The National Institute for Logistics celebrated its first anniversary on Wednesday 6 March 2013 at the Radisson Hotel; the results of the Survey on Hub Operators were presented there, at the opening of the 2013 cycle of conferences.
“Facing the challenges for the development of a Logistics Hub” was the name of the talk given by Prof. H. Donald Ratliff, Ph. D. In his lecture, Prof. Ratliff highlighted that in Latin America, poor logistics performance is the main issue that hinders the growth of trade; the commercial routes compete primarily in terms of TIMING, COSTS and PREDICTABILITY. Governments typically dismiss the problem from the point of view of the integrated Supply Chain, and tend to tackle isolated components, both when dealing with infrastructure issues and with norms and regulatory problems.
HUBs are a key component in those chains. Not all the countries have the potential required to be a HUB. Some of the components required imply: GEOGRAPHY, INFRASTRUCTURE, CONNECTIVITY, TIMING and COSTS, COMMERCE and TRANSPORTATION REGULATIONS. Uruguay must keep on working to position itself as a HUB at a global level.
Luis Eduardo González, Director of the firm Cifra, presented the results of the survey that involved 184 companies from October to December 2012.
To highlight, it is estimated that there are at least 300 companies engaged in Hub activities that would account for an annual turnover of around 1,232 million dollars. Their annual expenditures in terms of inputs, fuel, maintenance, functioning and other items is estimated in 483 million dollars (salaries not included).
Thus, their added value (pay of production factors: including, but not limited to salaries, benefits, repayments and rental) is estimated in 749 million dollars. In the last three years, their annual average investment reached 133 million dollars.
The companies in the Hub give employment to an estimate 14,000 workers, 9,600 of whom are permanent staff and 4, 400 are outsourced and seasonal (on an annual basis).
The 184 companies surveyed engage mostly young people (up to 45 years old): 78%.
Following the two presentations, the event held a “living room talk”, where Minister Enrique Pintado had a conversation with two opinion leaders of the private sector.
