The e-commerce airfreight market is diversifying, Ryan Keyrouse, chief executive of software company Rotate told the Cross-Border e-commerce Forum in Liege, Belgium. While China to the US and Europe indeed experienced the largest tonnage growth over the last two years in absolute terms, China to Malaysia and Mexico combined added as many e-commerce tonnes as Europe – with year-on-year growth rates of 46% and 73%, respectively.
An early Rotate survey of the 450 delegates on various e-commerce trends showed that while half the delegates believed e-commerce growth came on top of a growing general cargo market, trade data indicates the general cargo market over the last two years was flat at best. The survey also revealed the biggest risks to e-commerce growth was not changes to De Minimis thresholds, but rather security concerns from misdeclarations and politically motivated policies.
Delegates also highlighted unprepared airport facilities and staff, and unbalanced flows, with the growing imbalance leading to increasing gaps in freighter profitability.
Looking ahead to 2025, Keyrouse said that delegates were split between e-commerce continuing its aggressive growth and maturing to a more moderate growth, while a small minority thought e-commerce volumes had peaked.