THE international air freight forwarding market in the first half of the year expanded by 38 percent while ocean forwarding went up 13 per cent year on year, according to the UK's Transport Intelligence study,Global Freight Forwarding 2010.

"Forwarders who only six months earlier had been contending with a crisis in volumes now faced a high demand/low capacity environment in which their gross margin was being undermined," the report said.

"The drastic steps taken by air and sea carriers to address overcapacity consequently created the volatility seen in the first six months of 2010," it said.

"The surge in volumes seen in the first half of this year has been caused by a correction in supply chain inventories," remarked Transport Intelligence chief John Manners-Bell.

"We expect volumes to moderate in the next six months, followed by a period of lower growth. This means that some air and sea forwarding markets, most notably Europe, will not return to 2008 pre-recession levels until after 2013."

Asia Pacific was the first in the global recession with the 2009 global air freight market down 23 per cent, but it was also the first out, he said. "Stimulus measures adopted by China meant that the emphasis shifted towards intra-regional trade. This has left the market in a strong position and it will enjoy higher levels of growth than either Europe or North America in the coming years," he said.