However, demand will shift away from North America and Europe to the emerging markets of Latin America, BRIC and the Middle East. This trend is reflected in the fact that North America and Europe are expected to lose a 2.2 per cent and 1.5 per cent share of the global market by 2013, while Asia Pacific is expected to gain nearly 1.5 per cent.

Datamonitor predicts that logistics and express spend as a proportion of global GDP will regain its 2008 peak of 9.3 per cent in 2013. A number of trends are however creating a challenging environment in which it will be harder to uncover opportunities for growth.

“The global logistics and express market saw $300 billion of its value wiped out in 2009 alone,” said analyst Erik Van Baaren. “Even if the industry has started to enjoy a recovery in volumes, changing customer preferences, modal shifts, technological advancements, environmental concerns and other trends have fundamentally changed the landscape in which service providers have to re-establish themselves.

“Sustainability measures will have a significant impact on shipping and transport companies' services and costs, and a holistic approach must be adopted which takes into account all aspects of sustainability and associated supply chain costs. However, these strategies need to take into account the inherent risks of reducing the performance of the industry for the sake of sustainability.”

Source: Logistcs Manager

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