by | Dec 23, 2014 | Transport

December’s string of acquisitions in the global logistics sector – including Berkshire Hathaway’s acquisition of Charter Brokerage, FedEx’s of GENCO, C.H. Robinson’s of Freightquote.com – seems likely to stoke this year’s trend to more M&A activity in transport, and logistics in particular, on into 2015. (PWC has a great interactive round-up of M&A data 2013 through third-quarter 2014.)

A report from Transport Intelligence offers up several reasons to be bullish on the prospect of M&As in logistics: The global economy is forecast to improve overall and pockets of new commercial opportunity are expected to develop – such as the emerging Asian and Latin America middle classes. Cross-border supply chain strategies are more critical then ever – and more complicated as net importers become major exporters, and e-commerce, near-sourcing, and trade policies change the rules of the game.

Investment companies awash in cash see the potential for good returns in transport and logistics.  And the logistics players themselves are looking to diversify markets and build alliances. (You can read more about the TI report here – registration required.)

Whether scoping out potential investments or shopping for logistics services, our data offers an up-to-the-minute view of the volumes and the mix of business handled by these essential links in maritime trade: the ocean transportation intermediaries (OTIs) who can make all the arrangements to get cargos from shippers to ocean-going vessels and on to importers.

In US trade, OTIs are registered with the Federal Maritime Commission as ocean freight forwarders or as non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOCCs), sometimes as both. You can look them up on these lists.

You can see a sample of our data in our free report, NVOCC Rankings 2014, which ranks the top 20 NVOCCs by US import volumes shipped in TEUs (the “equivalent units” of a 20-foot container) in the first three quarters of 2014. (You’ll find the above-mentioned C.H. Robinson’s NVOCC, Christal Lines, ranked No. 3.)

An added bonus, the report breaks out the TEUs handled by each NVOCC for each of the top three carriers in US import trade: Maersk Line, MSC-Mediterranean and Evergreen Line. Download the free report here.

You can take a closer look at our maritime data – digging into the details of the bills of lading that document each shipment – in our free online demo, just ask us.

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