Singapore Displaces Germany In Logistics Performance

by Lloyd's List - last modified May 23, 2012 12:58 PM

Singapore led Hong Kong by 1% as the world's highest logistically performing nation. Photo - Southern Cross Maritime

The World Bank says that progress in trade logistics performance slowed over the last two years amid the global recession, but countries that pursued “aggressive reforms” continued to improve their performance.

Singapore, as the 100% benchmark, was followed by Hong Kong with 99.9%, Finland with 97.6%, Germany with 97% and the Netherlands with 96.7%. The US came ninth with 93.7% and the UK tenth with 92.7%.

Australia was 18th on the list, with performance at 82.7% of Singapore’s benchmark. The bottom of the list was Burundi, at 19.5%.
Chile, China, India, Morocco, South Africa, Turkey and the US all improved their previous performance, according to the study, which is based on a world survey of international freight forwarders and express carriers.

The report’s authors state: “By asking freight forwarders to rate countries on key logistics issues - such as customs clearance efficiency, infrastructure quality, and the ability to track cargo - it captures a broad set of elements that affect perceptions of the efficiency of trade logistics in practice.

“It is a coarse-grained indicator that shows where a country stands and that could motivate researchers to take on a deeper, finer, country specific assessment of the determinants of logistics performance.”

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