Today, while high tech goods remain an important airfreight
commodity, freight forwarders are working towards a portfolio of customers that
represent a wider range of industries. For many within the airfreight market,
dependence on high tech goods hit companies’ financial ledgers negatively as
product announcements became fewer and the economy softened.
In fact, in its recent quarterly earnings, UPS cited its
dependence on the high-tech industry as a reason for declines in its airfreight
revenue and volumes.
With the majority of global high-tech manufacturing
performed in Asia, Asia-Pacific airlines have especially felt the declines in
cargo volumes. According to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, member
airlines reported a 2.6% decline in freight-ton-kilometers in July compared to
July 2012. Year-to-date, freight-ton-kilometers are down 2.4%. True, declines
in high tech cargo are perhaps not the only reason for this decline, capacity
issues and fuel prices could be other reasons as well.
Among the largest of Asia-Pacific’s air cargo providers,
Cathay Pacific, reported a shift in strategy earlier this year as it announced
plans to target high-value goods, perishables and pharmaceuticals. Still, this
was not enough for the airline as although overall profit increased for the
first half of 2013, cargo revenue declined 5.2%. Demand for cargo shipments from
its main market, Hong Kong, remained weak while increasing competition from
Middle East carriers were a factor on European routes.
All Nippon Airways is also looking for other alternatives to
boost its sagging cargo volumes. It has achieved some success in the
perishables industry and in fact plans to establish next-day service to Hong
Kong and Mainland China to satisfy growing demand for Japanese agricultural
goods.
The recent announcements by Samsung and Apple will likely
create a temporary bump in airfreight from Asia-Pacific. However, while
announcements of new high-tech gadgets catches the attention of consumers and
the transportation and logistics industry alike, the downturn in the global
economy appears to have taught a valuable lesson to air cargo providers and
freight forwarders which is the need to reduce its reliance on this industry.