ASIAN forwarders are reporting sinking airfreight rates, just as airlines look to set out their blocked space agreements (BSA) tariffs.
Two standard-setting airlines have already set out their BSA rates ex-Asia, according to one source.
Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa Cargo have set tariffs ex-Hong Kong to the US at about US$6.50 all-in to the west coast, with an extra 0.50/kg to the Midwest - although one forwarder said that Cathay had revised its offer downwards, to about $5.60, according to London's Loadstar.
"These prices are for dense pallets and with a fixed/floating rate of 50:50 per 100T allocation," added the source. "Floating rate range is capped at +/- $2/kg."
Most BSA rates from the Chinese mainland are expected to be published after the Chinese New Year holiday later this month. "Most carriers use CX/LH as a benchmark and will put out their proposals in the coming weeks," said the source.
The source said that spot rates on the transpacific out of China were "close to $7/kg", a figure which chimes with the TAC Index's current price for China to the US of $6.96. However, a forwarder based in Hong Kong said he was seeing much lower rates.
"OMG, air cargo rates, in particular across the Pacific. It seems $3-ish a kg is the norm from South China to LAX. I think it's because of very poor demand."
Hong Kong has not shown any signs of an upturn, but forwarders expect that if there is any pre-CNY peak, it will begin to show this week, although it is likely to be muted as passenger capacity increases and ocean rates continue to fall.
And forwarders across the board say demand remains weak. One Singapore-based forwarder said: "Demand is still subdued and expected to remain so for January and February. We may see a slight increase in demand after the CNY, hopefully, but this really depends on the economy of the western market - Europe and North America.
"For major export countries in Asia, particularly China, Vietnam and India, we have seen rate levels for westbound to Europe drop even below pre-Covid levels.
"As airfreight rates are demand-driven, particularly from major manufacturing countries, what happens after CNY will be interesting, if rate levels go up again."