Airfreight rates on major east-west traders were largely flat in August, but are expected to have picked up again in September.

The latest figures from consultant Drewry’s Sea and Air Shipper Insight show that the average all-in buy rate across 28 major east-west lanes stood at $2.63 per kg in September.

This represents an increase of $0.01 on both July’s figure and August last year, which should not come as too much of a surprise given that prices tend to remain fairly flat over the summer months in line with demand growth and capacity additions for the summer tourist season.

Looking ahead, Drewry is expecting the market to pick up as it heads towards the peak season: “Drewry’s East-West Airfreight Price Index stood almost flat, with a slight increase of $0.01 both on a monthly basis and from the same month last year.

“With the market continuing to remain buoyant, Drewry expects the airfreight rates to increase in September.”

Figures for August from TAC Index showed a small decline in month-on-month performance on Asia to Europe and Asia to North America trades, but an improvement on the transatlantic.

However, TAC figures showed an improvement when comparing against August in 2016.

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