Maersk’s new 777 freighter offers much-needed capacity into a hectic air cargo market, but some clients could be put “on the back-burner” in favour of those shipping low-paying ecommerce, according to a source.
The Danish carrier’s new aircraft began service from China to Europe on 6 September, and rotates between Hangzhou, Billund and Liege.
“[We] follow the customer,” Narin Phol, EVP and chief product officer for logistics and services, said, explaining why Maersk chose this route to operate.
And he noted that in the overall air cargo market, “some 30-40% of exports out of China are ecommerce”.
Head of Maersk Air Cargo Lars Jordahn added: “Right now I think the ecommerce market is a very large segment of the cargo industry that obviously is having an influence on the volume flows.”
It was previously reported on an erupting ‘capacity war’ between ecommerce players and general cargo shippers, amid a growing capacity shortage owing to the high demand.
Mr Phol estimated that around 20% to 25% of Maersk’s air freight capacity from China to Europe was taken up by ecommerce.
A source said: “As far as I hear [Maersk Air Cargo is] fully committed to low-paying ecommerce cargo and not available for other Maersk clients.
“They bring clients to the showing, but they never get space on the bird,” they added.
But Mr Phol said: “I think the priority for us so far has been to protect our customers, like the ones we have long-term relationships with. Yes, we have penetration into ecommerce, [but] it’s not a big part of operations we have done in the past year.
“For us, it’s not about chasing growth at any cost, it’s about how you really build long-term relationships. And we value the relationships we have with customers over a long cycle,” he added.
But he added: “You also would want to have a certain part of your business on the spot market as well.
“If you can have a long-term contract for around 40%-50%, I think that would be a good ambition… you want to have a stability of the business.”
And Mr Phol noted that while ecommerce had “taken a lot of capacity out of the market”, one of the main reasons for the capacity shortage was “because the belly capacity has not returned as per pre-Covid”.
He added: “So, over time, I think the demand and supply will balance out… some verticals are going down, but some parts are going up. For this year so far, ecommerce has consumed a lot of capacity.”
