Supply Chain Research

Freight forwarders operating U.S.-inbound, seaborne services saw a 3.4% slide in traffic in January compared to a year earlier. That was slower than Q4’s 7.1% slide in part due to the earlier lunar new year. There was a wide dispersion in performance with K+N and Expeditors seeing declines of 8.4% and 8.3% respectively, while DB Schenker continued to outperform with a 4.0% improvement. The forwarders’ performance in February and March will partly reflect disruptions caused by COVID-19 on shipments from China, making geographic exposure rather than appetite to build market share a more si...