JOC Staff | Nov 16, 2012 10:32AM EST
The Stifel Nicolaus Logistics Confidence Index, a monthly survey of international shippers and forwarders measuring European-based trade lanes, conducted by Stifel Nicolaus Logistics and Transport Intelligence, rose 0.1 index points to 47.4 in November, the first increase recorded since the survey’s inception in March.
The study indicated that although forwarders believe that current market volumes are below the seasonal norm, they expect volumes to be better than the seasonal norm six months from now.
In November, despite continued weakness in air freight, ocean freight saw improvement in almost every lane, increasing for the first time since April.
Despite the slight improvement in sea freight in November, results are far from indicating any surge in volume for the peak season, said Lucy Palmer, economist at Transport Intelligence and the index’s compiler.
