Page 50 - Plastics News November 2025
P. 50
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
design. The event, held November 17–19, 2025, of sustainable packaging.
will provide a panoramic view of how regulation Source – Plastics Engineering
and technology continue to define the next era
ADDRESSING CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL
LOGISTICS OPERATIONS WITH TECHNOLOGY
ver the last four to five years, we have When COVID hit in early 2020, the slow and
experienced disrupted logistics— steady approach seemed right once more in
Obroadly defined here as the interrup- hindsight. However, not long after, consumer
tion or complete breakdown of the supply chain spending behavior changed significantly.
functions at one or multiple levels.
Shift in consumption behavior and demand
Going back 14 years ago, the logistics indus- asymmetry
try dramatically reduced capital expenditure in
2008 when the great recession hit. Most of the When COVID hit, there was a huge shift in con-
companies never really resumed the pre-reces- sumption behavior. In the short term, the ex-
sion rate of expenditure growth. penditure on both goods and services saw a
sharp decline. However, the expenditure on
In fact, the outperforming logistics vendors to- goods resumed to the pre-pandemic level within
day (based on profitability and revenue growth just a few months. Interestingly, it wasn’t until
metrics) are the ones that were extra cautious mid-2021 that the expenditure on services re-
on capital expenditure in the years following the covered on the same level.
recession.
This trend continues even today. There is a clear
The industry had a very clear objective for the shift from spending on hotels and recreational
next decade: services to spending on furniture, home equip-
ment, footwear, etc. This shift is more prominent
♦ Keep costs low
in North America as they have typically, bigger
♦ Stay lean houses and therefore, more scope for concepts
such as a home gym and home office. This
♦ Remain efficient meant a huge movement of goods from East
Asia to Western Europe and America, creating
Due to this slow and steady approach, the lo-
gistics industry was able to keep margins stable an asymmetry in demand as well as freight rates.
even when it faced overcapacity in 2016—which Increasing cost and lack of resources
is interesting to note as today, challenges re-
volve around container shortage and port con- Years after the start of the pandemic, ocean
gestions. freight rates still remain high and reached an all-
50 PLASTICS NEWS November 2025
