Overcoming logistics-related barriers to higher-value exporte – a decision framework to identify policy measures

Overcoming logistics-related barriers to higher-value exporte – a decision framework to identify policy measures
Author: Wiederer, Christina
Publisher: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2022-04-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3798332304

Logistics is key to a country’s trading opportunities. Poor trade logistics performance, measured in the cost and complexity of importing and exporting, precludes many countries from diversifying their economies and can hamper trade, growth and employment. This is acutely relevant for developing countries, where a frail logistics environment, i.e., the combination of logistics infrastructure and services, is often a factor in weak trade. While trade consists of imports and exports, exports are crucial to a country’s development due to their potential to increase income and employment. Supply chain delays increase transportation costs and hence product costs, thus decreasing the competitiveness of exports. They force companies to hold higher inventory to avoid production stoppages due to delays in procuring preliminary products. While logistics services are mostly provided by private actors, governments play a key role in ensuring a well-functioning logistics environment, for example, through providing public infrastructure, customs procedures, or vocational training. Given limited resources, identifying and prioritizing investments are crucial tasks for developing nations. This dissertation develops a decision framework for the public sector as to which logistics interventions to carry out in a country wishing to facilitate higher-value exports. Higher-value exports here refer not just to a higher amount of exports, but to a higher value added of exports. The framework is applied to three product categories: automotive products, perishable agricultural products, and high-tech manufacturing. It is then applied to Vietnam, Morocco, and Kyrgyzstan, three middle-income countries representing different geographies, population sizes, and industrial structures. Methods to develop the framework include structured and semi-structured interviews, data analyses from public sources, and a review of the literature. The results include product-category-specific logistics requirements, gap analyses for the three countries, and policy recommendations for measures to improve logistics for high-tech manufacturing in Vietnam, automotive products in Morocco, and perishable agricultural goods in Kyrgyzstan. Although the suggested logistics measures are applicable to the three case study countries, the framework’s first part (target set-up of the logistics environment and logistics requirements) can be applied to other countries wishing to facilitate exports in the three product categories. Guidelines on potential measures to improve the logistics environment for the three product categories are included and can be used by policymakers in other countries. The framework developed here can also be applied to other product categories. It uses a structured approach that enables identifying recommended policy measures even with a narrow empirical base of public country-level, logistics-related data and insights from interviews with logistics stakeholders. Logistik ist der Schlüssel zu den Handelschancen eines Landes. Eine niedrige außenhandelsbezogene Logistikleistung, gemessen in Kosten und Hindernissen von Importen und Exporten, hindert viele Länder daran, ihre Volkswirtschaften zu diversifizieren, und kann Außenhandel, Wachstum und Beschäftigung hemmen. Dies gilt insbesondere für Entwicklungsländer, in denen ein schwieriges Logistikumfeld, d. h. das Zusammenspiel von Logistikinfrastruktur und Logistikdienstleistungen, oft ein Faktor für schwachen Außenhandel ist. Während Außenhandel sowohl aus Exporten als auch aus Importen besteht, sind Exporte aufgrund ihres Potenzials zur Steigerung von Wohlstand und Beschäftigung von entscheidender Bedeutung für die Entwicklung eines Landes. Verzögerungen in der Lieferkette erhöhen die Transport- und damit die Produktkosten und beeinträchtigen die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Exporten. Sie zwingen Unternehmen, höhere Lagerbestände zu halten, um Produktionsausfällen aufgrund von Verzögerungen bei der Beschaffung von Vorprodukten vorzubeugen. Obwohl Logistikdienstleistungen hauptsächlich von privaten Akteuren erbracht werden, spielen nationale Regierungen eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Gewährleistung eines gut funktionierenden Logistikumfeldes, z. B. über öffentliche Infrastruktur, Zollabfertigung oder Berufsausbildung. Angesichts begrenzter Ressourcen sind das Ermitteln und Priorisieren notwendiger Investitionen entscheidende Aufgaben für Entwicklungsländer. Diese Dissertation entwickelt ein Entscheidungsmodell für den öffentlichen Sektor, welche handelslogistischen Interventionen in einem Land durchgeführt werden sollten, um Exporte innerhalb höherwertiger Produktkategorien zu ermöglichen. Höherwertige Exporte beziehen sich hier nicht nur auf eine höhere Exportmenge, sondern auch auf eine höhere Wertschöpfung der Exporte. Das Entscheidungsmodell wird auf drei Produktkategorien angewendet: Automobilprodukte, leichtverderbliche Agrarprodukte und Hightech-Produkte. Sodann wird das Modell auf Marokko, Kirgisien und Vietnam angewendet, drei Länder mit mittelhohem Einkommen, die unterschiedliche Weltregionen, Bevölkerungsgrößen und Industriestrukturen repräsentieren. Die zur Erstellung des Entscheidungsmodells verwendeten Methoden umfassen strukturierte und semistrukturierte Interviews, Datenanalysen aus öffentlich zugänglichen Quellen und Literaturanalysen. Die Ergebnisse beinhalten produktkategorie-spezifische Logistikanforderungen, Lückenanalysen für die drei Länder sowie Handlungsempfehlungen für Regierungsmaßnahmen zur Verbesserung der Logistik für Automobilprodukte in Marokko, leichtverderbliche landwirtschaftliche Güter in Kirgisien und Hightech-Fertigung in Vietnam. Obgleich die vorgeschlagenen Logistik-Maßnahmen nur für die drei Fallstudienländer gelten, kann der erste Teil des Entscheidungsmodells (die Idealkonfiguration des Logistikumfeldes sowie produktkategoriespezifische Logistikanforderungen) auf andere Länder angewendet werden, die Exporte in den drei Produktkategorien fördern möchten. Ebenfalls enthalten sind Leitfäden für die Regierungen anderer Länder bezüglich möglicher Maßnahmen zur Verbesserung des Logistikumfelds der drei Produktkategorien. Das hier entwickelte Entscheidungsmodell kann auch auf andere Produktkategorien angewendet werden. Es bedient sich einer strukturierten Herangehensweise, die es ermöglicht, empfohlene staatliche Maßnahmen auch auf einer schmalen empirischen Basis aus logistikbezogenen Daten und Erkenntnissen aus Interviews mit Logistikakteuren herauszuarbeiten.

Dynamics in Logistics

Dynamics in Logistics
Author: Michael Freitag
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2018-02-16
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319742256

These proceedings contain research presented at the 6th International Conference on Dynamics in Logistics, held in February 2018.The integration of dynamics within the modeling, planning and control of logistic processes and networks has shown to contribute massively to the improvement of the latter. Moreover, diversification of markets and demand has increased both the complexity and the dynamic changes of problems within the area of logistics. To cope with these challenges, it must become possible to identify, describe and analyze such process changes. Moreover, logistic processes and networks must be revised to be rapidly and flexibly adaptable to continuously changing conditions. This book presents new ideas to solve such problems, offering technological, algorithmic and conceptual improvements. It primarily addresses researchers and practitioners in the field of industrial engineering and logistics.

Economics of Maritime Business

Economics of Maritime Business
Author: Shuo Ma
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2020-06-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317330110

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the economics of the business of maritime transport. It provides an economic explanation of four aspects of maritime transport, namely, the demand, the supply, the market and the strategy. The book first explains why seaborne trade happens and what its development trends are; it then analyses the main features of shipping supply and how various shipping markets function; the book finally addresses the critical strategic issues of the shipping business. The full range of different types of shipping are covered throughout the chapters and cases. The book combines the basic principles of maritime transport with the modern shipping business and the latest technological developments, particularly in the area of digital disruption. The ideas and explanations are supported and evidenced by practical examples and more than 160 tables and figures. The questions posed by the book are similar to those that would be asked by the students in their learning process or the professionals in the business environment, with the answers concentrating on the reasons for what has happened and will happen in the future rather than merely fact-telling or any specific forecast. The book is most suited for students of shipping-related disciplines, and is also a valuable reference for maritime professionals.

Why Does Cargo Spend Weeks in Sub-Saharan African Ports?

Why Does Cargo Spend Weeks in Sub-Saharan African Ports?
Author: Gael Raballand
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2012-04-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821394991

Sub-Saharan Africa has a serious infrastructure deficit—estimated at about $48 billion a year—which is impeding the continent's competitiveness and hence its economic growth. How to solve this problem? Some advocate building more infrastructure while others suggest privatizing, or contracting out to the private sector, the management of infrastructure so that the discipline of the market will lead to more and better quality services. This book graphically illustrates the problem in the case of Africa's ports. With the exception of Durban, cargo dwell times—the amount of time cargo spends in the port—average about 20 days in African ports, compared with 3-4 days in most other international ports. None of the past attempts to solve this problem have worked. The reason—and this is the major contribution of this volume—is that long dwell times are in the interest of certain public and private actors in the system. Importers use the ports to store their goods. Customs brokers have little incentive to move the goods because they can pass on the costs of delay to the importers. And when the domestic market is a monopoly, the downstream producer has an incentive to keep the cargo dwell times long as a way of deterring entry of other producers. The net result is inordinately long dwell times, ineffective interventions, and globally uncompetitive industries in African countries. The solution to decrease dwell time in these ports relies mainly on the challenging task of breaking the private sector's collusion and equilibrium between public authorities, logistics operators, and some shippers and not on investing massively in infrastructure. Addressing the challenge will also require that there be political support from the general public for reforms that will promote their interests. And before they offer their political support, the public needs to be informed. This book is a step in that direction.

Logistics and Global Value Chains in Africa

Logistics and Global Value Chains in Africa
Author: Adebisi Adewole
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319776525

Focusing on global value chains and their importance to trade, this edited collection explores the strategic role of logistics and supply chain infrastructure in the development of Africa. Skilled authors present critical analysis of the current state of logistics in Africa, and suggest improvements to policy and practice which address the issue of poor trading relationships. This book will engage entrepreneurs, academics and policy-makers interested in international business, raising awareness of the need for better trade infrastructure in Africa in order to ensure the continent’s economic development.

Multinational Interest & Development in Africa

Multinational Interest & Development in Africa
Author: Ilan Bijaoui
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2017-02-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319489143

This book analyzes the current economic situations in African countries at the local, regional, and national level. It examines the growing interest from developed and developing countries to invest in Africa and their different reasons for doing so, which aren’t always aligned with the interests of African countries. Growth in African GDP has benefitted mainly multinational corporations while the rest of the population remains at the subsistence level, creating a smaller middle class and less opportunity for local businesses to flourish. This book offers potential models of cooperation which could create added value for both African countries and the MNCs investing in them.

Trade and Transport Corridor Management Toolkit

Trade and Transport Corridor Management Toolkit
Author: Charles Kunaka
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2014-05-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464801444

Trade and transport corridors are fundamental to the overland movement of international trade, particularly for landlocked countries. This book provides tools and techniques for the design of trade and transport corridor projects. It is meant for task managers, policy makers, and corridor service providers.