The US international cargo volumes continued to improve in June from levels seen in March, April and May which was mainly driven by growth in Asia volumes.

Cargo volumes between the US and foreign points decreased by just 5.3% year-on-year in June to 740,000 tons.

The US Bureau of Transportation Statistics said this is a smaller decline than the 17% in March 2020, 16% in April, and 14% in May. The June performance is also the smallest decrease seen since November 2019.

It said the decline was driven by reduced volumes to and from Europe and Latin America, which offset growth in Asia volumes.

Asia growth outside China

The US Bureau of Transportation Statistics said growth in Asia primarily took place outside of China. 

Asia: cargo volumes increased by 10.6% in June — the third consecutive monthly increase after seven consecutive months of declines. It also marked the largest growth since April 2018. Asia accounted for 51% of US international air cargo in June.

China: China reported a 7.1% increase in cargo volumes in June. Until May, US-China air cargo had decreased by at least 10% each month for four consecutive months. In June, 87.8% of traffic was from China to the US and 12.2% was from the US to China.

Europe: Cargo traffic between the US and Europe dropped 29.8% in June, declining for 17 consecutive months, with the largest decreases in the four months from March to June. 

Latin America: Cargo volume dropped 10.8% in June between the US and Latin America, the decline was smaller than the 22.7% drop in May, which was the largest of the six consecutive monthly decreases in 2020.

Canada: Cargo growth between Canada and the US increased by 1.4% in June, following four consecutive months of decreases. 58.7% of traffic was from Canada to the US and 41.3% was from the US to Canada.