PRESS ROOM

Bloomberg reports that global trade in goods and services is recovering from last year’s slump amid economic strength in the USA and solid exports from Asia’s developing nations.

That’s among the topline takeaways in a report this month from the UNCTAD, the UN’s trade and development agency, which is welcome news for the U-Freight Group as we provide the international logistics services and supply chain management operations that facilitate the supply chains that underpin global trade.

According to the Bloomberg report, UNCTAD sees a first-half of 2024 increase of 2% — which would add USD250 billion in goods trade and USD100 billion in services versus the same period in 2023.

UNCTAD also says it’s seeing “significant trade reallocations and increased supply concentration.”

The report contains a special section on industrial policy, noting that despite last year’s general slowdown in international commerce, programmes like the US Inflation Reduction Act, the Made in China 2025 initiative, and the European Union’s Net Zero Industry Act helped boost demand for targeted goods.

For instance, detailed product level data from the three major economies suggests that the trade in electric vehicles experienced a remarkable 50% rise, according to the report.

And although competition looked to have stayed robust for solar panels and electric vehicles, “this is not the case for battery value chains,” the report stated, adding that in this sector, the increase in supply concentration has been accompanied by low trade reallocation, suggesting that global supply is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few major exporters.

Looking ahead, UNCTAD cited three possible implications:

•     More concentration in global trade
•     Splintering into major blocs
•     Rising protectionism and costs

All of which leaves us with food for thought as we develop our multimodal freight and logistics services and supply chain management operations.

For more information about the U-Freight Group's global operations, please visit the relevant pages of this website or contact your local office, details of which can be seen here: https://www.ufreight.com/en/location

UNCTAD's full report can be read here: https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ditcinf2024d2.pdf