The Stifel Logistics Confidence Index for July has made a slight gain in July but continues the month-by-month fluctuations that have been occurring through much of this year. Since February the overall Index (air and sea freight combined) has increased one month and then declined the next reaching its high so far this year in May at 57.9. For the current month, the index is up 0.9 points over June to 56.1.

The overall air freight confidence index has yet to return to this year’s high reported in January, 56.5 but for July, it moved up slightly, increasing 0.6 points to 54.4. Meanwhile, the overall sea freight confidence index reached its high in May, 60.1, but fell back in June and recovered to 57.8 for July.

After four consecutive months of decline July saw an uptick to 50.8, an indication of improving conditions with all but one lane above the 50 level, a situation not seen since November 2013. The Asia to Europe trade lane noted the biggest increase from June climbing 3.3 points from 49.1 to 52.4, while the Europe to US lane slipped 0.5 points to 49.2

The months question for July saw survey participants asked if they had switched freight forwarding providers in the past twelve months. A majority of respondents, 72 per cent indicated no whereas 28 per cent noted they had switched providers.