What’s ahead for global air freight in 2020?

As an experienced player in the industry, we’ve had first-hand insights into the ups and downs that the global air freight market continues to encounter, and in 2019 we’ve experienced many challenges which include excess capacity, lower freight volumes and the ongoing trade wars. The global air freight market faced many hurdles and we hope for a smoother year in 2020. With a brighter future in mind, here are 3 trends that we think global shippers should be aware of:

Freight rates will remain flat. Shippers searching for opportunities to use up some of the extra air freight capacity on the market could see good rates for those loads in 2020.

The trade wars continue to impact the market. As IATA pointed out in its latest market report, air freight volumes are being impacted by factors like the trade wars and the resultant tariff upticks. The trade situation will not be improved if the political situation continues as it is right now.

Companies moving production out of China should watch for bottlenecks. It is important for shippers to keep an eye on capacity, bottlenecks, and rates, all of which could impact their air freight planning and budgeting in the coming year.

As it stands, 2020 could be yet another challenging year for the global air freight sector, but here at Röhlig-Grindrod, we remain cautiously optimistic.