LOGISTICS
UPDATE
New partnership formed
Imperial has entered into a partnership with
Turkish freight forwarder M Ekspres (which is
known as MEX), which will see the creation
of a new multi-modal freight management
business housed within Imperial’s freight
management capability: this will specialise
in traffi c to, from and transiting Turkey. The
business will be based in Istanbul and will
provide air and ocean import and export
forwarding services to existing clients of both
Imperial and MEX, as well as new customers.
In addition, it plans to leverage the fast
growing range of global destinations served
from Istanbul’s new airport, as a gateway for
traffi c to the African continent.
MEX was established in 2009 as an
international courier company by highly
experienced Turkish forwarding executives
Mehmet Baykut and Oktay Baykut, who had
previously built the country’s second largest
IATA forwarder that was subsequently sold to
Toll Global Forwarding. Following the sale,
Mehmet Baykut served as Country Managing
Director and Oktay Baykut served as Director
of Operations (and, later, sales) for Turkey.
This was followed by the latter’s appointment
as Business Development and Sales Director
– Turkey for CEVA Logistics. After this, both
returned to MEX and launched it into the
market as a freight forwarder in 2019.
MARKET
MOVEMENTS
Forwarders have been experiencing
very divergent levels of air freight
business, according to recent data
from World ACD.
While the top ten air freight
forwarders saw volumes grow 3%
on average between February and
March, this was actually a mixed
bag, with one losing around 9%
whilst another recorded gains of
some 16%. For those forwarders
ranking between 11th and 20th
place, as a group they were down by
2% yet individually, one recorded
a loss of 40% in volumes while
another gained a creditable 117%,
merely underlining the vagaries
within the operating environment.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the
larger forwarders have benefi ted
from their ability to source capacity.
Meanwhile, the fi rst week of
March may have been the best
week of the year for air cargo, but
the month saw an overall year-onyear
drop in chargeable weight of
17.7%, according to the data.
Africa and the Middle East
were hardest hit (down 28% and
32% respectively), whilst the Asia
Pacifi c region fell 12% and the
Americas dropped 17%. Freighter
capacity went up, though, by 2%,
but failed to offset the 39% drop in
belly hold capacity.
In terms of yields, this was a
better story for carriers, though.
The Asia Pacifi c region witnessed
yields in dollars rising year-on-year
by a third; while from China, yields
were up two-thirds, to an average of
US$3.58 per kilogramme. Revenues
from China to Asia Pacifi c also
jumped by a healthy 91%.
Freighter capacity actually
rose by 29% between February
and March this year, with freighter
airlines carrying 42% more cargo
in March than the previous month,
giving them 81% revenue growth; in
comparison, passenger airlines saw
a cargo fall of 22%.
Cargo rates: what next?
The relentless march of COVID-19 has
affected all sectors and all industries, and
one anomaly arising from its spread has
been that of an increased demand for cargo
capacity. Given the fi nite numbers of pure
freighters stationed around the globe, and the
fact that a conversion takes time, it has come
as little surprise that cargo rates have been
creeping upwards.
Average spot rates for shipping cargo
through the air from Hong Kong to the US
reported by the Transportation Air Cargo Index
jumped by almost 27% within the period of
a fortnight back in March. At the same time,
rates from Shanghai to Europe rose by 50%.
To deal with the situation, several airlines
have been using passenger aircraft to try and
plug the network demand, carrying belly
freight and, increasingly, making use of
the cabin space, too. Whilst these initiatives
have been unfolding there have been stories
of shippers with special cargoes fi nding tariffs
simply too expensive, forcing them to look
anew at transportation solutions. Rail and sea
transport, unsurprisingly, have both featured
in this changing scenario.
The supreme irony, perhaps, has been
that as China has got back on its feet, its
industry has been slow to reawaken; and
when it has begun to pick up from where it left
off, it has encountered diminished demand for
its goods, since the rest of the world continues
to struggle with the ongoing economic effects
of the virus.
www.airlogisticsinternational.com June 2020 7
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