IlluMyFi

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for October 2023 global air cargo markets indicating the third consecutive month of stronger year-on-year demand. Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTKs*), increased by 3.8% compared to October 2022. For international operations, the demand lagged slightly at 3.5%. Capacity, measured in available cargo tonne-kilometres (ACTKs), was up 13.1% compared to October 2022 (11.1% for international operations). This was largely related to the growth in belly capacity. International belly capacity, for example, rose 30.5% year-on-year on the strength of passenger markets. October Regional Performance Asia-Pacific airlines saw their air cargo volumes increase by 7.6% in October 2023 compared to the same month in 2022. This performance was close to par with the previous month (+7.7%). Carriers in the region benefited from ongoing growth in international CTK's on three major trade lanes: Africa-Asia (+16.7%, the greatest annual growth since May), Middle East-Asia (+10.3%) and Europe-Asia (+8.5%). Available capacity for the region's airlines increased by 30.0% compared to October 2022 as more belly capacity came online from the passenger side of the business (a year ago, the key Asian markets of Japan and China were still largely under severe COVID-19 travel restrictions). North American carriers had the weakest performance in October with a 1.8% decrease (YoY) in cargo volumes. This was a slight improvement in performance compared to September (-2.2%). Although the North America-Asia trade lane recorded an increase in international CTK's (from -1.8% in September to -0.9% in October) and the North America-Europe market saw a slight improvement in international CTK's (from -2.7% in September to -2.1% in October), carriers in the region did not benefit significantly. Capacity increased by 2.4% compared to October 2022. European carriers saw their air cargo volumes increase by 1.0% in October compared to the same month in 2022. This was a stronger performance than in September (-1.5%). Carriers in the region benefitted from the first growth in international CTK's in the within Europe market since January 2022 (-4.2% in September vs +3.4% in October). Gains made from the expansion in the Middle East-Europe trade lane (+17.1% in October) also benefited carriers in the region. Capacity increased 7.0% in October 2023 compared to 2022. Middle Eastern carriers had the strongest performance in October 2023, with a 10.9% year-on-year increase in cargo volumes. This was a significant improvement from the previous month's performance (+2.5%). Carriers in the region benefited from growth in the Middle East-Asia (+10.3%) and Middle East-Europe markets (+17.1%). Capacity increased 15% compared to October 2022. Latin American carriers experienced a 4.0% increase in cargo volumes compared to October 2022, a notable increase compared to the previous month's gain (+2.3%). Capacity in October was up 8.3% compared to the same month in 2022. African airlines saw their air cargo volumes increase by 2.9% in October 2023, much improved compared to September's performance (-0.1%). Carriers in the region benefitted from the strongest annual growth since May (+16.7%). Capacity was 9.8% above October 2022 levels. ■

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Bearish/Bullish

13.01.24 09:55

by poandpo.com

Scientists come up with technology to recycle used clothes rather than simply bu...

When you go running in the woods in your running tights, elastane is the reason they fit you so comfortably. Elastane is an elastic material that allows the fabric to stretch and adapt to your body. But when elastane fibers are mixed with cotton, wool, nylon or other fibers, as is the case in many clothes today, the clothes become almost impossible to recycle. It is extremely difficult to separate out the different fibers, and therefore the materials in the clothes cannot be recycled. For this reason, clothes and other textiles are among the materials that we are the worst at recycling. Only about 6% of clothes thrown away by Danish households are recycled. In comparison, 32% of all plastic packaging is recycled in Denmark. But this may change, says Assistant Professor Steffan Kvist Kristensen from the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center at Aarhus University. Together with a number of colleagues, he is behind a new technology that can separate out fibers in mixed fabrics. The work is published in the journal Green Chemistry. "We've developed a method to remove elastane completely from nylon. We're not quite there yet with cotton, because some of the cotton fibers are broken down in the process. But we believe that, with some minor adjustments, we can solve this problem," he says and continues: "In other words, we can disassemble the fabric so that we can recycle far more textiles in the future." It is not easy to separate elastane and other fibers once they have been woven together. Clothes are made by winding the main fibers, such as nylon or cotton, around the elastane fibers, which consist of long chains of molecules. The fibers only break apart if we break the long chains of molecules, explains Steffan Kvist Kristensen. "The many links in the elastane chain are bound together by a small molecule called a diamine. By heating the clothes to 225 degrees Celsius and adding a specific alcohol, we have found a method to break down the bonds in elastane. When this happens, the chains fall apart and the materials separate. "The whole process takes place in what is in effect a large pressure cooker that we feed the textiles into. We then add a little alcohol and some base and heat it up. Then we let it cook for just over four hours, and when we open the lid again, the different fibers will have been separated." When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the United States not only lost several thousand soldiers, hundreds of aircraft, and many of its largest warships. The country also lost access to about 90 percent of the natural rubber they depended on so much. Therefore, like the Germans, they began to produce synthetic rubber. After the war, production of synthetic rubber led to the discovery of a number of derived synthetic fibers that could be used in textiles. One of these fibers was elastane. In 1958, the chemist Joseph Shivers invented elastane, or Spandex as it is also often called in the United States. Since then, elastane has found its way into more a...