There has been massive transformation in the global supply chain in the recent months. Consolidation, mergers, and new alliances have led to a fundamental realignment of an old-fashioned shipping business. The number of players has been drastically cut.
Cost-saving initiatives and further deployment of larger ships require physical on-docks and off-docks infrastructure to cope with increasing demand for investments and limited growth of volumes.
Beneficial cargo owners have benefitted from depressed sea freight tariffs, but want to be reassured about the reliability of liner services. It is a complex time for carriers; for so long, they have been at the center of world trade driving global growth, but today door-to-door logistics is driven fundamentally by information technology.
In the US, 2017 online sales will surpass sales at general merchandise stores with Amazon reaching $165 billion in turnover by setting the benchmarking of the “click-to-door delivery time” to 3.5 days.
In China, online retail purchase and delivery is even more pronounced. Online sales of consumer goods, by transactional value, were set to be 10 times greater than those in the United States; One Belt One Road initiatives are playing a crucial role.
In this dynamic scenario, opportunities are arising, driven by increasing demand for improved risk management along the supply chain, with southern European ports gaining traction as alternative gateways to serve the central and eastern European markets.