Author(s)

G. Mattrisch & E. Böhlke

Abstract

Transport and logistics increasingly have to be understood and analyzed at international and interregional scales, due to fast growing international trade, developments in specific transport corridors, and the ongoing concentration process of international, multi-modal logistics providers. In this paper, the current situation of international transport markets is described, the main trends and driving forces of the process are analyzed, some selected issues are projected into the future, and major impacts on regional and urban levels are derived. One main finding is that freight transport might be growing even faster within the next ten years than generally assumed. New solutions in different elements of the logistics value chain, elimination of current bottlenecks, and enhanced business models of multi-modal, international cooperation, and rational transport policies seem to be the candidate fields of action in this context. Nevertheless, risks of declining environmental qualities around logistics hubs and corridors have to be considered. 1 Introduction Transport and logistics are fast growing businesses in nearly every region of the world. As pointed out at an earlier conference (1), current and future growth rates of the transport sector are constantly on a relatively high level, i. e. between 2 and 5% p. a. for developed countries and in the range of 5 – 8% in emerging regions. At first glance, these figures do not seem to be of dramatic impact, but just imagine that for the latter the consequence is continuous doubling every decade.

Keywords