Over the last two years, the logistics sector, in the immediate wake of the “big economy,” has been on a real roller-coaster ride.
We are no longer able to count on growth and transpose this trend to the future, at least for the time being. The first reason is sustainability, which compels us to adopt other economic and logistic principles and practices. The second is the differentiated economic growth between the global blocks of Asia, Europe and America and, at the same time, between the countries within these blocks. The third is global integration, which rapidly passes on peaks and troughs there to here and vice versa.
Extremes, fickleness and vulnerability will dominate port business operations in 2011, and in the years to follow. This calls for mental and practical flexibility and for stronger risk management. These, however, continue to vibrate at the leading hubs of world trade around the trend line of ongoing investment in infrastructure.
Consistent long-term planning forms the guide and the conscience for the logistics manager, who has to be flexible in the short and medium term and, most importantly, know how to manage the risks.