On April 20, the World Bank released its ‘2023 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) Report’, subtitled ‘Resilience and Reliability are Crucial in the Performance of Logistics’. The Bretton Woods institution argues that “logistics is the lifeblood of international trade, and trade in turn is a powerful force for economic growth and poverty reduction”.

In the report, the World Bank observes: “While most time is spent in shipping, the biggest delays occur at seaports, airports and multimodal facilities. Policies targeting these facilities can help improve reliability. Such policies include improving clearance processes and investing in infrastructure, adopting digital technologies and incentivising environmentally sustainable logistics by shifting to less carbon-intensive freight modes and more energy-efficient warehousing.”

The LPI is a measure of 139 countries’ ease of ability to establish reliable supply chain connections and the structural factors that make it possible, such as the quality of logistics services, trade and transport-related infrastructure, as well as border controls.

The report was first released in 2010, and every two years thereafter, but the last report was released in 2018, owing to the supply chain disruptions during the pandemic.

For those of the glass-half-full persuasion, this article is for you, as it contains very good news indeed – namely that South Africa achieved its highest ever LPI ranking, placing nineteenth, compared with thirty-third in 2018. If anything, South Africa lacked consistency over the years: it placed twentieth in 2016, thirty-fourth in 2014, twenty-third in 2012 and twenty-eighth in 2010.

The LPI is based on a worldwide survey of stakeholders providing feedback on the logistics ‘friendliness’ of the countries where they operate and of those with which they trade. As of 2023, the LPI incorporates certain key performance indicators and Big Data to complement the results of the survey. The World Bank contends that “the LPI helps developing countries identify where improvements can be made to boost competitiveness”. The LPI is the weighted average of a country’s scores on six key dimensions or scores: Customs – the efficiency of the clearance process (speed, simplicity and predictability of formalities) by border control agencies, including customs; Infrastructure – quality of trade and transport- related infrastructure (ports, railroads, roads, information technology); International Shipment – ease of arranging competitively priced shipments; Logistics Competence and Quality – competence and quality of logistics services (transport operators, customs brokers); Timelines – timeliness of shipments in reaching the destination within the scheduled or expected delivery time; and Tracking and Tracing – ability to track and trace consignments.

As to what South Africa could do to improve its ranking in 2025, the World Bank suggests three ‘policy highlights’ – improving customs and infrastructure matters is the most important consideration in raising the overall score; addressing bottlenecks in landlocked developing countries is beyond the scope of unilateral interventions and requires coordinated interventions across borders, such as introducing robust transit regimes; and environmentally sustainable logistics options can lessen the carbon footprint of supply chains and keep trade moving.

The second is obviously not applicable to South Africa. As for customs and infrastructure matters, on average, export delays are of the same magnitude as import delays, but for different reasons – export delays are tied more to the quality of service or to economies of scale. Concerning environmentally friendly options, these include shifting to less carbon-intensive freight modes, more energy-efficient warehousing, or better capacity utilisation. For its part, the Department of Transport, recognising that emissions in South Africa’s transport sector account for 10.8% of the country’s total greenhouse-gas emissions, has developed its 68-page ‘Green Transport Strategy for South Africa: 2018 to 2050’ document, which aims to minimise the adverse impact of transport on the environment, while addressing current and future transport demands.

A copy of the report is accessible at https://lpi.worldbank.org/report.