DHL Global Forwarding has released a quarterly predictive trade index covering the movement of intermediate goods and raw materials.

The index, called the DHL Global Trade Barometer, will help the market understand the direction of ocean freight and airfreight trade growth globally, looking two to three months ahead using data collected by Seabury Consulting, (part of Accenture), in seven countries across 10 commodities.

 

Tim Scharwath, chief executive officer of DHL Global Forwarding, said the index could be used to assist with pricing, capacity and modal decisions.

 

The current reading for the index as a whole is 64, down from 66 in December. The baseline for the index is 50, meaning if it is above 50, trade is growing. So the fact the index declined from December to January means trade growth is declining, not that trade volume is declining.

 

The seven countries used in the index - the United States, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and the United Kingdom – together account for 75 per cent of global trade.