Hong Kong-based freight forwarder and logistics company, U-Freight said some signs of recovery are being seen in the industry, led by operations in Asia and boosted by growth in the e-commerce segment.
In the 44th edition of U-Freight Group’s quarterly newsletter "Service without Boundaries," it said in normal years, this time when the summer holidays slowly come to an end across the Northern Hemisphere, the pace of the logistics industry also picks up.
But due to the disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic, U-Freight noted that the situation is now "rather complex".
"Whilst there is some optimism in Asia, the circumstances in Europe, North America and South America are more fragile," the freight forwarder and logistics company said.
"The logistics world has shown some signs of recovery but this is accompanied by a
constant fear of a renewed economic plunge," it added, noting that personal encounters for business purposes also remain a rarity in the global logistics industry, and in business in general.
No signs of near-shoring, yet
U-Freight said despite talks suggesting that one consequence of COVID-19 on global supply chains will be a change in how companies across the world source and distribute goods, the start of such a trend is yet to be seen.
"WorldACD remark[ed] that in times of supply chain disruptions, as experienced strongly this year, there is always talk about the need to shorten the chains in order to become less dependent on events that business cannot influence. Whilst plans may be made, its figures for the year so far do not show any trend toward near-shoring yet," U-Freight said.
The freight forwarder and logistics company also noted that in line with talks indicating how the pandemic boosted e-commerce, U-Freight said it "doesn’t appear to be slowing down" in the second half of the year as July package volumes exceeded the average monthly volume in the first three months of the outbreak.
U-Freight noted that this is good news for the Group given its "considerable involvement in e-commerce logistics."
U-Freight said this further vindicates the company’s decision to enter this sector of the international freight market several years ago.
"In the company’s development of e-commerce logistics solutions, U-Freight is continually trying to address the key issues stemming from the exponential growth in volumes of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce shipments," it said.
