The Portuguese courier and express market is to grow 8% this year, building upon similar annualgrowth over the past three years, according to new research.
Revenues, which grossed some EUR 506 million in 2005, should grow to around EUR 590 millionat the end of 2007 if the forecast is correct.
International express deliveries in and from the country accounted for a quarter of allbusiness in 2005, compared to 23% in 2004, said the study by DBK, the Iberian subsidiary of Italianbusiness information group Databank.
Growth was being driven by “increasing externalisation of transport and logistics services inthe B2B sector, the development of greater added-value services and the dynamic of electroniccommerce,” DBK said.
But margins narrowed among express companies in Portugal, last year and the year before, thereport said. This was due to high fuel costs which the carriers were not able to pass on to clientsbecause of the sector’s intense competition.
There are some 200 express companies operating in Portugal, most of them small with less than10 employees. Over half of business is done by foreign-owned carriers. Two-fifths of carriers arebased in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley (Vale do Tejo) area, 30% in the north and 23% in the centre ofthe country,
A growing demand for quality and new services from clients would lead companies operating inPortugal to offer more global logistics in future, DBK said. Express carriers were alsoincreasingly tailoring their services to specific sectors in order to respond better to customers’needs.
