ITJ 47-48/2022
Dear readers,
I’m sure you’ve heard the news too – there’s now 8 billion of us on our planet. And we all want and need to be supplied with the goods necessary for life, and also – and this distinguishes our species from almost every other one – with material things that (should) make life more pleasant. So it’s not visionary to claim that transport and logistics will be around as long as humanity itself. That our industry is ‘of systemic importance’ to society was regularly ascertained during the recent health crisis.
I came across some interesting figures in this context last week. According to the German statistics authority, 1.1 billion filtering half masks, such as filtering facepiece (FFP) masks worth EUR 171 million were imported into Germany in the first nine months of this year. That was 69% fewer masks with a 78% lower value than in the same period last year.
As was the case last year, most masks came from China (642 million, worth approximately EUR 85 million), followed by Turkey (257 million, EUR 25 million). But as an important exporter, Germany also sold masks abroad. It dispatched a total of 226 million masks worth EUR 99 million. 56 million thereof (worth EUR 19 million) went to France and 53 million (worth EUR 14 million) to Italy. Speaking of which, you’ll find lots of news from Italy in the Special supplement to this issue.
My conclusion? A business sector has developed for flexible players in manufacturing and distribution that wasn’t even a niche opportunity just three years ago.
I hope you’ll find some other good ideas for your business in this issue.
Enjoy your read!
Andreas Haug, editor
