Low value parcels into the EU are down hard since 1 July: is anyone seeing it in Asia to Europe air rates?

Melody Chen twFounder · A small homeware brand, Taipei

Still chasing this one. The EU dropped its 150 euro duty free threshold on 1 July and put a flat 3 euro on low value parcels, charged per tariff heading, not per box. Two months on, the figures are ugly. One count has China's low value exports to the EU down 65 percent year on year in August, 54 percent in July. Another, counting differently, puts the fall to Europe nearer 40 percent. That is a lot of weight off the lane.

My own half is small: homeware out of Taipei, and an order is rarely one heading. A mug, a tray and a tea towel is three lots of 3 euro before freight. The half I have not checked is the freight. If that volume has gone, is space out of Asia to Europe cheaper now, or have carriers pulled the flights and left the rate alone? Anyone watching their own quotes since July?

Asked 22 Sept 2026

3 replies

Vivian Hocn2w ago

same maths killed my mixed boxes in july. mug, tray, tea towel, three hits before freight even starts.

i stopped sending those direct, so my own quotes tell you nothing. different lane, different weight.

forwarder's line is both happened. space went soft, then the freighters came off the lane fast, so soft did not last. taipei out is firming again for peak.

Melody Chentw2w agoAuthor

Your line about soft not lasting is the one I took to my forwarder, and he gave me back the same shape. Taipei out is firming, but not for anything I ship: chips and AI freight are filling the aircraft out of Taoyuan, so my mugs buy space at a price somebody else set. The weight that left the lane never reached me as a cheaper quote.

Your half is the one I want now. You stopped sending them direct, so where did those boxes go? Bulk into a warehouse over there and ship domestic, or did the orders just stop?

Camila Rojascl2w ago

Different hemisphere, same lesson. I buy air out of Santiago for fruit, and another commodity's collapse has never once reached me as a cheaper quote. Prices are made lane by lane.

What travels between markets is the aircraft, not the rate, and only when somebody decides to reposition a freighter. When my season starts, carriers add capacity for fruit and I pay my season, not the market. You are paying the electronics. Neither of us is buying the parcels that left.

3 replies

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