IATA: Cargo continues to grow at modest rate in June

With our strong presence in the expedited international airfreight business, the U-Freight Group notes that global air cargo demand continued to grow at a modest pace despite trade disruptions, according to the latest data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Demand measured in cargo tonne kilometres (CTK) increased by 0.8% year-on-year in June and by 1.6% for international operations, which masked results on different trade lanes.

Asia Pacific airlines registered 9% growth while North American carriers were down 8.3%.

European airlines grew 0.8% while Middle Eastern airlines decreased 3.2% due to disruption caused by military conflicts.

Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA said the data makes it clear that stability and predictability are essential for trade, adding that emerging clarity on US tariffs is giving businesses greater confidence in planning.

He said: “But we cannot overlook the fact that the ‘deals’ being struck are resulting in significantly higher tariffs on goods imported into the US than we had just a few months ago. The economic damage of these cost barriers to trade remains to be seen. In the meantime, governments should redouble efforts to make trade facilitation simpler, faster, cheaper and more secure with digitalisation.”

Operating factors that IATA highlighted were world industrial production rising 3.2% in May and global goods trade growing 3.5%.

Jet fuel prices were down 12% year-on-year in June, the fourth consecutive decline though they are 8.6% higher than in May.

Global manufacturing rebounded in June with the Purchasing Managers’ Index rising above the 50 mark to 51.2.

The PMI for new export orders improved by 1.2 index points but remained in negative territory at 49.3 due to pressure from US trade policy shifts.

For more information about the U-Freight Group’s global air freight forwarding and logistics services, 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://ufreight.com/locations