News
The Japan International Freight Forwarders Association (JIFFA) announced that its 380-plus members handled a total of 69.613 million TEUs in the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2010. The figure, excluding shipments by way of the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) as well as consolidated, co-load cargoes, represents a 4.3 percent decline compared with 72.734 million TEUs for the previous fiscal year.
While volumes processed by JIFFA members tumbled 16.1 percent to 33.475 million TEUs in the first half of fiscal 2009 (Apr-Sept/ 2009), they enjoyed a 25.2 percent improvement with 36.138 million TEUs in the second half (Oct/09-Mar/10). Japanese forwarders, however, see the favorable expansion in the latter half is a rebound from the historic 14 percent dive suffered in the corresponding six-month period in the previous fiscal term. Compared with the second half of fiscal 2007 ? prior to the “Lehman Shock” ? cargo volume remained slow, down 5 percent.
Of the total, outgoing intermodal shipments from Japan fell 8.4 percent from a year earlier to 26.247 million TEUs in FY2009 while inbound cargoes dipped slightly by 1.6 percent to 43.366 million TEUs on year.
