The air freight forwarding market grew by 38 per cent in the first half of the year, while ocean forwarding was up 13 per cent, according to a report on the global forwarding market by Transport Intelligence.
The report, Global Freight Forwarding 2010, says that the international freight industry went into freefall in 2009 with the market falling by 23 per cent.
“The market contraction was caused by a combination of falling volumes and rates – the former caused by a huge inventory overhang in Western consumer markets, and the latter by air and sea over capacity on all major lanes.”
“Only in the last quarter was this dynamic reversed. The drastic steps taken by air and sea carriers to address overcapacity consequently created the volatility seen in the first six months of 2010.”
John Manners-Bell of Transport Intelligence said: “We expect volumes to moderate in the next six months, followed by a period of lower growth. This means that, across the period as a whole, some air and sea forwarding markets – most notably Europe – will not return to 2008 pre-recession levels until after 2013.”
Manners-Bell believes that growth will be strongest in Asia.
