DHL Global Forwarding has launched its second scheduled round-the-world freighter flight connecting Asia, Europe and the US.

According to DHL, the new flight addresses the strong growth in demand for air freight capacity, especially for outbound services from Asia and on the trans-Pacific lane.

A Boeing 747-400F offering over 100 tonnes of capacity per flight will fly twice a week from Shanghai to Cincinnati, where it continues to Incheon, Wuxi and Frankfurt-Hahn before arriving back in Shanghai.

“We have been seeing an increasing demand for air freight capacities on Asian routes,” said Kelvin Leung, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific. “China remains the largest global trading partner of South Korea, Germany and the USA, with China becoming the second nation to top US$600 billion in trade with the USA in 2017. China is Germany’s largest source of imports at US$120 billion and its third-largest export market at US$105 billion. For South Korea, China is its top import and export country, accounting for close to 25% of its global trade in 2017.”

Leung added that the new scheduled flights will streamline the transportation process, thereby optimizing customers’ supply chains and improving their products’ time to market in today’s highly competitive business environment.

Results from the latest DHL Global Trade Barometer indicate that the overall trade index for China recently increased by 2 points from January 2018 and that the overall trade index in South Korea remains well over 50 points, signalling positive growth and continuing air freight demand in both markets in the second quarter of 2018, according to DHL.