THE NETHERLANDS: July 06, 2016. According to air cargo analyst WorldACD, air cargo can hardly be expected to grow when world trade is in a slump.

The company said May year-over-year volume growth was limited to 0.5 percent. Origin North America traffic fell 4.0 percent, whereas MESA grew by the same percentage. Yield in US$ dropped by 1.9 percent compared to April.

As a result industry experts see further consolidation among forwarders, through acquisition or co-operation, said the company:

"We analyzed the world's Top-100 air cargo forwarders grouped by origin and measured by chargeable weight in 2015, Together they covering 58 percent of the worldwide air cargo market," it noted.

The group consists of 37 forwarders from Asia Pacific, 27 from Europe, 17 from the USA, 11 from the Middle East & South Asia (MESA) and four each from Africa and Latin America.

The Top-20 is made up of 12 European, four Japanese, three U.S. and one MESA forwarder, with a joint market share of 43 percent.

The Top 10 companies have a combined market share of 35 percent, with individual shares ranging from 8.5 percent to 1.5 percent in descending order: DHL, K&N, Schenker, Expeditors, Panalpina, UPS, Nippon Express, DSV/UTi, Kintetsu and CEVA.

Forwarders not in the World’s Top 100 dominate the markets of India, South East China and the UAE with collective shares of 60, 64 and 58 percent respectively. The top forwarder in India has a market share of less than five percent.

The world's top-forwarders have strongly diverging shares from one market to another, according to WorldACD. DHL has 3.1 percent in Southeast China, but 19.4 percent in Australia. Expeditors, the largest U.S. forwarder, has 0.6 percent in Australia, but 8.5 percent in the Midwest. Mreanwhile Nippon Express, the largest Asian forwarder, has no presence in the UAE, but a 21 percent market share in Japan, it noted.