Global connectedness, measured by cross-border flows of trade, capital, information and people, has recovered most of its losses incurred during the financial crisis, according to the third edition of DHL's Global connectedness Index.
While progress is slowly being made, insufficient trade agreements exist in order to encourage and drive intra-Africa trade. As a result there tends to be a focus on doing business with regions outside of Africa, such as the United States or China, says Charles Brewer, managing director of DHL Express Sub Saharan Africa.
Over the next 10 years, online retail will continue to gain popularity in both developed and emerging markets and as a result, logistics companies are set to play a key role in providing vital supply chain management solutions that are able to evolve with consumers' changing shopping habits.
DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight arm within Deutsche Post DHL, has begun a temperature controlled airfreight service between Brussels and Cincinnati and vice versa. The DHL Aviation Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft will operate the 8.30-hour flight six times per week in each direction and offers reserved space for life sciences products. Real-time tracking and temperature measurement data is available on each flight and can be accessed via a dedicated web portal.
Logistics companies generate huge amounts of data that could give companies competitive advantage, according to DHL's newly released "Big Data in Logistics" trend report.
DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight unit within Deutsche Post DHL, has broken ground on a $35m facility at O'Hare International Airport, which will include 53,000 square feet of office space and 423,030 square feet of warehousing, and is expected to be the largest DHL Global Forwarding building in the U.S.