Supply Chain Research

Global trade growth continued in October. The expansion in airfreight reached 6% on a year earlier according to IATA data, though that was the slowest rate of expansion since July 2016. That was mostly the result of a drop to growth of just 4% from Asian airlines (which account for 37% of the total. Importantly for the air carriers though the increase in capacity was slower, so load-factors improved. The slowdown meant airfreight growth lagged seaborne cargo growth, which grew 10%, for a second month. Taking a simple average of the two yields growth of 8%, suggesting world trade could e...