Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has recorded a 5% year-on-year decrease in Asian cargo for the third quarter of 2015.

According to the airport, this was mainly due to the slowdown of industrial output from China, which is Schiphol’s single largest market. As a result, year-to-date imports fell by 2.8% and accounted for 50.6% of all cargo.

Overall, though, the weaker performance in Asia and Europe was counterbalanced by growth in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and North America, moving the total year-to-date tonnage to 1,193,604, just 1.44% lower than the record level in 2014.

“We are pleased to see the gap between 2015 and 2014 narrowing, helped by recent major shipments of mobile phones, and generally strong performance in our non-Asian markets,” said Jonas van Stekelenburg, director of cargo at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. “The tonnages to date are still down slightly on 2014, which was a record year; but, when compared to 2013, they are actually up 6.5%. The underlying trend is generally positive, therefore. We can never escape the volatility of air freight markets, but we can and will insulate our carriers and logistics community as far as possible by continuing our campaign to drive paper, inefficiency and cost from the supply chain. Innovation remains very much our major focus, as we collaborate with our stakeholders to facilitate the best possible user experience.”