PACTL cargo volumes up 2% in 2016

Shanghai Pudong Int’l Airport Cargo Terminal, the largest airfreight handling services provider at Shanghai Airport, in the first seven months of 2016 saw volumes grow 2 percent to 919,461 metric tons compared with the same 2015 period.    Shanghai Pudong Int’l Airport Cargo Terminal Co., Ltd. (PACTL), the largest airfreight handling services provider at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG), is continuing to increase cargo volumes in 2016 despite what Airports Council International (ACI) describes as a “sluggish” market.
   PACTL’s volumes in the first seven months of the year grew 2 percent to 919,461 metric tons compared with the same 2015 period. The company noted the result was the strongest for the first seven months of any year in its history.
   Year-to-date import cargo volumes stood at 382,929 metric tons, an increase of 2.9 percent from the first seven months of 2015. International imports were up 3.6 percent to 355,920 metric tons of air cargo, while domestic imports fell 4.8 percent to 27,009 metric tons compared with the prior year period.
   Export tonnage ticked up 1.4 percent year-over-year to 536,532 metric tons as international exports rose 1.4 percent to 504,707 metric tons and domestic exports grew 2 percent to 31,825 metric tons.
   ACI earlier this week reported global airfreight volumes were relatively flat in the first half of 2016, growing just 0.5 percent compared with the first six months of 2015.
   PACTL has added five new customer airlines so far this year, including Iberia Airlines in June and Aeroflot Russian Airlines in July. The company increased its market share in the process, handling 49.6 percent of all airfreight at PVG year-to-date.
   In addition, PACTL in April officially inaugurated its new IATA CEIV certified Cool Center for processing temperature controlled cargo.
   “Despite challenging market conditions, we succeeded in beating last year’s record results within the first seven months of 2016,” PACTL Vice President Lutz Grzegorz said in a statement. “First of all, this is due to the fact that international imports and domestic exports are increasing again. Secondly, we managed to grow our business with both existing and new customers by continuously maintaining and improving our excellent service and quality standards and by investing in our infrastructure.”
   Based at PVG since 1999, PACTL is jointly owned by the Shanghai Airport (Group) Co., Ltd. (51 percent stake), Lufthansa Cargo AG (29 percent) and JHJ Logistics Management Co. Ltd. (20 percent). The company handled over 1.5 million metric tons of airfreight in 2015.