A decade ago when TNT Logistics changed its name to CEVA Logistics, the brand became a four-letter word because, as the company said, “creating a brand name with four letters rather than three allows us to stand apart from TNT, UPS and DHL.”
      Like its global competitors, the company has also instituted a strong, color-based brand identity: the logo developed is a deep burgundy that sets it apart from TNT’s orange, FedEx’s purple, DHL’s yellow, and UPS’s brown.
      Ceva is also a town in Italy, a famous geometric theorem, a computer company, and the name of a veterinary medicine company.
      But CEVA, in this case, is purely “a created name,” the company said.
      Today while air freight markets may be a spin, Helmut Kaspers, Chief Operating Officer Air and Ocean at CEVA Logistics, is full of positives.
      However, he admits that future demand growth for the market overall will largely need to be fuelled by a reduction in global economic headwinds as air freight is put under increasing pressure from land and sea shipping options.
      Kaspers told FlyingTypers that currency fluctuations and the growth of manufacturing centers in Asia were creating new opportunities for those with the know-how and footprint to exploit the fastest growing trade lanes.
      “The key lanes with sizeable growth potential are still some of the Asian exporting nations, in particular Thailand and Vietnam, which have all seen significant volume growth in the past,” he said. “We continue to be optimistic for trade lanes from Europe such as Germany and Netherlands to Asia Pacific and to North America as they are being driven by a strong U.S. Dollar.”
      The business will be particularly driven by Asian exports to North America and Europe, where consumer demand is increasing. In Asia, especially China, imports from the U.S. will remain weak due to the strong U.S. Dollar.
      “Latin American markets such as Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela continue to be a challenge.
      CEVA is maximizing returns for its own bottom line and those of its customers by taking a “calculated risk” approach to provide competitive service solutions. “Once we win a new contract, we use the current market situation combined with optimized consolidations to maximize returns,” said Kaspers. 

      The company has also enhanced its Supply Chain Solutions arm in recent times. “We are constantly working on product developments to better innovate and empower access to our services and to enable automation and management by exception,” he said. “Our teams are currently piloting several new features of our Matrix SCM application such as Matrix SCM Role Based Access—this is for customers and their shippers and enables faster setup, roll-out, and adoption of end-to-end supply chain visibility and exception management applications.”
      Another service upgrade comes in the shape of Matric SCM shipper booking request, a service that enables bookings to be completed via an online Shipping Order function. Data is then used from the system to trigger exceptions and plan bookings. “Productivity and data quality will therefore improve significantly as the booking request is entered only once at the source,” explained Kaspers.
      The drift of some freight to ocean, alongside other trends such as miniaturization, near shoring, and expansion of ground transport options on major lanes such as Asia to Europe are presenting challenges, however. According to Kaspers, this means air freight demand growth will largely be dependent on GDP growth, or by faster high-tech product life cycles.
      “On the other hand,” he added, “with low fuel prices and the current over-capacity situation on a global basis, we expect rates to remain at a relatively low level going forward; though this will not lead to shifting from ocean back to air, it might facilitate ‘stock emergency’ types of airfreight shipping.
      “The share of high-tech goods will drop. Automotive, which is mostly emergency shipping, will continue with the usual cyclical ups and downs.
      “Driven by the increase in wealth, average age, and overall population, pharmaceuticals/healthcare and life style products will also show higher than average airfreight growth. Wealth and population growth will also stimulate perishables growth.”
SkyKing