|
|
Home > Business/Finance > Diversified Services > Shipping & Logistics
Taiwan Freight Transport Report Q4 2008
|
|
Regular, direct weekend charter flights between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan began on July 4, as aresult of an agreement reached between the mainland’s Association for Relations Across the TaiwanStraits, and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation. Six airlines from the mainland and five fromTaiwan have been operating the weekend services. In the first four weekends since the launch of theservice, a total of 144 round trip flights were flown, carrying 53,000 passengers with an average aircraftload factor of 87% of the available seats. Nieh Kuo-wei, a manager with EVA Air of Taiwan said thatbased on the initial demand, the carriers operating the new route were looking for more flights anddestinations and would like to operate the route on weekdays too. Nieh said that on a typical weekendEVA was now carrying 10,000 passengers to and from the mainland, but that volume could be muchhigher if it was allowed to fly the route during the week. Cheng Jun, a manager with Shanghai Airlinestook a similar view, noting that ‘many Taiwan people can only take one-way weekend flights due to theirpersonal schedules, and it has led to some market loss for airlines from both sides,’ he was quoted assaying by Xinhua news agency. With Taiwan’s private sector having invested over US$100bn inmanufacturing operations on the mainland, and an estimated 1 million-plus Taiwanese living in China,the potential travel demand is significant. In this, BMI’s latest Taiwan Freight Transport Report, wepredict that cross-Straits traffic will be an important factor contributing to overall freight transport trafficgrowth, which should average 3.9% over the 2008-2012 period.
The rush of business towards the mainland affects all freight transport modes. The move is something ofa mixed blessing for air freight, as we think Taiwan will, on the whole, lose business to China’s emergingairport hubs. We forecast thus Taiwan air freight growth of a moderate 4.6% over the next five years. Inthe field of shipping, competitive pressures exist, but we are predicting that sea freight carried will growby 4.7% per annum over the next five years nonetheless. In our view, Taiwan-based shipping lines aresomewhat ahead of the game, having established themselves as global players. Road freight traffic on theisland will evolve moderately, with average growth of 3.0%. In this area Taiwan resembles a developedeconomy where traffic growth tends to trail, rather than lead, GDP expansion. We are also predictingmodest rail cargo growth at around 2.4% per annum.
BMI gives Taiwan a composite score of 52.0 (out of a potential maximum of 100) in its Freight RatingsIndex. The country’s strengths are quite evenly distributed across long-term economic and political risk,infrastructure growth, and the regulatory environment. Areas for potential improvement include thecompetitive environment, freight growth and the transport intensity index - a measure of the current andfuture dynamism of foreign trade.
Despite the competitive challenge from the mainland, we are still reasonably optimistic about the futureof Taiwan’s freight transport industry. The total value of transport and communications GDP should riseto US$46.5bn in nominal terms by 2012, representing 7.1% of Taiwan’s GDP.
|
Similar Products
• Chinese Markets for Container Coatings
Published Jan 2009 by Asia Market Information & Development Company
• Trucking
Published Dec 2008 by First Research, Inc.
• South Africa Freight Transport Report Q4 2008
Published Dec 2008 by Business Monitor International
• United Parcel Service Inc.
Published Dec 2008 by SGA Lists
• Union Pacific Corp.
Published Dec 2008 by SGA Lists
• Werner Enterprises Inc.
Published Dec 2008 by SGA Lists
• Wabtec Corporation
Published Dec 2008 by SGA Lists
• UTI Worldwide, Inc.
Published Dec 2008 by SGA Lists
• ADS Logistics, LLC
Published Dec 2008 by SGA Lists
• American Commercial Lines, Inc.
Published Dec 2008 by SGA Lists
|
|
|
|
0 items
