According to data published by U.K.-based shipping consultancy Drewry, airfreight rates continued to fall for the fourth consecutive month in February, hitting the lowest point on record since the Drewry’s “Sea & Air Shipper Insight” report began monitoring airfreight rates in May 2012.
Drewry reported its East-West Air Freight Price Index declined by 3.8 points in February to a reading of 79.2. In U.S. dollar terms, average freight rates were down 4.5 percent, month-to-month, and 18.9 percent, year-over-year, to US$2.57 per kilogram.
According to Simon Heaney, senior manager of supply chain research, Drewry expects “airfreight rates to remain challenged over the course of the year by weak global demand yet rising capacity, as buoyant passenger traffic releases more bellyhold space.”
Drewry’s Air Freight Price Index is a weighted average of all-in airfreight “buy rates” paid by forwarders to airlines for standard deferred airport-to-airport air freight services on 21 major east-west routes for cargoes above 1,000 kilograms.