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Kuwait-based Agility Logistics Parks customers can log-on to view contracts and make payments.
UK MOD personnel can log-in to the GRMS portal to schedule household relocation shipments.
Kuwait-based Agility Logistics Parks customers can log-on to view contracts and make payments.
UK MOD personnel can log-in to the GRMS portal to schedule household relocation shipments.
India stands out in annual logistics Index, but executives show concern about 2017
BAAR, Switzerland – Jan. 24, 2017 – Nearly 69% of logistics professionals say they worry about a retreat from free trade in 2017 following the UK’s Brexit vote and the collapse of global and regional trade talks, a new survey shows.
The survey of more than 800 global logistics and supply chain executives is part of the 2017 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index, an annual snapshot of industry sentiment and a ranking of the world’s 50 leading emerging markets by size, business conditions, infrastructure and transport connections.
A significant minority – 43% — said the International Monetary Fund’s 2017 emerging markets growth forecast of 4.6% is too optimistic.
India was a standout in the survey and country rankings. Logistics professionals picked India as the emerging market with the most logistics potential and the country where their companies are most likely to invest. India climbed past United Arab Emirates to No. 2 in the Index after China.
2017 Index highlights:
Africa’s biggest economies – Nigeria and South Africa – were among the countries that fell most sharply in the Index. Smaller African markets – Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya – improved their rankings in 2017.
Brazil held its No. 7 Index ranking despite a painful recession and the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. In the survey, logistics executives again picked Brazil as the the market with the most logistics potential after India and China. One reason for their optimism: nearly 57% expect commodity prices to rebound in 2017, although most do not expect significant increases.
Bahrain jumped five spots in the latest Index to No. 23 after years of social unrest that hurt its ranking. Argentina, attempting to end years of international economic isolation, climbed three places to No. 28. Kazakhstan shot up four spots to No. 14, largely on the strength of business conditions that ranked behind only those of four Gulf countries – UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.
Turkey weathered the effects of an attempted coup and extremist violence, moving from 10th to No. 9 in the latest Index. Russia fell from 9th to No. 10, a modest slip suggesting that has contained the fallout from Western economic sanctions and low energy prices.
The Index, in its eighth year, ranks emerging markets countries by factors that make them attractive to logistics providers, freight forwarders, shipping lines, air cargo carriers and distributors.
Essa Al-Saleh, CEO of Agility Global Integrated Logistics, said logistics providers and their customers are concerned that anti-globalization feeling and populist policies in the UK and United States could spread and harm trade in emerging markets that rely heavily on exports.
“Emerging markets continue to deliver the highest growth rates in the world, but as links in the global supply chain, countries can be extremely hard to evaluate,” Al-Saleh said. “The Index and the survey are useful when it comes to identifying the relative strengths and weaknesses of individual markets.”
Transport Intelligence (Ti), a leading analysis and research firm for the logistics industry, compiled the Index.
John Manners-Bell, Chief Executive of Ti, said: “Uncertainty and volatility have characterized many emerging markets in 2016. This has been compounded by the political environment in Europe and the U.S., which will have direct consequences on trade with Latin America, Asia and Africa. However there have been many positives too — for example, the strong performance of India. More than ever, the Index identifies and contrasts those markets which will prosper from the most vulnerable and poorest performing.”