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Study: Big forwarders lose 5.8pc of market share to smaller players

THE world's biggest air freight forwarders suffered a 5.8 per cent decline in market share last year in both revenue and volume terms, according to Amsterdam air freight data specialist WorldACD.

The world's top 20 air freight forwarders saw their combined worldwide market share decline from 44.5 per cent in 2014 to 43 per cent, reported Lloyd's Loading List.

WorldACD's review of more than 60 airlines reporting their figures into its database showed that air cargo volume increased two per cent worldwide in 2015.

In terms of air freight tonnage carried or managed, the top 60's volume share also dropped from 43 per cent to 42 per cent.

The top 10 forwarders remained unchanged from the previous years, together accounting for 32 per cent of worldwide air cargo volume.

Behind DHL Global Forwarding, the largest forwarders are Kuehne + Nagel, DB Schenker, Expeditors and Panalpina.

K+N, Expeditors, Nippon Express, CEVA and DHL Express achieved growth exceeding the worldwide average of two per cent, while DHL Global Forwarding, DB Schenker, Panalpina, UPS SCS and Kintetsu lagged.

Kuehne + Nagel and Nippon Express were the "high flyers" among the big air freight forwarding agents in terms of market share gains, "chalking up serious increases" followed by DSV, SDV, CEVA and Expeditors.

Collectively, the top 100 forwarders saw growth of 0.9 per cent, and the many thousands of forwarders outside the top 100, accounting for 43 per cent of total business, achieved better results with an average growth of 3.8 per cent.

This pattern was broadly consistent across the world, with WorldACD noting that the top 20 global forwarders collectively had not outgrown their smaller rivals in any of the worldwide regions, although in North America, the balance between the two groups was more or less maintained.

But the elite top 20 collectively realised lower growth, and thus lost share, in all other areas. with the biggest difference being in Europe (+1% vs +7%) and Latin America (-7% vs -2%). The share of the top 20 was largest in Europe (53%) and North America (49%) and smallest in Africa (12%) and ME&SA (21%).