Logistics in emerging markets have long centered around the movement of large quantities of manufactured goods or commodities between businesses. But rising consumption driven by a growing middle class is set to change that, according to new research reports.

Revenues for U.S. 3PLs, which provide services ranging from booking truck drivers to managing warehouses, rose 7.4 percent to $157.2bn last year, faster than the 2.8 percent growth in logistics spending overall, according to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, which recently released its annual State of Logistics report.

Raj India Trading Co. found itself with a happy problem when it switched from importing bulky flower planters to smaller cremation urns: plenty of empty space at its warehouse in the Seattle suburbs.

The boom in natural gas production in the U.S. is "rippling downstream" to the plastics industry, and chemical companies will need to invest more in export logistics facilities as they ramp up U.S. plastics production, says Owen Kean, senior director of the American Chemistry Council. "For the most part, what's happening in the chemical industry is largely an export story."

U.S. manufacturing isn't likely return to prerecession levels for at least year and a half largely because the sector is grappling with weak demand for American exports and federal government cutbacks.