trailer world Issue Two 2013

Issue Two 2013 15 Essay economy, but also in Europe. All goods that are earmarked for export to the emerging economic countries are first transported to the international hubs which then fill the order books: during the course of the last 5 years the export to China grew by nearly 10 per cent by weight per year. Accordingly, the transports broaden from the produc- tion sites to production and distribution centres, to the sea and inland harbours and airports. Similarly, this is the case for import streams. These numbers, how- ever, cannot be transferred on a 1:1 basis onto the market growth into Europe, due to bundling effects and transports that are not required. However, it can be safely as- sumed that delivery companies will still be very busy on the inner-German and Euro- pean routes. Globalisation, of course, now is not only taking place in the BRIC states. The struc- tures will change, particularly in the vicin- ity to Europe. Many producers and dealers in Europe are already considering reducing their distribution channels. Some compa- nies in the clothing and automotive sec- tors already order a significant part of their goods from closer situated countries, such as Turkey or Eastern Europe, as they can then react faster to changes in demand. This is because the greatest fear at the mo- ment is to produce or order mismatching the needs of the markets, due to the ever in- creasing competition. This will remain so. The closer to the customer the manufactur- ing of the end product takes place, the more flexible and at shorter notice changes can be taken into account. However, at the moment, the countries neighbouring Europe do not offer attrac- tive surroundings, so that it is not foresee- able that they will take the place of China as the motor of growth for Europe and es- pecially the German economy in the very near future. In the North African states and the Near East with Syria, Iraq, and Iran, the situation is not going to be sta- ble enough for a long time yet. Even for Turkey, the current number one booming country in the region, the safety situation has changed. Medium-term, it is expected that the situ- ation is calming down. Through this, the risks resulting from a globalised world will come increasingly to the foreground, and will mean the trade and industrial corpora- tions further consider their logistics chains. Supply of the European population, no matter where the production takes place, is in the foreground. In order to be able to counteract the increasing volatility in de- mand, the supply chains must become more flexible and offer more opportunities to react to change. If the last production steps or the adaptation of the product to the actual requirement only takes place locally in the consumer markets, there will be an in- crease in the amounts to be transported from the international hubs to the sites and from there to the customer - and with that further chances for growth for logistics firms. »In the foreground is the supply of the European population, no matter where the production takes place.« Prof. Christian Kille Supply chains must become more flexible 50 % of the German imports come from EU states. 75 % of the German exports go to other European states. EU in tons, source: Destatis 2013 Photos:ipicturealliance/IkonImages,DVZ Personal details  Prof. Dr. Chris- tian Kille, since 2011 Professor for Trade Logistics at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg- Schweinfurt (FHWS). He is market analyst, co-author of the Top-100-der-Logistik- Studie (Top 100 logistics firms study) and professional advisor to the Fraunhofer work group Supply Chain Ser- vices (SCS)

trailer world Issue Two 2013

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