The air freight market remains muted with no cargo rush seen just yet ahead of the Lunar New Year, according to an update from Dimerco.

The global 3PL noted that the increase in passenger flights as various countries in Asia have lifted Covid restrictions is also causing an "imbalance" in the supply and demand in the air freight market, leading to decreasing rates.

"Global air freight volume continues to shrink as the global economy approaches recession," Dimerco said in its Asia Pacific monthly report for November.

It added that in particular, due to the Covid restriction in South China, the cross-border truck resources still remain at 70% - 80% between South China and Hong Kong.

Dimerco noted that this has led to more shipments departing or arriving in Shenzhen or Guangzhou directly, instead of Hong Kong, versus in 2021.

"The general filling factors from Asia either to the US/TP or Europe are also declining to the range of 60 - 70% (the most recent situation) explaining why the market rate is dropping at a faster rate vs. previous months," the 3PL company said.

In terms of global ocean freight, Dimerco said for the long-haul supply side from Asia, average weekly market capacity reductions due to blank sailings and call omissions increased to 19.1%.

It noted that this figure is expected to increase to 20% in the coming weeks.

"Per Sea Intelligence, Transpacific blank sailings were at 446,756 TEUs (17.1% of total capacity) − an increase from 7.1% of total capacity vs 3 weeks prior," Dimerco added.

Meanwhile, citing data from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), Dimerco said evolution for all trades exporting from Asia, the composite index has dropped by 66% since July 1st and 68% compared with the corresponding period from last year.

In North America, the 3PL firm said port congestion persists in some of the major gateways in the United States.

"Savannah and Houston continue to have the largest queue followed by Oakland, New York / New Jersey, and Norfolk," it said.

Dimerco said container dwells in the San Pedro Bay port — Los Angeles and Long Beach terminals — for trains remain long at around 14 days.