07 April 2023 Friday
Logistics turns to tech to meet new demand
Asia’s logistics sector is booming. And it is technology — whether used to map global shipping routes or plan customer deliveries — that is helping propel growth at companies large and small.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Asia, where surging e-commerce sales and Western unease around Chinese suppliers are putting pressure on logistics groups. Online sales in Asia hit almost $3tn in 2021, according to research group Insider Intelligence. China is by far the biggest market, but sales are expanding rapidly in countries across the region and logistics start-ups are springing up to help meet demand.
Singapore start-up uParcel launched in 2015 with a crowdsourcing model for drivers, using AI to match them to locations and deliveries. With a compound annual revenue growth rate of 64 percent between 2018 and 2021, it is included in this year’s FT/Statista ranking of high-growth companies in Asia-Pacific.
