According to a survey by the online platform, Container xChange, 88% of the logistics industry executives interviewed consider inflation and the recession to be the biggest economic challenges of the year 2023, followed by the effects of the war in the Ukraine (57%), the new wave of COVID-19 in China (53%) as well as strikes and labour disputes (23%). Christian Roeloffs, co-founder and CEO of Container xChange, said: “The overall outlook for the year 2023 remains gloomy.” Based on the survey results, the Hamburg-based logistics service company has detected 23 trends in the container freight and transport industry.
For example, among others the drastic lockdown in China has undermined the confidence in the reliability of the supply chains. In some cases, the production and work at the harbours came to a complete standstill in the country. Container xChange is thus expecting companies to look for alternative production sites and logistics hubs. 67% of the respondents are considering focusing their activities more on Vietnam or India in the sense of a “China+1” strategy.
The logistics experts questioned are also awaiting increased strikes since inflation and the rising costs of living will impact the wage demands of the workers. This could lead to significant supply chain interruptions in the course of the year.
Because the transport capacities are still not fully exploited and many containers are still located in the depots, a price war between the shipping companies and freight forwarders is forecasted. According to the majority of the respondents, the freight costs for transportation by sea, land and air will continue to fall. In order to remain cost efficient, it is thought that the transport capacities will be reduced. Furthermore, there are fears that talented employees will look for jobs in other industries as a result of the declining profit margins and the shrinking market.
In addition to this, freight ships are expected to travel more slowly due to the new climate legislations, which will have to be taken into account when calculating the delivery times. The large, Danish shipping company, Maersk, has announced that it is launching the first climate neutral ship in the world in 2023. In this way, the rather hesitant steps in the direction of sustainability are being pushed in the container logistics sector. The digital transformation of the container freight industry is also slowly gaining momentum. Boat schedules, simplified and faster bookings of slots and information about free capacities are to further optimise the logistics processes in the future.
The complete report can be found at: www.container-xchange.com/reports/2023-predictions.
