As part of our commitment to provide you with the most up-to-date and relevant information on the logistics industry, we share our Market Update on the Latin American market.
You will find information and interesting data on the update of the state of the ports, the most important transport routes and relevant news.
We hope you’ll find the following information helpful, as well as inspiring to boost your business and keep your cargo moving.
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Topic of the month
Recent events like the war in Ukraine, an increase in a mutual distress relationship between US and China, disruptions in the supply chain due to the pandemic and the normalization have brought up some discussions like, should we recess the locations where we are located? And here is when the words nearshoring, reshoring, and friendshoring emerged and became popular in logistics. In this topic of the month, we will explain what this is all about and give you some examples and opportunities for the Latin American region.
What is Nearshoring, reshoring and friendshoring?
Nearshoring is a word that has become more popular during the past years, and the World Economic Forum describes it as a process of relocating a company’s operation to a nearby country with a closer or shared border to its final market. Supply Chain Brain explains that nearshoring ensures ways to get faster to their market by bringing geographically closer the manufacturer to the customers.
It is also called “regionalization,” and the Trade in Transition global report of 2023 states that nearshoring increased an 8% compared to the same report in 2021. Relocating the companies doesn’t only have a positive effect on time, but it also has financial benefits by avoiding paying import of goods or shipping costs.
Reshoring also called inshoring or onshoring, is when the business transfers its operations to the home country—producing from raw to final product in the same region where the market and the demands are. The trade Transition global report of 2023 explains that reshoring has increased by 10% since 2021.
Making new supply chain routes to countries that are politically and economically perceived as low risk is called Friendshoring. The idea of re-routing is to avoid any disruption to the supply chain or business flow. This term came to life with the geopolitical situations in 2022, and now different factories are searching for those countries that are more reliable on their supplies as they have less geopolitical tensions and countries that have similar norms and values to their partners or manufacturers.
All these shifts can create new manufacturing hubs near and dedicated to their final markets to serve their demands more closely. This also helps with the environmental objectives and reduces their greenhouse emissions and energy use, letting the manufacturers have access to more sustainable materials and improving their footprints to more exigent customers that now take into account the greenness of the products they buy.
Opportunities in Latin America?
For Latin American countries, the reshoring of different products turns out to be positive since it is an appetizing region for manufacturers to serve their customers not only to and for the region but also to the United States, Canada, and also European countries.
Some benefits of nearshoring in Latin America are:
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- Close time zones
- Geographic proximity
- Strong and growing labor talent
- Sustainability
Comments:
Key ports across our global network have significantly improved waiting time as a consequence of weather improvement and less cargo congestion.
- In Northern Europe, the situation at ports has improved with no waiting time, still facing weather disruptions but with less impact.
- In Asia, the situation is stable, considering weather issues. Ningbo has been impacted due to dense fog, having a waiting time of 1 day. Tauranga has improved significantly from 0-1 day of waiting time due to the reinstatement of Proforma berth windows. They concluded with all services by week 10.
- In Latin America, the situation related to weather disruption has improved in the last weeks in the Gulf of Mexico and, as per the forecast, should remain as is for the rest of March. Veracruz waiting fluctuates between 0-1 day depending on closures which are fewer nowadays.
- In North America, overall, the situation has had a significant improvement. Waiting time in both East and West coasts have reduced, Oakland congestion is allowing better performance overall on the ports complex, Houston waiting time has significantly reduced to 1 day for US Flag vessels and 2-3 days for the rest of the vessels, and labor situation, productivity, and yard utilization have improved. For the Canadian ports, Vancouver is impacted due to the heavy winter having a waiting time of 9 days.
Maersk expands footprint in Latin America with new warehouses in Chile and Peru
With more than 195,000sqm of warehouses across the West Coast of South America, Maersk continues expanding its footprint in Latin America, adding value to customers’ supply chains.
Source: Maersk
