Dip in demand just a blip
Slow steaming strategies have a limited bearing on sea-air demand
Following a stellar 2010, global volumes of sea-air cargo have declined this year.
“This year however seems to be following the earlier trends where we are receiving regular consolidations from the Far East but they are somewhat reduced from than that of 2010, although with the onset of this Year’s Peak Season due to start in September we are looking forward to seeing the volumes increasing once again,” he says.
Although slow steaming and reduced air freight rates direct from Asia into Europe might be impacting sea-air demand, they are not always deciding factors in volume levels.
Taylor says that while low sea freight rates do have a big part to play when customers decide to ship by sea-air, he insists “there are also many other factors that must be taken into consideration, such as commodity, final destination and the required time the goods must be with the buyers”.
Raymond Lee, senior vice president for Freight Management, Asia Pacific, at third party logistics provider Ceva, says many shippers use sea-air purely because of the flexibility it can offer their supply chains.
“While it is correct to say that the more competitive airfreight rates available in the market has had an impact on the sea-air flow, those with the intention to use the sea-air mode will still continue to do so,” he says. “Sea-air is a niche product and always has been in competition to pure air freight and pure ocean freight in terms of cost and lead times. Hence this is nothing new with the only difference that nowadays the sea-air operators have to be more resourceful in their procurement approach and work more cost efficiently to compete in this competitive market environment.”
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