PRESS ROOM

The U-Freight Group, which has a strong presence in the expedited international airfreight business, as well as being an early entrant into the world of e-commerce logistics, notes that new analysis from WorldACD Market Data has revealed the growth of ‘general cargo’ air freight tonnages is outpacing that of ‘special cargo’ products so far in 2024, reversing a trend in recent years in which demand from air cargo shipments requiring special handling and shipping, has broadly outperformed general cargo.

A report in American Journal of Transportation states that analysis of the first five months of 2024 by WorldACD, based on the more than 2 million monthly transactions recorded via its database, indicates that total worldwide chargeable weight from January to May 2024 was up +12% compared with the equivalent period last year, with general cargo demand up by +13%, year on year (YoY), and special cargo growth trailing at +10%. This contrasts with findings late last year by WorldACD that in the first eight months of 2023, general cargo tonnages fell by -12%, YoY, whereas tonnages of special cargo products as a whole grew by +3%, on a worldwide basis, at a time when the market as a whole was down by -7%, YoY.

WorldACD says that one factor for this is the strong growth since the start of last autumn in cross-border e-commerce traffic, which often flies in bulk as general cargo rather than within a special product category, as well as conversion of sea freight to air cargo and sea-air resulting from disruptions since last November to container shipping due to the attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.

The report contains some interesting data and trends about the performance of some of the major air cargo product categories so far this year, including extremely strong (+25%) growth in worldwide shipments of vulnerable/high-tech cargo. U-Freight delivers niche air cargo services for a number of special cargoes including fine wine, pharmaceuticals, pre-owned capital equipment, as well as aviation MRO/AOG.

To read the article in full, click here: https://www.ajot.com/news/worldacd-monthly-air-cargo-trends-special-general-cargo-outpacing-special-cargo-growth-in-2024

For more information about the U-Freight Group's global air freight forwarding and logistics services for general or special cargo, or our e-commerce logistics operations, please visit the relevant pages of this website or contact your local office, details of which can be seen here: https://www.ufreight.com/en/location