International logistics

International logistics is a concept much wider than the national logistics. Includes the planning, control and implementation of flow of goods and information between countries. International logistics can also be understood as material flows, such as:

• flows that come from the outside (suppliers and partners),
• flows taking place within the company (materials, raw materials, semi-finished products),
• flows oriented at recipients of finished goods, services and products.

Aspects of international logistics

International logistics has three forms:

• Functional - involving tasks and processes of international companies, i.e. all activities and processes of transport of goods in time and space between two points: sender and recipient,
• Institutional - includes all technical and organizational units created to carry out the logistics processes,
• Process - international logistics describes the economic area excluding the borders, with guaranteed free movement of services, goods and capital.

Specifics of international logistics

The specificity of the international logistics is due to the characteristics of international trade, in particular, of:

• Multiple crossing of the state border by goods, which involves additional fees (e.g. customs) as well as delays and inhibitions of material flows,
• Trade is circling around the globe, passing many climatic zones using various means of transport, warehousing and storage systems,
• Existing substitution between expenditures on logistics and expenditures on production, service and sales, which shows that complex and expensive logistics costs can to some extent be substituted by the appropriate distribution of production processes.

International logistics — recommended articles

Returns of goods, waste and recyclables logistics subsystem — Multimodal transport — Inventory costs — Distribution expense — Business logistics — Transport — Value chain model — Process innovation — International transport

References

• Rushton, A. (2007). International logistics and supply chain outsourcing: from local to global. Kogan Page Publishers.
• International Logistics Performance Index @ Worldbank
• Transportation & Logistics 2030. Volume 4: Securing the supply chain @ PwC
• Connecting to Compete 2014. Trade Logistics in the Global Economy, 2014, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, Thierry Geiger, Sean Doherty (eds.), The Global Enabling Trade Report 2014, 2014, World Economic Forum