Asia air cargo market gets e-commerce boost as trade war yet to bite

Strong e-commerce demand is fuelling Asia’s air freight market, with the US-China trade war having minimal negative impact so far and in some cases even boosting shipments, industry executives said on Friday. E-commerce is growing at pace in populous Asia, driven by Chinese behemoth Alibaba Group Holding and rival JD.com, as well as others such as Japan’s Rakuten, sponsor of Spanish soccer giants FC Barcelona. But the flow of goods has been threatened this year by the United States imposing import tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods to redress what it regards as unfair trade relations - with China’s government responding in kind. “I think right now we are probably going to see a pretty strong fourth quarter,” said Randy Tinseth, Boeing's VP for commercial airplane marketing. “The economy today has been very, very strong. Frankly in anticipation of this geopolitical situation I think people are just going out and moving (cargo) quickly.” Asia-Pacific air cargo volume rose 4.8% in January-August, showed data from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA). That was lower than last year’s 9.8% but came off a higher comparison base at a time of record shipments, said AAPA DG Andrew Herdman.<br/>