Logistics Centres in the Baltic Sea Region

The transport infrastructure (i.e. ports, airports, road and railroad networks) in the Baltic Sea region is being developed and intergrated both in technical and functional terms in order to facilitate an efficient flow of goods within and across the borders. A number of logistics centres have recently been established or will be established in the near future in the Baltic Sea Region, thus further increasing the opportunities for an improved transportation performance. This study identifies existing and planned logistics centres in the Baltic Sea Region in order to provide an overall picture of the centre network of the area. The very concept of a logistics centre and the role of the centres in companies' logistics strategies and processes is also discussed. Within the study, in total 13 logistics centres from nearly all Baltic Sea Region countries were selected for deeper descriptions. These descriptions are followed by comparative analyses which focus on issues such as location, size, organisational structure, the range of services supplied by the member organisations located at the centre as well as the range of services supplied by the logistics centres themselves. Further, logistics centres as a part of BSR transportation chains and infrastructure are briefly presented. The virtual centres are the most common ones among the newly established centres. However, regions with virtual centres also have investment plans for concrete centres after co-operation within the field has been established and some experience has been gained. Therefore, the distinction between the types of centres will become blurred in the future. Cities and regions expect the logistics centres to foster the local economy. The role of the value added logistics (VAL) services is found crucial here, since the traditional logistics services are in many cases already well available. Many topics concerning logistics centres were found worth studying in the future and they are presented in conclusions. This report is available at http://www.mintc.fi or http://www.tedim.com/