With more than 150 stations in over 17 countries, Dimerco connects Asia with the world like no other global 3PL. Every month, we gather firsthand market information from the industry players of our global network. Here's what you should know for April to May of 2023:
Air Freight
- Slight Demand Increase due to May Holiday in China - The upcoming holiday from April 29 – May 3 will lead a slight increase for the demand in the market as airlines will cancel freighters during the period. However, passenger flights will remain as overseas travel demand increase in 2023.
- eCommerce Business Slows - The eCommerce business has slowed down since April while most of the eCommerce cargos are digested via Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, and Hong Kong airport in South China. There are less shipments compared with March for transferring in the gateway in Pudong and Zhengzhou airport, especially for US destinations.
- High Inventory trend Continues - The buying power is still constrained in the US and Europe. The inventory level is still high which slows down the demand for air freight out of Asia.
Ocean Freight
- GRI Imposed in April 15, 2023 - With the successful imposition of the General Rate Increase (GRI), the carriers are enjoying a 100% filling factor for USWC and 95% for USEC. There’s no guarantee that carriers will not push to acquire a 2nd round of GRI for TPEB by May 01 if the prevailing space issues remain unchanged.
- Carriers Continue to Reduce Weekly Capacity - It is anticipated that the blank sailing schemes deployed by the carriers will be common if the global trade activities remain dull and slow. It’s said that at least YTD weekly average of 25% of the fleet capacity in the head-hauls were likely taken away from the market. In addition, the TPEB leg for the US was allegedly cut by far the most up to more than 30% per week since the beginning of this year.
- Demolition Sales Slows Down - Alphaliner reported in its latest issue that the demolition sales of aged vessels had increased slower than expected in early 2023. This highly contrasts against the peak in 2016 where hundreds of younger-age vessels owning up to 650K TEUs of capacity where scrapped. It is still too early to know if the deletion rate of the global containerized ships will continue to pace up or not down the road.
