Without a doubt, Asia is a leading trading partner for the New York Customs District (NYCD). China continues to dominate imports to the NYCD, but in May 2008 showed a loss of -7.54 per cent compared to 2007. On a commodity basis, out of the top five, the two that had decreased were knit apparel by -40.7 per cent and woven apparel by -21.9 per cent.
For the month of May 2008, Japan had a significant growth of +14.56 per cent due to a growth in all of the top five commodities being imported.
Six of the NYCD’s largest trade partners experienced gains for May 2008, including China and Hong Kong. Th e primary goods driving these markets were machinery, iron and steel, electrical machinery, paper and plastic. India saw a +64.27 per cent increase in exports for May 2008. Th is increase is being driven by gains in eight out of the top ten exported commodities. The largest increase, +1,139.43 per cent, came from tanning and dye products.
While Yangtze River Express Airlines commenced direct service between Shanghai and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) on March 8, 2007, that service was stopped only five months later primarily due to rising fuel costs and inefficient B747-200F aircraft.
China Eastern operates from Shanghai to JFK four days per week with A340-600 aircraft. “Their cargo loads are okay, but sometimes payload is restricted,” comments Michael J. Bednarz, manager for Air Cargo Business Development, Aviation Department, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANY&NJ). Indian & ME reprieve
The transpacific market continues to be adversely affected by the high cost of fuel, making it difficult for carriers to fly the longer distances.
“Improvements should come once fuel prices either come down or stabilise,” says Bednarz. “However looking at South Asia, we continue to see much activity coming from India where Jet Airways now flies into both JFK and Newark Liberty International (EWR) airports and we are expecting Kingfisher to begin their operations by the 4th quarter of 2008.”
Ever since the Indian carrier was launched in May 2005, executives have been eager to start long-haul services to the United States.
“From the day we started, I have had an incessant focus to connect the US and India nonstop,” says chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya. The carrier previously hoped to start the service in 2007, but because of aircraft delivery schedules and the timing of government approval, the start was moved to 2008.
“Continental continues to be our top carrier in terms of international air cargo and have just announced new service from EWR to Shanghai, effective the end of March 2009,” says Bednarz. “Delta’s numbers are also moving forward as they’ve recently added flights from JFK to Cairo, Egypt and JFK to Amman, Jordan.”
Key Middle East carriers Qatar Airways, Emirates Airlines, and Ethiad Airways solidifi ed themselves in the JFK market. According to Bednarz, their brand image has helped establish and solidify freight flows for Middle East traffic. Consequently, the Middle East continues to produce solid double-digit growth for both inbound and outbound cargo.
“The inbound/outbound split is actually quite favourable to the United States and New York/New Jersey Region,” Bednarz says. “It’s approximately 45 per cent to 55 per cent.”
Through the first six months of 2008, over 30,000 tonnes of Middle East import cargo has come into Port of New York/New Jersey Authority airports while over 36,000 tonnes has moved out. Machinery is the top commodity in both directions.
“We’re also seeing wearing apparel commodities coming in,” he adds. “Perishables have increased on the outbound, primarily fruits.” The Indian market continues to grow in terms of both volume and importance.
“In terms of growth, we’ve seen an almost 15 per cent increase in tonnage for the first six months of 2008 versus the same period last year,” Bednarz says. “Machinery is the top commodity that is moving out of our region. There still seems to be much interest in flying freighter aircraft in the New York market, however the volatility of jet fuel has resulted in plans being put on hold.”
High jet fuel prices remains the biggest challenge for Asian and Middle East markets in regards to JFK and EWR growth.
“High jet fuel prices make it very costly to fly longer distances so the transpacific market is adversely affected, regardless of whether or not cargo yields are significantly higher to or from the US East Coast,” says Bednarz.
“The New York/New Jersey region has an enormous consumer market that is not shy when it comes to purchasing the types of goods being flown across the Pacific by air. However, the mixture of high jet fuel prices and a sluggish global economy does not result in an environment that is conducive to the growth of air cargo.”
On the other hand, the Middle East represents many opportunities for New York/New Jersey airports. Emirates recently inaugurated their A380 service into JFK, although this aircraft does not have great cargo-carrying capabilities.
“It’s a little too early to tell, but we’ll keep an eye on the kind of payloads Emirates are getting on this aircraft,” he says. “Growth wise, we’ve experienced almost 27 per cent growth for our exports to the Middle East for the first six months of 2008. Imports are also up, with over 23 per cent growth for the same period.