DHL Global Forwarding is expecting to secure additional capacity from commercial carriers to avoid capacity constraints between North Asia and Europe throughout the first quarter of 2010.

In November and December 2009, the company said that the global airfreight industry faced a strong increase in demand for transportation space, which contributed to backlogs of goods shipped from China to Europe. This resulted in steep increases in freight rates.

"In order to mitigate the shortage of space we will be securing extra capacity from commercial carriers on our trade lanes between North Asia and Europe throughout the first quarter of 2010," said Thomas Nieszner, CEO Europe/CEE DHL Global Forwarding.

"We are working very closely with our customers on capacity planning to ensure their supply chains are stable and our delivery times are fast."

DHL noted that transportation capacity constraints will continue as a number of airlines are reluctant to increase cargo uplift capacity, which was reduced due to the global economic downturn. The reason behind this is the high cost of reactivating the temporarily grounded aircraft.

While the demand for air freight space traditionally decreases after the year-end holiday causing freight rates to drop significantly, the current capacity outlook and latest customer forecasts for the first quarter of 2010 indicate a continuation of airfreight capacity constraints on the North Asia to Europe trade lanes. (EHL)