THE growth rate of the global freight forwarding market in 2006 was slower than in 2005, yet a report entitled 'Global Freight Forwarding 2007' by researchers at Transport Intelligence still described the growth as "stellar".
"The freight forwarding industry is benefiting from the globalising world economy. The potential for future profits is high, and this will inevitably lead to further merger and acquisition activity. Private equity is likely to play an important part in this process," said John Manners-Bell, the author of the report.
The research shows that steady economic growth in Europe supported the Asia Pacific trades while the US economy did not decelerate as much as earlier expected. Intra-Asian trade was also said to be a key driving force of growth with many forwarders' focusing their development strategies on the region.
The sea freight market experienced the highest increase in 2006, up by 15 per cent year-on-year. Air Freight revenues rose by 12 per cent over the previous year.
The report also ranked DHL Global Forwarding in number one spot in terms of overall forwarding revenues for air, sea and customs brokerage. In second and third place was Kuehne + Nagel and Schenker/Bax Global respectively.
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