This year, airfreight tonnage has decreased by about 5% worldwide compared to 2018, but according to c.H. Robinson there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic. In fact, the third-party logistics and supply chain management provider will be investing more than EUR 900 million in technology over the next five years.

The threat of brexit and the Us-china trade-war caused demand for air freight capacity to soar in 2018. According to logistics specialist c.H. Robinson, companies front-loaded their shipments, filling their warehouses to ensure they were able to continue to satisfy the demand for their products despite the uncertainty in international trade. “However, by the end of 2018, many companies had converted their initial peak demand for airfreight into sea freight”, says Ivo Aris, vice President – Europe global forwarding of C.H. Robinson. “In 2019, we have seen capacity decline slightly on the trans-pacific lane, most likely due to the current Us-china trade war, but we continue to see companies shift operations to south East and south Asia. Air and ocean-freight forwarding, as well as road transportation activities in Europe, have continued to grow in 2019 and we have a positive outlook for 2020.” He adds: “globally the tonnage decreased by about 5% compared to 2018. However, we do see a positive result when comparing 2019 to 2017. We have seen stabilisation in recent months and overall c.H. Robinson remains strong.”

Read the full article on page 16 of CargoMagazine