For the first time in two years, air cargo's worldwide volume growth stagnated as the year-on-year (YoY) increase for the month was a mere 0.4 per cent, said a report.

The first half of 2018 brought an overall YoY growth of 3.7%, but this year-to-date growth percentage has slowly  decreased for a number of months now, said the WorldACD Market Data.

Judging by the very diverse stories appearing in the trade press over the past weeks, the industry is clearly divided when it comes to the prospects for the second half of 2018, it said.

"On the one hand, we read optimistic prognoses from some of the big forwarders, based mainly on what they see as a continuing capacity squeeze. However, people get worried about the (future) negative effects of the trade policies - real or only tweeted - of the unpredictable man in the White House," the report said.

The worldwide air cargo yield stood at a level of $1.90 in June 2018, almost equal to the figure for May 2018, but still 13 per cent higher than in June 2017, according to the report.

Measured in Euros, the yield increased by 2 per cent month-over-month (MoM), whilst the YoY increase was 9 per cent, added the report.

Business from Asia Pacific to the other regions did not improve vis-a-vis June 2017: -0.1 per cent YoY. Air cargo from the origins Africa, Europe and the Middle East also contracted YoY (MESA by almost 4 per cent), said the report.

The Americas, however, again bucked the worldwide trend: the US enjoys high economic growth, South America is catching up.
 
Exports by air from China to the US dipped considerably in June. The market had been sub-par for the full first half year of 2018 already (-2.9 per cent YoY), the June figure of -5.9 per cent YoY could be indicative of a worsening climate between the two economic powerhouses.

China to Europe was also negative in June (-2.9 per cent YoY), but US to Europe showed growth of 3.7 per cent YoY, well above the worldwide average, albeit much lower than in the earlier months of 2018 when it topped 8 per cent, added the report. - TradeArabia News Service