The latest data from airfreight price reporting agency (PRA) TAC Index show that global air cargo rates only edged up last week (in the week ending July 29).
That news came as a surprise, given the massive global IT outage of 18 July.
The overall Baltic Air Freight Index (BAI00) calculated by TAC in the week to 29 July was only 0.7% higher than the week previously (and 8% up over the same period 12 months ago). TAC acts as the Calculating Agent for the Baltic Exchange air cargo index.
“After the major global IT outage on 18 July, some observers expected the disruption to cause a further bump in air cargo rates, which have already been relatively strong for the summer season,” TAC said in its latest market update.
Overall, rates maintained the firm tone of recent months – particularly out of Asia where there has been a continuing boom in e-commerce. The index of outbound routes from Hong Kong (BAI30) rose by 1% week on week, for example, leaving it up by 21.8% year on year.
Out of Europe rates were also firm, particularly on lanes to Asia. The index of outbound routes from Frankfurt (BAI20) rose modestly by 0.7% week on week, helping cut its year on year decline to 28.1%.
From the Americas, the index of outbound routes from Chicago (BAI50) was slightly down – by 0.4% week on week – leaving its year on year decline at 19.4%.
Overall rates from the US were significantly firmer both to Europe and to South America, though a little lower week on week to China.
Earlier in July, Xeneta chief airfreight officer Niall van de Wouw warned that the IT outage could take weeks to recover from.
He pointed out that even before the outage air cargo supply chains were already under pressure due to the double-digit increases in demand registered so far this year.
“Shippers already had concerns about air freight capacity due to huge increases in demand in 2024, driven largely by the extraordinary growth in e-commerce goods being exported from China to Europe and the US,” van de Wouw observed.
Warning of weeks of delays to cargo operations following global IT failure
