Summary

The logistics market in Sweden is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 3% through the forecast period. The pandemic has created extreme imbalances among the transport and logistics companies. The purchases of food and pharmacy items in Sweden have been strongly positively affected in the early weeks of covid-19, with increased positive pressure on associated logistics channels and associated logistics properties. On the other hand, the sectors like automotive had a negative effect on the logistics market.

The logistics market in Sweden is the largest in the Scandinavia region. Investments in infrastructure have made the country one of the top logistics markets in Europe and the World. The central location of the country in the region makes it the preferred choice for the companies that look to consolidate distribution and warehousing activities in Northern Europe to one central location. Some ten Swedish locations are used by foreign companies for centralized distribution in Northern Europe.

The Swedish economy is highly dependent on exports of goods. The strong cross border trade has a positive impact on the transportation industry and logistics market. Gothenburg is a leading logistics location in the country supported by the Port of Gothenburg, and new logistics establishments. The port of Gothenburg is the largest port in Sweden and has continued to take a larger share of the Swedish market handling 48% of the 1.6 million TEU in Sweden in the year 2020.

The cleantech, ICT, life sciences, automotive and materials science industries are some of the emerging industries in Sweden. E-commerce and retail are also fast-growing sectors in the country which are expected to boost the logistics demand, especially in the warehousing sector.

Key Market Trends

Growth in Rail Freight segment

The share of new entrants in the Swedish rail freight sector since 1996 has significantly increased. The vertical separation of the Swedish rail industry between infrastructure and train operations is often regarded as highly successful, bringing the benefits of competition.

The rail freight sector in the country faces high competition with the road freight industry. The Shift2Rail initiative is based on digitalisation enabling various levels of automation and intelligence in the rail system and involves an investment of about SEK 8 million. Multimodality is an important field where also ITS solutions/applications are developed. More than 60% of the containers handled in the port are transported by rail and around 70 trains arrive and depart from the Port of Gothenburg every day. Also, the Rail-port intermodal concept of the port contributes to significant emission reduction. One subproject is about intelligent video gates (IVG) capturing data with help of optics and RFID enabling better information sharing and operational planning in e.g. intermodal terminals.

Growing e-commerce accelerating the demand for logistics facilities

Online shopping continues to gain popularity among Swedish consumers with the pre-pandemic growth of 2020 expected to be 33%. Among the Nordic countries, Sweden has the highest percentage of the population shopping online, supported by 96% of households having Internet access. New figures from the Postnord e-barometer shows a staggering 39% increase in total volume for October 2020 compared to the same month the year before. A record-high 82% of the population have now bought a product online. The expansion is notable among the elderly, especially for pharmacy and groceries.

E-commerce is expected to continue gaining momentum in the Swedish market, with the shift away from traditional physical retail further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Such an increase in the demand for fast and seamless delivery triggered by the e-commmerce penetration in the country is driving the demand for technologically advanced logistics faciities.

Competitive Landscape

The freight and logistics market in Sweden is fragmented in nature with a large number of international as well as domestic players active in the country. The distribution network in the country is made up of a large number of freight forwarders and third-party logistics (3PL) companies. Some of the prominent players in the market include DHL, DB Schenker, DSV, Greencarrier, Geodis, and PostNord.

Technologies such as automation, big data and analytics are expected to play a major role in the Swedish logistics market. The country is home to a large number of tech companies. The use of IT in logistics solutions by companies such as AstraZeneca, AtlasCopco, Electrolux, Ericsson, SKF, Saab, Scania and Volvo has led to the establishment of software and solution providers for supply chain management, such as Intentia (a software company that provides applications such as customer relationship management, supply chain management and asset management) and WM-data (Swedish IT consultancy company).

Additional Benefits:

The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
3 months of analyst support

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