A report from Global Freight Forwarding 2014 draws this conclusion.
Manufacturers are focusing away from globalization and towards regionalizations resulting in freight forwarding strategy changes and new product solutions. For example, China is no longer the automatic location choice. New opportunities are opening up in Africa, the Middle East, South America. Emerging markets such as Mexico and Turkey are making near-sourcing a reality.
The result of these trends has been that new trade lane opportunities are opening and along with the trade lane opportunities, new product solutions are also on the increase. These include multi-modal transport as an alternative to air and/or sea freight movement as well as industry-specific solutions particularly for those commodities requiring temperature-control management such as pharmaceuticals, foods and some high-tech goods.
DB Schenker’s collaboration with CargoLux is a perfect example of industry specific solutions. You can see more on their video at https://vimeo.com/105824636.
