The
last two decades have seen immense changes in the forces and
institutions that govern economic activity. They encompass
the on-going changes associated with the European Union, and
the changes in liberalization and governance initiated by the
World Trade Organization. New markets and new forms of contracting
are supporting outsourcing, unbundling, contract manufacturing
and a variety of other forms of extended value constellations.
In tandem, revolutionary developments in transportation and
logistics (the rise of FedEx, UPS and DHL) are providing new
global fulfillment architectures for B2B and B2C. Expansion
of physical capabilities in international logistics began in
the 1990s and has continued unabated, with Hong Kong and Dubai
the most evident examples, but with increases in capacity in
nearly every established port and air hub. This was accompanied
by increased sophistication and intermediation activities of
brokers and forwarders, followed by the development of financial
overlays and trading instruments for air cargo and shipping
capacity. In the process, the logistics industry has become
an interesting example on how physical markets have dovetailed
with financial and information markets in supporting and profiting
from globalization and outsourcing. It is also at the heart
of the enabling infrastructure that supports the explosion
of international trade that we have witnessed in the last decade.
This presentation will explore these issues by expanding on
the above theme. In particular, the outline of my presentation
will be the following:
1. A brief overview of the general trends in the global economy,
with the motivation to highlight these as drivers of changes
in logistics infrastructure;
2. Some general problems emerging from this for logistics,
focusing on the evolution of aircargo and maritime container
traffic;
3. Extended analysis of options and risk management issues
in shipping following work by Hellermann, Kavussanos, Visvikis
and myself;
4. Conclusions and open research questions on network-enabled
strategies and the key role of financial and physical networks
in logistics in supporting these. |
