Fashion
Asia-Pacific airfreight holds firm in November despite cooling PMI
Across Southeast Asia, pre-Chinese New Year (CNY) activity is creating fresh congestion, with export backlogs, holiday disruptions and surging e-commerce volumes putting pressure on key gateways. To ease bottlenecks, China Airlines Cargo (CK) is shifting its Bangkok operations to the Thai Airways (TG) terminal from January 2026 in a bid to improve handling efficiency. However, regional capacity remains constrained as aircraft delivery delays keep belly capacity close to 2025 levels, crowding major transit hubs including Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Incheon (South Korea) and Narita (Japan), Dimerco said in its January 2026 Asia-Pacific Freight Report.
Global PMI slipped to 50.5 in November, signalling a fragile start to 2026, yet Asia-Pacific airfreight remains resilient, driven by strong e-commerce demand, according to Dimerco.
Taiwan’s AI exports rose 56 per cent YoY, tightening capacity, while pre-CNY demand is straining Southeast Asia.
Intra-Asia air rates are rising, global container capacity is uneven, and ocean markets remain volatile.
Intra-Asia air rates are also set to climb as the annual block space agreement (BSA) renewal season approaches, with average prices expected to rise by around 10-20 per cent.
On the ocean freight side, global capacity continues to grow, though unevenly across trade lanes. The world container fleet expanded 7.3 per cent YoY to 33.2 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), with most new tonnage deployed on Middle East-Indian Subcontinent, Asia-Africa and Asia-Europe routes. By contrast, transpacific capacity fell 2.9 per cent, reflecting cautious carrier deployment amid weak US import demand.
Shippers remain wary despite a temporary tariff truce between major economies. Market participants expect only a muted rebound in volumes, with lingering uncertainty over whether shipping lines will resume Red Sea transits or continue routing vessels around South Africa, a factor that could significantly alter capacity dynamics in 2026.
Regionally, Southeast Asia is seeing tightening conditions in both air and ocean freight, while India’s air cargo market has eased after the peak season, though winter fog poses a growing risk to flight schedules. Indian ocean freight rates remain broadly stable, but exporters have been advised to build buffer time for potential inland transport delays.
In North America, airfreight demand typically softens after the year-end retail peak but is expected to firm again ahead of Lunar New Year, lifting spot rates. Ocean freight demand remains weak, with abundant capacity keeping pricing under pressure. Europe, meanwhile, faces fresh disruption from strikes across the UK, Spain, Italy and Portugal, reducing air cargo reliability and effective capacity.
“Until trade activity clearly recovers, any early return to the Red Sea could add excess capacity and further disrupt an already fragile market in 2026,” said Ted Chen, director—Ocean Freight at Dimerco Express Group.
“By the end of 2025, several key Intra-Asia lanes, across both air and ocean freight, have reached historical highs, exceeding even pandemic-period levels. This trend has strengthened carriers’ confidence in a robust market outlook for 2026,” said Kathy Liu, VP, global sales and marketing, Dimerco Express Group.
“Ocean freight will be shaped more by capacity imbalances and regional disparities, with potential disruptions linked to any return to Suez Canal routes. Simultaneously, airfreight remains robust, driven by high-tech and e-commerce demands to North America and Europe,” said Catherine Chien, chairwoman of Dimerco Express Group.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SG)
Wholesale revenue dropped 12.8 per cent on a currency-adjusted basis to €4.9 billion, while direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales increased 3.4 per cent, lifting the DTC share to 32.4 per cent from 28.9 per cent.
Regionally, sales fell 6.9 per cent in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), 7.4 per cent in Asia-Pacific and 10 per cent in the Americas, with North America driving much of the decline.
Puma has reported sales of €7.3 billion (~$8.61 billion) in FY25, with currency-adjusted revenue down 8.1 per cent amid strategic reset actions.
Wholesale declined while DTC share increased.
Margins contracted and EBIT turned negative, leading to a net loss.
Q4 saw sharper declines across regions and categories.
Puma expects further sales softness and negative EBIT in FY26.
By product segment, footwear sales decreased 7.1 per cent, apparel declined 9.7 per cent and accessories fell 8.5 per cent, although selective growth was observed in running, training and premium sport style lines, Puma said in a press release.
Profitability weakened significantly during the year. Gross margin contracted 260 basis points to 45.0 per cent, impacted by promotional activity, inventory reserves, unfavourable mix and currency effects. Adjusted EBIT turned negative at €165.6 million, while reported EBIT declined to -€357.2 million after €191.6 million in one-off costs related mainly to the cost efficiency programme and goodwill impairments.
Loss from continuing operations widened to -€643.6 million, translating to earnings per share of -€4.37 versus €1.88 in the prior year.
From a balance sheet perspective, inventories rose 2.3 per cent to €2.06 billion as inventory takebacks from wholesale partners supported distribution clean-up. Working capital increased 20.2 per cent, while trade receivables and payables declined sharply in line with reduced sales and purchasing activity. Puma ended the year with additional financing capacity, including €1,202.2 million in unutilised credit lines.
Fourth quarter (Q4) performance reflected the peak impact of the strategic reset. Currency-adjusted sales declined 20.7 per cent to €1,564.9 million, with reported revenue down 27.2 per cent due to currency headwinds. The decline was driven by deliberate reductions in wholesale exposure, inventory clearance actions and lower promotional intensity.
Wholesale sales fell 27.7 per cent in Q4, while DTC revenue decreased 8.0 per cent, although DTC share increased to 41.1 per cent from 35.5 per cent. Regionally, sales dropped 12.6 per cent in Asia-Pacific, 22.2 per cent in the Americas and 24.3 per cent in EMEA.
Across product divisions, footwear sales declined 25.4 per cent, apparel fell 13.7 per cent and accessories dropped 18.2 per cent, with selective resilience in training and performance running categories.
Profitability deteriorated sharply. Gross margin declined to 40.2 per cent from 47.7 per cent due to promotions, inventory provisions and currency effects. Adjusted EBIT fell to -€228.8 million, while reported EBIT reached -€307.7 million following one-off costs linked to restructuring and impairment charges. The quarter ended with a loss from continuing operations of -€335 million.
Arthur Hoeld, CEO of Puma, said: “2025 was a reset year for us. We want to establish Puma as a top 3 sports brand globally, return to above-industry growth and generate healthy profits in the medium term. It is crucial to make the Puma brand less commercial and ensure we once again excite our consumers with attractive products, compelling storytelling and distribution in the right channels. I am satisfied with the progress we have made so far. We cleaned up most of our distribution by reducing promotions in our own channels and cutting our exposure to those wholesale channels that damage our brand’s desirability. To better position our product icons and our performance offering and tell more engaging product stories, we created the right structures inside our company. We also addressed operational inefficiencies and further optimised our cost base.”
Looking ahead, Puma expects currency-adjusted sales in fiscal 2026 to decline in the low- to mid-single-digit percentage range, with EBIT projected between -€50 million and -€150 million. Capital expenditure of around €200 million is planned as the company continues investments in brand repositioning and digital capabilities, added the release.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SG)
Nominal GDP, or GDP at current prices, is estimated to grow at 8.6 per cent to reach ₹345.47 trillion in FY26 against ₹318.07 trillion in 2024-25.
India’s real GDP is estimated to grow at 7.6 per cent to ₹322.58 trillion (~$3.54 billion) in FY26 compared to the first revised GDP estimate of ₹299.89 trillion for FY25 (7.1 per cent growth).
It released the new series of annual and quarterly national accounts estimates with FY23 base.
Real GVA is projected to grow at 7.7 per cent to reach ₹294.40 trillion in FY26 against ₹273.36 trillion in FY25.
Real gross value added (GVA) is projected to grow at 7.7 per cent to reach ₹294.40 trillion in FY26 against ₹273.36 trillion in FY25 (a 7.3-per cent growth rate).
Nominal GVA is estimated to grow at 8.7 per cent to hit ₹313.61 trillion during FY26, against ₹288.54 lakh crore in 2024-25.
Robust economic performance in FY26 is primarily on account of robust real growth observed in the second quarter (8.4 per cent) and third quarter (7.8 per cent).
The manufacturing sector has been the major driver of resilient performance of the economy the consecutive three fiscals after rebasing, a release from the ministry said.
Both private final consumption expenditure and grossed fixed capital formation exhibited more than 7-per cent growth rate in FY26.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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