Emerging Markets Slowdown Fails to Dim Enthusiasm

The Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index looks at the world’s most dynamic economies and the forces powering them. It ranks 45 major emerging markets and identifies the attributes that make them attractive for investment by logistics companies, air cargo carriers, shipping lines, freight forwarders and distribution property companies.

Together, the Index rankings, analysis and survey of 375 industry professionals provide a basis to compare individual countries, weigh their strengths and weaknesses, and gauge their near-term prospects.

The Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index is sponsored by Agility and compiled by Transport Intelligence (Ti), the leading provider of expert research and analysis to the global logistics industry.

The 2013 Index - Key Findings

• The 45 emerging markets featured in the 2013 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index grew at an average of 4.4%. In contrast, the U.S. economy grew at 2.2% while the EU contracted 0.2%.
• Trade and logistics professionals are overwhelmingly optimistic about prospects for healthy economic growth in emerging markets in 2013.
• China, India, Brazil and, to a lesser extent, Russia (the so-called BRIC countries) remain the favorites of investors, exporters, producers and logistics providers, but all have underlying weaknesses that could hurt performance and dim attractiveness.
• A second-tier of attractive emerging markets – Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, UAE, Malaysia, Mexico and Turkey – is poised to gain, possibly at the expense of the BRIC countries.
• The dynamics of locating production are changing. Trade and logistics professionals see more manufacturers looking for alternatives to China and view cheap labor as a less critical factor in determining where to locate production.
• Ongoing political unrest has done grave damage to the “Arab Spring” countries of Egypt, Bahrain and Tunisia, leaving them less competitive and less attractive as markets and destinations for investment. Egypt dropped the most of any country on the Index, plummeting nine spots.
• The big winners in the Index country rankings were Kazakhstan, Morocco, Ukraine and Argentina, all of which climbed into the top 20 of the rankings for the first time.
• Overall air volumes fell by 2.4% in 2012, while ocean volumes grew by 1.7%, suggesting a shift to cheaper ocean freight.