MODEST GROWTH FOR AIRFREIGHT SEEN

MODEST GROWTH FOR AIRFREIGHT SEEN    The $30 billion U.S. airfreight market will grow modestly in 2003, according to a new report by Atlanta-based Colography Group. Yet the limited increases this year will only take the market back to 1997 shipment levels, the Group said in a statement.
   According to projections by Colography’s analysts, 2.62 billion shipments will move by air in the U.S. domestic market in 2003, compared to 2.58 billion shipments transported in 2001.    “To put the 2003 projections into perspective, air freight shipments in 1997 totaled 2.61 billion,” the Group said in a statement.
   Airfreight, which peaked in 2000 at nearly three billion shipments, declined steeply in 2001, and fell even further last year.
   The Colography Group predicted that the nation’s less-than-truckload surface market will stagnate in 2003, with activity rising from 146.8 million shipments to 146.6 million.
   Ground parcel will be the only segment to demonstrate year-over-year growth from 2001 to 2003, according to Ted Scherck, president of the Group.
   The total U.S. cargo market in 2003 will generate $81.4 billion in revenue, the Colography study predicted, up from $78.9 billion in 2002.
   Slightly less than 6.52 billion shipments will be transported in 2003, below the actual number shipped in 1999.
   The yield, or revenue, on each pound will rise to 37 cents in 2003, an increase of one cent per pound over 2002 levels. The revenue of the average shipment is projected to reach $12.49 in 2003, up 15 cents from 2002 levels.
   The average weight per shipment will drop to 33.4 pounds, the lowest level since 1990. See www.colography.com.