The EU-27 logistics industry: structure and trends of major subsectors and national markets

Europe’s transport and logistics systems need to be optimized, improved and leveraged through cutting-edge logistics solutions. In other words, there is a recognized growing need for a holistic European approach to transport and logistics questions, focusing on integration and coordination between the different dimensions of transport policy. This paper is willing to investigate the nature and the structure of the EU logistics industry. The study has been carried out analysing the last available confirmed data extracted from a wide selection of statistical sources. Starting from the relevance of the EU logistics industry within the non-financial business economy, our main objective is to evaluate the structure and the trends characterising the major subsectors across various nations. Variables such as turnover, value added and employment will be discussed and compared following a cross-country approach. The originality of the manuscript is to provide a comprehensive view of the industry, also facing methodological difficulties in managing data lacks and non-homogeneous statistical classifications. Major outcomes reveal the market fragmentation within some subsectors, the progressive shifting towards East of the transport and logistics industry, as well as the vertical integration and internationalization strategies performed by some leading players.