Danske Bank Markets’ European Freight Forwarding Index indicates a minor decrease in June's market sentiment among freight forwarders for future air cargo volumes compared with two months ago.

Expectations for airfreight came in at 47 points for July and 46 points for August thus suggesting lower volumes in two months.

The overall index for current rail, road, ocean and airfreight volumes came in at 54 in June from 52 in May. This indicates slightly increasing volumes compared with two months ago.

The seafreight index of 58 in June indicates increasing volumes. Expectations for seafreight came in at 58 in July and 50 in August, which also suggest increasing volumes in the next two months.

Freight forwarder respondents from a range of European countries were given two questions: What volume of goods does your company handle today compared with two months ago (adjusted for normal seasonality in the business)? How do you expect volumes of goods to develop over the next two months (adjusted for normal seasonality in the business)?

They were given three possible responses to choose from: lower volumes, unchanged volumes and higher volumes. Their answers were translated into an index value which can vary between 0 and 100, with values above 50 indicating expansion among participating companies.