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Charting a course for global growth in the shipping industry

Empowering a leading shipping company to enhance its strategic planning and identify new routes for growth

The shipping industry went through a period of substantial disruptions and growth during the pandemic. Drawing lessons from the pandemic shock and the supply chain disruptions, our client, a leading shipping company, recognised the need to further enhance their strategic planning, especially on a global level.

The client’s management team sought to gain a deeper understanding of the megatrends, identify opportunities and risks, and better plan for future disruptions. In addition, recognising the limitations of regional teams operating in silos against the backdrop of universal, industry-wide challenges, the client aimed to better align business operations and performance management across their global offices.

The Challenge

The client aspired to anticipate, rather than just react to, structural and cyclical changes in the industry. They sought a holistic understanding of the megatrends and factors shaping their sector. However, despite their extensive industry knowledge, they lacked insights into the macroeconomic landscape. This is a crucial external factor for trade and shipping and is essential for benchmarking their current and prospective performance across headline sectors.

The client’s management team is in search of new growth opportunities across trade routes and goods. They required unbiased insights into the trade and shipping prospect, to validate their inhouse views and assess high-level strategies. They also needed support on some of the mode cutting edge research areas such as climate assessments. They needed support from reputable, experienced forecasting teams, who can translate data into meaningful insights and narratives.

To create a shared vision among the client’s regional teams who were previously acting in silos, our client needed a standardised performance evaluation framework. This framework should be founded on accurate, consistent global trade forecasts that reflect both global trends and regional variations.

To keep their competitive age, the client continued to invest and leverage M&A for growth. They needed comprehensive insights into the associated opportunities and risks. This can be difficult to acquire especially when it comes to long-term trade forecasts, as trade pattern could evolve drastically over time.

The Solution

Oxford Economics TradePrism service enabled the client to get a pulse on the macro and sectoral conditions impacting trade and shipping. Using the TradePrism dashboard, the client could visualise the data, develop narratives, and easily present insights for various purposes.
TradePrism provided the client with trade forecasts for up to 2050, supporting the development of their short-, medium-, and long-term strategic plans. By comparing trade prospects at the country, shipping type, commodity levels, the client could identity new routes for growth and anticipate potential areas of risks. The independent forecasts from Oxford Economics also aid the client’s due diligence process.
Linking trade flows among 183 countries, TradePrism offered the client harmonised data and insights into all regions. Underpinned by Oxford Economics proprietary models, TradePrism provided forecasts rooted in a consistent set of underlying assumptions, which allowed the client to establish a unified and cohesive performance evaluation framework. Utilising the data from TradePrism, the client could easily benchmark their market penetration rate against the total value of trade flows for each headline sector, thereby developing meaningful KPIs.
Oxford Economics’ expert team presented at the client’s management meeting, and worked closely with the client’s Chief Economist to identify key trends and risks that hold a significance influence on the industry and the client. This collaboration enabled the client to validate their in-house views, relieved them from digging into economic and trade data, and allowed them to focus on the real insights.

The Result

Thanks to the support from Oxford Economics’ and the TradePrism platform, the client was able to increase its focus on certain trade relationships and goods, weighing the opportunities and risks. Leveraging the data and forecasts from TradePrism, the client developed a dashboard to guide their strategic planning. The client also managed to develop a consistent set of KPIs for all regional teams, facilitating an effective performance benchmarking process.