Air cargo markets saw modest growth in July with year-on-year (YOY) weight growth of 1.8 per cent worldwide, according to WorldACD Market Data.

The analyst says the industry “did not consolidate the upswing witnessed in June” – when there was YOY growth of almost three per cent.

WorldACD says while the southern hemisphere origins of Africa and Central and South America suffered falls of 1.2 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively, other origin areas showed growth ranging from 0.2 per cent in Europe to 3.7 per cent in Asia Pacific.

Asia Pacific it explains looks to be on its way to “reclaim the position of air cargo’s engine” as Europe is losing a bit of its recent verve.

In terms of yields, measured in US dollars, the worldwide yield remained stable month-over-month (MoM). Only Europe and North America had a yield drop compared to June, but all other origin areas showed a slight increase.

WorldACD says for the year 2016 through July, US dollar yields YOY dropped least in Central and South America (-3 per cent) and Africa (-5 per cent), but most in Asia Pacific (-21 per cent).

As for individual markets 21 of the top 100 saw a YOY growth of more than 10 per cent in the year so far. Germany – China East and China East – Germany stood out with a volume growth of 20 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, while China East to the US Pacific States was 13 per cent while Germany – India grew by 11 per cent.

The worst performing of the top 20 individual markets are Colombia – US Atlantic South, Germany – US Midwest, US Pacific States – Japan and Hong Kong – US Pacific States, all recording a YOY volume decrease of more than 10 per cent for 2016 so far.

WorldACD says: “The 2016 results being what they are, one of the improvements airlines may seek is optimising their distribution, whilst forwarders may look at grabbing a larger share of the pie. Better market insights will thus become more important.”