News / Air freight rates continue their descent as more options reappear for shippers

Air freight rates have fallen sharply over the past week, continuing the recent slide.

The TAC Index published its latest charts today, showing China to Europe falling $1.06 – with Shanghai to Frankfurt dropping the most, by $1.68.

China to the US fell $0.57, with Hong Kong overtaking Shanghai in pricing.

Freight Investor Services (FIS) revealed that its forward curve for June showed prices would drop $0.50 from China to Europe, and down $0.55 from China to the US, and say it will continue trailing down into August.

FIS commented: “We start to see some of the winners and losers of the market as prices spool down, still held up in certain regions (Shanghai to Amsterdam bounces back slightly against the market trend to $5.04 off of the back of fixed-price contracts, and prices into London are held up).

“As we slowly creep towards renewed downstream demand for consumer goods, the container market kicks into action, diversifying the options for transport along Asia Pacific routes. Across the Pacific, threats of trade war escalation, the scrapped Chinese airline ban and a potential second wave in Beijing rock a number of fundamental drivers for growing non-medical cargo.”

Meanwhile, Accenture’s Seabury noted that capacity in the week ending June 6 was down 27% year on year.

You can see all the TAC charts for the week here.