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BOOK REvIEW


It’s the world’s ‘hidden industry’ but Middle East freight expert and author Issa Baluch, and co-author Charles Edwards, have just published a new book that could shed light on the vital part that the international supply chain plays in the world economy.


Issa Baluch has done something very unusual for a freight person. He’s written a book. At a stroke it has almost doubled that most select canons of literature, international freight and logistics. And one of the last major books on the subject was published back in 2005, authored by - Issa Baluch. The reason for the reluctance


to put pen to paper is quite simple, he says. “Most people in the business are practitioners, who are busy all the time with fire-fighting. This is a very ‘engaging’ industry, and there are only a few people like me, who are semi-retired, who have the time.” However, “I do wish more people would take the time to sit down and write. There’s a lot more that could be said about this industry.” It’s partly for this reason that


logistics is the ‘invisible industry’ and why so few otherwise well- informed people have much notion of it and the near-miracles it performs daily. To the outsider, “it’s not sexy enough, to tell you the truth. People say ‘Why would I want to get involved with moving boxes around?’” Few people set out in life


with the express intention of becoming logisticians. It’s still the case, even after decades of attempts to attract graduates and other promising youngsters into the industry, that most people still end up in it by chance. “Certainly, whenever I talk to the more senior guys in the industry, it was always by accident – perhaps it was


because they got a summer job in a local freight company, or something like that. The one exception seems to be Germany, where you do occasionally meet people who took logistics courses at high school. So this industry is seen as something on the sidelines, and not much is known about it.” It’s when Issa Baluch gives


one of his talks on the industry that the penny drops. “There is this realisation that this is the industry that makes the wheels of commerce turn.” Without it, there would be no globalisation, no international trade, indeed no world economy as we know it. Even with the IT revolution and the so-called knowledge economy, things still have to get from place to place. The wheel is a recurring


theme in Issa Baluch’s book, whether it is the device invented by our remote ancestors or more abstract notions such as the wheel of commerce. Wheels will be with us for


the foreseeable future but the nature of logistics will no doubt change in other ways. The end of cheap oil and the search for alternatives is bound to have a big effect on the way – or even whether – we move goods across continents and oceans. “Man is ever searching and


looking for alternatives and I hope that ultimately there will be a source of cheaper energy.” Issa Baluch describes the ongoing debate over ‘food miles’ as “healthy” and one that ought to be aired, though he personally


doubts that mankind will ever again be satisfied with what can be obtained from within donkey-driving distance. There is in any case a lot which people fail to grasp about the nature of international freight, for example the ample availability of bellyhold space on aircraft heading back to Europe from Africa; if one accepts that the plane has to fly anyway to bring back human freight, using it to carry green beans or cut flowers is arguably a far more ecological alternative than “growing everything in greenhouses.” Yes, you could widen the


debate to include the desirability or otherwise of much long-haul passenger air travel, but are people willing to give up their exotic summer holidays for the sake of the planet just yet? Mankind’s more immediate preoccupation is the recession, and when it is likely to end. Issa Baluch freely admits that “with every quarter, I’ve changed my views”, such is the volatility of the current economic situation. “Nobody can read the future- but I think 2013 is still on the table for recovery” - rather later than some of the more optimistic politicians would have had us believe only a few months ago. But perhaps some of the


changes wrought by this latest downturn, according to some estimates the worst in living memory, have been more profound than previous lean periods. “The major change with this recession has been that mankind has become very frugal.


They understand that there can be a rainy day, and that it may come when they least expect it.” People are holding into cash


now. They’re telling themselves: ‘I don’t really need it today. I can wait instead of putting it on the plastic.’ “So it will be very, very modest


growth in the economy – slow and perhaps painful for many. At least until our memory of the recession fades.” Modern supply chains and communications have had an effect on the way recessions hit. “We now have a global impact and we have 24-hour news and so on, so we can know exactly what is happening.” A feature of the current recession is that it was widely discussed and anticipated long before it actually occured – anticipated by all except governments, who all tried to deny that it was happening of course. “One piece of bad news can spread like wildfire, and the challenge today is how to manage all that information. And there’s the danger too that good news can also travel faster than reality.” One of the paradoxes that


the current recession has thrown up, and which is reflected in Issa Baluch’s latest book, is that it has led to renewed interest in Africa, most of which was until very recently regarded as an economic no-go area by sensible businesspeople and investors. But because the downturn in other markets was so sharp and severe, Africa suddenly started to look like a good bet because


Transport Logistics: The Wheel of Commerce


The wheel is a running theme throughout Transport Logistics: The Wheel of Commerce, launched at the FIATA World Congress in Bangkok. Co-authored by US aviation and logistics expert Charles Edwards, it rapidly summarises several thousand of transport and logistics development, before moving on to the here and now. Baluch and Edwards examine how the


logistics industry creates the modern, globalised economy, and discuss the likely effects of the current recession, pointing out the direct relationship between economic cycles and world trade. They detail the effects of the recession on all players from customs agents to transport operators.


Also, the authors note, many of the major indices that measure the state of world economy directly reflect what is going on in transport and logistics, such as the number of laid-up ships and aircraft or air and sea freight rates. The analysis concludes with an assessment of the prospects for recovery, which could be a long and difficult road. Two thirds of the book details case studies


of transport logistics in 11 countries, most of them in the developing world and about half of them in Africa, Issa Baluch’s place of birth. Africa is no longer ‘the Dark Continent’.


Business opportunities are growing and even countries that were a byword for man’s inhumanity to man a few years back


are starting to tackle issues like governance and tax collection. Nowhere is the role of logistics better illustrated; where improved transport infrastructure has been provided in Africa, it has been responsible for over half the recent economic growth, though it must be remembered that in general the continent is lagging behind other countries, even other developing nations. The entire transport industry, including railways and ports, is somehow having to make equipment work that anywhere else would have been sent to the scrapyard years ago. This in turn leads to higher costs and delays, all of which end up costing traders more and disrupting the supply chain.


ISSUE 4 2010 Global logistics: the untold story


Issa Baluch


its relatively modest economy held up quite well in the maelstrom. “It’s also supposedly the last economic frontier, it’s discovering oil and gas in a big way, and minerals, and there is a race on to penetrate it, with China taking a lead.” The emphasis on Africa and


its undeniably difficult logistics issues in the book came about “because I wanted to bring an ‘unknown’ continent to peoples’ attention – and also because I was born there.” Over the years, Issa Baluch has also done business in 18 African countries. It’s also important that


African countries learn from the logistics experiences of other countries. Undeniably, some places like Dubai, Singapore and the Netherlands are the


world’s logistics leaders, while in others the industry seems to happen by default. “I want the new generation to appreciate that there are places that have the potential to become the next Dubai, to become the star performers, to build the infrastructure and enhance the flow of trade.” And there are some success


stories already in African logistics, some of them in the most unlikely-sounding places. “Rwanda is one place we can see progress, so too in Ghana, and Botswana is the same. Ethiopian Airlines has one of the highest coverages of the continent. And Burundi’s lake borders four other countries – though at the moment it has nothing but rust- bucket ferries.”


Issa Baluch: a life in logistics


Issa Baluch was instrumental in turning the once sleepy Gulf port of Dubai into a global air and sea hub, while pioneering the concept of sea-air multimodal transport in the region. Today, the port city and the wider United Arab Emirates is one of the foremost examples of how the international logistics industry can transform the economy of a region. Originally from East Africa, he started right at the bottom, as


a tally clerk at Gulf Agency Company. Later, he founded Swift Freight, which soon became one of the region’s top freight firms. As well as playing a major role in several international freight associations, Issa Baluch also published Transport Logistics: Past, Present and Predictions in 2005. It is available in four languages and has sold over 30,000 copies worldwide. Transport Logistics: The Wheel of Commerce is available from Ivy House Publishing in the US +1 919 782 0281 www.ivyhousebooks.com or from Amazon. Thanks to the miracle that is modern logistics, it should be with you in a few days.


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