage of space we will be securing extra capacity fromcommercial carriers on our trade lanes between North Asia and Europe throughout the first quarterof 2010,” said Thomas Nieszner, CEO Europe/CEE DHL Global Forwarding. “We are working very closelywith our customers on capacity planning to ensure their supply chains are stable and our deliverytimes are fast.”
The move comes in response to a strong increase in demand for transportation space inNovember and December 2009 which contributed to backlogs of goods shipped from China to Europe.Therefore, air shipments from China and other parts of Asia to Europe and the USA are facingserious delays due to a capacity shortage at major airports. This has resulted in soaring freightrates for the limited available space.
At Hong Kong and Shanghai international airports, for example, a substantial backlog ofexports has been building up in recent weeks spreading to other major airports such as Bangkok,Singapore, Seoul and Taipei, according to recent reports from the region.
Looking ahead, the transportation capacity shortage on the North Asia to Europe trade lanesis widely expected to continue during the first quarter of 2010 as a number of airlines arereluctant to increase cargo uplift capacity, which was reduced due to the global economic downturn.The reason behind this is the high cost of reactivating the temporarily grounded aircraft, DeutschePost DHL said in a statement.
Air freight out of China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan is in particularly high demand, withthe next peak expected to occur before the Chinese New Year in February, anticipating factoryclosures during the holidays.
This development would go against the traditional trend of air freight space demanddecreasing after the year-end holiday, leading to a significant drop in air freight rates.
