Sea Freight Forwarding Market Is Driven By The Increasing International Trade Activities Across The Globe

Freight forwarding is a procedure of managing the overall process of shipping the goods from a starting point to the destination point by using multiple modes of transportation such as highway, railway, air, or marine. A freight forwarder or forwarding agent can be also called as a non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC), it may be an individual or company that organizes the shipment process for companies or individuals by getting good from the manufacturers to a marketplace, consumer, or end point of the distribution. Usually, these forwarders are in a contract with the multiple carriers to move the goods.

Freight forwarders act as intermediates between manufacturers and consumers and plays an important role to build an effective logistics network. These forwarders use multiple shipping modes such as airplanes, ships, railroads, etc., and often uses multiple modes for a single shipment. The overall information reviewed by a freight forwarder includes shipper’s export declaration, commercial invoice, bill of landing and other related documents required by the carrier or country of import, export, and transshipment. Currently, the aforementioned documentation is carried out in the digital format.

Sea freight forwarding is the process of shipping goods by using ocean ways through ships or vessels from one point to another. Increasing international trade activities across the globe is one of the major aspect fueling the demand for sea freight forwarding. Moreover, a rapidly growing e-commerce sector can be attributed to growing penetration of smartphones and the Internet, which is resulted in a cross-border exchange of goods. This is a key aspect which may support the revenue growth of the global market. Changing buying preferences of the consumers regarding various goods such as electronics, beverages, etc. is an important aspect propelling growth of the sea freight forwarding market.

However, uncertainties associated with sea freight forwarding such as bad weather conditions which may result in the delay of the shipment of the goods. This is a major aspect which may hamper the demand for sea freight forwarding service.

The type of sea freight forwarding includes less-than-container load, full container load, and others.  FCL type is becoming highly adaptable, owing to the increasing development of terminal infrastructure and ports. Full container load (FCL) is an ocean-based mode of shipment type which occupies cargo container generally of any size.

The application of sea freight forwarding includes agricultural, automotive, beverage, electronic, and others. The rapid growth of the electronics industry across the globe can be attributed to growing demand for premium and advanced electronic goods among the tech-savvy population.

Growing demand for sea freight forwarding in Asia Pacific can be attributed to growing cross border e-commerce retail sales. In addition, growing increasing infrastructural and port development activities in order to strengthen the sea freight logistics. North America market is growing significantly, owing to growing adoption of sea freight forwarding as a cost-effective logistic solution among various end-use industries.

Major players operating in the global market include Kuehne + Nagel DHL Group,  DB Schenker Logistics, GEODIS, Sinotrans, Sankyu, KWE,  Bollore Logistics, Expeditors, UPS Supply Chain, Panalpina DSV, Dachser,  Hitachi Transport, CEVA Logistics, Nippon Express, Pantos Logistics,  Hellmann, Agility Logistics, and Damco.