Deutsche Post says air-freight losing sales to ships

[FRANKFURT] Deutsche Post said that global air-freight demand faces sustained pressure from the move to ship-borne cargoes, where margins for freight forwarders are typically lower, with the express-delivery market more buoyant.

"There has been quite a significant shift from air freight to sea as large multinationals make changes to their supply chains," Roger Crook, who heads the forwarding arm, said on Wednesday in a briefing at the company's Bonn base. "This is continuing, and there is weakness in some markets as well."

Deutsche Post, which claims the No 1 spot in air-freight forwarding, said that its volumes in the sector shrank 4.8 per cent to 3.95 million tonnes last year. Kuehne & Nagel International, the second-largest provider of the service alongside Deutsche Bahn's Schenker unit, forecasts volumes may rise as little as one per cent this year after a flat market last year.