From: David Hickmott [DHickmott@uli-atl.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 7:06 AM
To: David Hickmott
Cc: David Hickmott; David Hickmott
Subject: Current
Airfreight Market Situation - April 2010
Dear Valued Unique Customer,
The below message is from our Hong Kong office in regard to the
continued demand for air cargo and short supply of space. Actually, the
situation is similar from all major Asia origins/gateways. With supply at
a premium, the airlines are able to increase the rates on a regular
(daily/weekly) basis with little notice. While projections (7-10 days)
are optimal for space considerations, the rate can change to maintain the
space. At the same time, we are finding that the transit times are slower
due to the que up of cargo at hub locations (Seoul, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo,
Singapore) as cargo pours into these locations from all over Asia. As
always, we appreciate your support, patience, and understanding during this
extremely difficult period which is expected to last through May.
Thank you for your support of Unique Logistics
International. We appreciate and value your business.
Discover the "Unique" difference of logistics from
Asia to USA trade!
Are you Ready? ISF Enforcement will begin on January 26, 2010.
Best
Regards
David
Hickmott - Executive Vice President
ph#404-767-0500
(ext 306)
Mobile#
678-478-6604
Fax#
404-767-3319
Subject: Current Airfreight Market Situation
ex-HKG
Dear All,
As you have realized, the surge in demand for airfreight from Q4 2009 had
continued into 2010. From early and mid-March, the demand for airfreight
had picked up significantly due to the following reasons:
Reasons for increase in demand for airfreight:
i. Replenishing inventory continues
ii. Production delay due to labour of shortage
in Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta region as well as delay in raw
materials supply
iii. Quarter End Rush of Electronic Products
iv. New Product Launch for electronic products
and retail importers such as I-Pad & Limited Stores
v. Critical space situation in seafreight
vi. Lack of Charter flight available and
price is very high due most of the airlines have to ferry in their aircraft to
HKG.
Therefore, the rates had gone up significantly recently ex-HKG and other major Asia hubs (Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiamen,
Taiwan, Korea) to US and Europe:
Airlines at this moment still carefully manage their capacity and therefore,
the pick-up in demand significantly outgain the increase in capacity. We
anticipat this tight space situation will continue until early May. The
following information will provide you more details.
i. Hactl (Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd) first quarter
air cargo up 37.5pc at HK airport
HONG KONG Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl),
the airport's No 1 ground handler, has announced its first quarter air freight
volume growing 37.5 per cent year on year to 636,743 tonnes with March tonnage
rising 30.8 per cent to 244,087 tonnes.
ii. Cathay Pacific recent performance
HONG KONG, Apr 13 (GCTL) - Cathay Pacific Airways has recorded good cargo loads during
the Chinese New Year and the Easter holidays on the back of sustained high
demand out of the Hong Kong and Shanghai markets, while also confirming almost
full loads on its freighters out of the home hub as well as inbound loads.
In its April edition of Cargo World, Cathay said the airline posted its
highest-ever weekly cargo tonnage, with the load factor hitting almost 100
percent for freighter flights out of Hong Kong and stronger-than-usual loads on
inbound services.
iii. AF-KLM reports marginal rise in March cargo
AMSTERDAM, Apr 9 (GCTL) - Air France-KLM said the group's air cargo traffic in March
grew by 2.1 percent while capacity was reduced by 11.8 percent, compared with
the same period last year. The airline said as a result, the load factor
gained 9.9 points to 72.5 percent.
We forecast these heavy demands will last till early May at least, while
hopefully more backlogs can be cleared during the Labour Day Holiday in China
which starts from May 01 to May 3rd so as to relieve some of the pressure for
air space on 1st & 2nd week of May. But some of the factories in China will
keep producing their products during the holiday.
We are striving our best to minimize the impacts on transit time and
costs to our mutual customers during this period by closely working with
airlines. Having said that, in some more critical circumstances, we do
need to source extra premium space with higher cost to keep up the service
standard and particularly for large shipments with tight time-frame and
deadline.
Therefore, if you receive any urgent inquiry from customers for a very large
shipment, we also have the ability to call for an ad hoc charter to most
gateway airports with 10-14 days advance notice subject to aircraft
availability and price offer by the airlines.
Thank you for your attention.
Best regards,
Peter Li
Executive Vice President
Unique Logistics