Hong Kong Air Freight Market in November: Rates Rise with Peak Season

Air freight rates on key trade lanes originating from Hong Kong continued to improve in November as the aviation industry's peak season gathered momentum.

According to the latest monthly statistics from the Baltic Exchange Airfreight Index (BAI) – utilizing data from the TAC Index based on both spot and contract prices – rates on services from Hong Kong to both North America and Europe increased.

North America Route: Growth Yet to Catch Up with History

Freight rates from Hong Kong to North America climbed to $6.18/kg in November, up from $5.70/kg in October.

Historically, rates surge in November as the air cargo peak season kicks off to cater to major retail events such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Thanksgiving holiday.

However, the 8.4% month-over-month increase falls short of the approximately 13% average rise (excluding outlier years) seen over the past decade. This partially reflects reports of a slightly slower start to this year's peak season.

On a more positive note, the year-on-year (YoY) price gap on this route continued to narrow, showing only a slight 0.3% decline in November. For comparison, the YoY decline was 10.4% in September and 0.5% in October.

This trade lane has been impacted by the U.S. ending the de minimis exemption for e-commerce packages and new tariff measures. Consequently, cargo volumes this year have shifted toward Southeast Asia, while e-commerce demand is gradually recovering.

Europe Route: Similar Trend

A similar trend was observed on services from Hong Kong to Europe, where rates rose to $5.00/kg in November from $4.59/kg the previous month.

Month-over-month (MoM) growth reached 8.9%, which is also below the 10-year average of 10.8%, once again reflecting a softer start to the peak season.

Compared to the same period last year, rates on this trade lane are currently down 5.5%.

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Source: Phaata.com (According to Air Cargo News)

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