The upward trend in transport prices seen in the first half of the year has flattened out in the third quarter, according to the Transport Market Monitor by Transporeon and Capgemini Consulting.
The report says that the rise in available capacity, after a period of capacity reduction, is one of the main drivers for these diminishing prices.
Transport prices rose only 0.8 per cent in the third quarter compared to 13.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2010.
The strong price increase in the second quarter softened over the summer period, mainly driven by the increase in available capacity. In fact, the capacity index increased by 25.1 per cent between the second and third quarters but available capacity in the third quarter is still 26.7 per cent lower than 2009 and 18.1 per cent lower than 2008.
Peter Forster, managing director of Transporeon, said: “It indeed looks like transport prices are stabilising. However, we need to remember that during the pre-crisis period, prices were on average still two per cent higher than today. In 2008 the same price change between the second and third quarters was apparent. This seems to be the repeating pattern of dynamics in the transport market. And this proves a differentiated sourcing strategy is required to achieve maximum benefits for a company.”
