Picture credit: Xeneta
The ocean and airfreight rate benchmarking platform says businesses have been telling it that customers in the consumer retail and apparel sector have been taking action due to delays and disruption caused by Houthi militia attacks on container ships in the Red Sea.
Data released by Xeneta says air cargo volumes from Vietnam to Europe spiked 62% in the week ending 14 January, which is 6% above 2023’s peak week in October and volumes are 16% higher than the same week last year.
Niall van de Wouw, Chief Airfreight Officer of Xeneta says this is typically a quieter time of year for airfreight and the first signal in the data that the Red Sea crisis is impacting airfreight.
He says, “Routes from Vietnam to Europe are used heavily for apparel, a sector we have been told is switching more goods from ocean to air due to the Red Sea crisis, so it is particularly noteworthy we are seeing volumes increase to such an extent on this trade.”
The upcoming Lunar New Year may also be contributing to the increasing volumes, van de Wouw adds.
Airfreight rates from Vietnam to Europe have increased 10% compared to last week and could rise further due to increased volumes putting pressure on capacity and load factors.
Van de Wouw says, “When the Red Sea crisis escalated in December we stated that, once the impact starts to be felt in airfreight, things could happen very quickly. In the next two weeks we should know for sure if this represents a genuine and significant shift from ocean to airfreight due to the Red Sea crisis.”