INSIDE THE INDUSTRY: Italy logistics quality index: a new indicator to sum up the satisfaction of Italian manufacturers on logistic corridors for seaborn containerised trades.

Contship is proud to present to the international audience the Report “Corridors and logistical efficiency of territories”, developed in partnership with SRM, a Center for Economic Studies and Research, whose objective is to develop analysis on Italian regional economy in the European and Mediterranean perspective.

The efficiency of the logistics corridors, used by Italian manufacturing companies to sell goods, buy raw materials or semi-finished products in international markets, strongly influences the competitiveness of their products, and should be viewed as a vital component of productivity to boost demand for such products on a global scale.

To address this, Contship, in partnership with SRM – Studi e Ricerche per il Mezzogiorno, a centre for economic studies and research part of Intesa San Paolo Group, developed the Report “Corridors and logistic efficiency of territories” and created a new index, to identify the logistic factors to which manufacturing companies in Italy give greater importance, and the quality perceived by these companies.

The study, focused on logistics corridors used for seaborne containerized trades only, serves as a tool for institutions, businesses, as well as trade associations in defining their business strategy and foster growth and development of Italy’s logistics sector in the coming years.

Quality Logistics Italian Index (QLI2)

The index, named Quality Logistics Italian Index or QLI2, is part of a wide-ranging study titled “Corridors and logistics efficiencies of territories” drawing on the experience and sentiment of 400 manufacturing companies based in Italy’s three main regions – Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna which account for more than half of the country’s foreign trade.

The findings from the index confirmed a tendency to outsource logistics and underlined the need to examine the  supply chain more closely as global trading patterns continue to evolve.

QLI2 identified 10 factors which were clustered into four categories – services, costs, infrastructures, and sustainability. Companies were asked to give a score of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, for each factor to reflect their importance to the logistics system.

The 10 factors, relating to the logistics system, ranged from size and accessibility of infrastructures, rapidity and regularity of port services, maritime and land transport services, availability of high-speed rail to efficiency of customs services, IT system, port service charges, cost of transport from port to inland destination, and attention to sustainability issues.

Among other key findings, the index presented the disparity between companies’ level of satisfaction with the services and the importance they gave to these services – indicating the need to further improve the overall quality of the services provided.

While rapidity and regularity of Italy’s port and maritime services is a well-positioned value, the study also shpwed there is space for improvement to reduce port charges and cost of transport from port to door and vice versa.

Much of logistics function outsourced

Coming as a surprise for an export-oriented economy, the SRM/Contship study revealed 52% or more than half of the companies polled did not know the port of destination for their exports and 44% were unaware of the port of origin for imports.

The study showed Shanghai as the most used port for Italian exports and imports. As for exports to the US, the main port was New York.

While there are advantages of outsourcing logistics, in terms of lower costs and more time to focus on the core business, looking beyond the quality of their product to see how other parts of the supply chain can be utilised for competitive advantage might be necessary in the current environment, the study suggests.

Promoting more environmentally friendly intermodal logistics

On top of these economic concerns, there has been a growing global concern about the effects of climate change, with logistics and transport responsible for 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Contship, as an independent terminal and intermodal operator promoting the development of port and intermodal infrastructures, is constantly engaged with building an efficient and more environmentally friendly intermodal logistics model through greater use of rail.

Moving forward, SRM and Contship hope to extend the survey beyond Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna, to help logistics operators fine tune their strategies going forward amid ever growing challenges.

Contship and SRM will organise 2 focus group (13th May – 27th May from 10 am to 1 pm) in Milan to discuss details of results and design the new survey. Participation will be limited to 20 people for each meeting.