At the start of this year we wrote an article summarizing the top 3 freight trends coming in 2019. As we approach Q4 of this year, it seems only fitting to reassess these once impending trends to fully understand the validity and current strength behind each piece.
Automation was the number one trend barreling down the 2019 digital logistics sector. How is this holding up? As originally written in the initial blog post, “automated sectors of supply chains have been progressively increasing over the past year, the efficiency and instantaneous effects digitalization has had on the industry has simultaneously generated a necessity for even faster progressive technology implementation.
Digital cooperation has been stereotypically lack-luster in the world of air freight, notorious for extensive paper trails. Nevertheless, 2018 showed promise as airlines and international freight forwarders began investing in new technologies to aid in efficiency, speed, and accuracy. Allowing them to remain highly competitive while concurrently reducing the size of their carbon footprint.”
In short, we have continued to see an industry wide increase in digitalized processes throughout this year.
Number two on our original list was saturated with tariff talks. To increase them, on what commodities, and when. Per the previous post, “amidst the continued speculations regarding market uncertainty, comes more regulatory changes and conjectures for 2019. Freight forwarders and logistics companies alike are warning carriers of impending price increases coupled with complex procedural checklists and extra hoops to jump through. All this tightens the already rigid flow of international trade, exacerbating the ripple effect of volatility and ambiguity. Trade tensions between the United States and China continue to escalate, while Brexit awaits a March 29th deadline.”
Our September 2019 response to tariffs? We are vigilantly issuing and communicating updates regarding the 4th tranche of tariffs to our clients affected by the increase. When the initial post was written, we were discussing the 2nd list. The tariff saga continues.
The third trend recognized early on in medicinal sectors as a vital logistics piece warranting expansion in 2019 was cold-chain logistics. As we stated earlier, “the corresponding increase in pharmaceutical demands and cool-chain technology brings paralleled surges in supply chain investments in warehousing, compliance, and comprehensive agreements. These funds are allocated and based on the innovative advances in the technology supporting cold-chain logistics made in 2018. Biopharma cool-chain logistics spending predictions are up 8 to 9 percent by 2020, derived from pharmaceutical sales predictive increase of 4 to 5 percentage points.”
According to September 2019 cold-chain logistics research, cool is most definitely the new hot. The entire cold-chain logistics market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of over 15%.
As always, if you have any other questions regarding your current supply chain or how to optimize certain aspects of your logistics, email us HERE.
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