high-tech
is expected to continue to thrive. Product cycles for high- tech goods are getting shorter and shorter – and that certainly provides a boost to air freight.” Kuehne + Nagel’s Bischoff paints a similar picture. “The
high-tech air freight market has shown clear signs of recovery, particularly during the first five to six months of this year. It is anticipated that this trend will continue. Whilst the recovery from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010 was to a large extent due to restocking, the more recent, vibrant high-tech air freight volume increase is primarily based on consumer demand and new product launches.” Asked whether the financial crisis and economic
recession had resulted in any potentially permanent changes in the way high-tech industry manufacturers ship their products, for example switching from air to ocean or road to save costs, air cargo industry executives express a much wider range of opinions. Cathay Pacific’s Woodrow, for example, confirmed:
“Given the dramatic circumstances of the global financial crisis, I think all manufacturers re-evaluated their overall supply chain and looked at opportunities such as sea-air and sea freight itself”. However, he concluded: “I think that in general most determined that the speed to market provided by air freight was still absolutely critical to their overall business proposition.”
DECISIONS TO BE MADE A similar view was expressed by Chris Grubb, vice president marketing for UPS Asia Pacific, who suggested that high- tech sector company decisions about which modes of
transport to use, including whether to opt for air express or more standard air cargo services, tend to be based on inventory considerations and prevailing air freight rates. “There are consequences to
Grubb: “I don’t think we have seen any real shift from air freight to ocean”
holding too much inventory. What customers are looking for is a very efficient and flexible supply chain where they can get product where they need it, exactly when they need it, in a very short timeframe,” he said. “So I don’t think we
have seen any real shift from air freight to ocean or from air express to just general air freight. As an integrator operating our own assets and a forwarder using common carriage, we see customers trading between different levels of service based on their need for speed and value.” Commenting specifically on the situation regarding
high-tech export activities in the Asia Pacific region, Grubb suggested that air freight capacity restraints out of China and Hong Kong mean the rates for that mode of transport tend to be a little more volatile than they are on the express package side. “So that drives decisions as well,” he added. Other senior forwarding industry executives based in
the Asia Pacific region, though, suggest that recession and its aftermath might have induced some fundamental
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