Market Research †report outline Essay

1. Executive Summary In 2009, the transport and logistics market in the GCC was worth an estimated US$20bn, and is expected to continue growing at slightly more than 10% per annum, rising to US$27bn by 2012. Throughout the logistics value chain, net operating profits range from as low as 5% in air freight, to 15% in warehousing, to as high as 30% in sea freight.i Within this, it is estimated that the market for Fourth Party Logistics services may have the potential to be within the range of 0.85% to 1.8% of total logistics sector revenues by 2012, or between US$228m and US$381m.ii A significant number of factors are driving this growth and profitability. In particular, the relative attraction of the GCC and proximate emerging markets of 2 billion people, offer the promise of growth to many product firms facing a further period of sluggish demand growth in many of the more developed regions, following the severe global recession of 2008-09. Meanwhile, with oil having stabilised at over $70bbl, huge petrodollars have continued to flow into the region, funding on-going infrastructure and economic developments, such as manufacturing, economics and logistics zones, all of which require logistics servicesiii. In addition, rather than yielding a competitive market for logistics, the fragmentation of supply chain service providers, the multitude of logistical difficulties faced, and the myriad other free market impediments in the GCC, have all conspired to cause a high cost, high profit industry, with no