Increasing trade in the intra-Asia region will fuel the growth of less-than-container load (LCL) services in 2015, particularly within the East Asia and Southeast Asia area.
Rising commerce between Asian countries particularly on short sea and feeder routes between Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka will drive LCL operations in Asia through to 2015, forecasts consolidator AGS World Transport.
“We see more demand for LCL shipments across Asia, as freight forwarders want the flexibility of moving smaller shipments with greater frequency and to work with a neutral service provider,” said Mike Dye, group president and chief executive officer, in a company release.
In addition, short sea routes around Asia will not be impacted too much by the introduction of the 18,000-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit (TEU) post-panamax vessels scheduled for delivery in 2015, he added.
“Many of the ports in Asia’s emerging markets are served by smaller container ships due to infrastructure constraints,” he continued. With the typical journey time of three or four days, freight forwarders need to work with non-vessel-owning common carriers with access to a multiple carrier network, he stated further.
The company also cited data indicating that the intra-Asia trade corridor is the fastest growing trade area worldwide. In 2013 Intra-Asia trade counted for 25% of Asia’s total of US$6 trillion in annual exports. With 1.4 million TEUs moved in intra-Asian trades by the end of 2013, this statistic is nearly double the container volumes moved in 2007. Emerging Asia economies are expected to grow by 6.9% per annum in 2014-2018.
Photo: Bergmann
