The transportation and logistics market comes after two very good years: after a 2022 in which road hauliers regained their respect and were able to assert their point of view and receive a fair price for the service they provided, and ocean carriers recorded their highest ever profits, 2023 led to a softening of demand for transportation, with the huge inventories built up in 2022 and even 2023 – when many of the ocean shipments ordered as early as 2022 were carried out – being “swallowed” hard by retailers who ordered big and expensive in a peak year.
Overall, however, 2023 was another good year for the industry, and Romania, exceptionally, benefited fully from the good agricultural year in both Romania and Ukraine, with the Port of Constanța experiencing its best year ever in terms of volumes of grain transhipped and the number of containers handled. Therefore, after the disaster in agriculture due to the lack of rain the whole summer, the cereals volumes that transited the Port of Constanța in 2024 reached the same volumes as in 2022, losing the 33% increase gained in 2023 only.
2024 was a difficult year for transporters and logistics operators specialized in automotive, as the automotive sector across Europe was severely strained due to reduced demand – especially for electric cars – putting many car and commercial vehicle manufacturers at risk of paying penalties for failing to meet their target to reduce CO2 emissions compared to 2019 production.
e-commerce did well, with volume increases for carriers, couriers and fulfillment centres, and domestic consumption was quite good compared to other European countries. Costs were still rising, so margins – both in transportation and warehousing – were low, but volumes were satisfactory for some industries.
So 2025 begins with the hope that things will go at least as well as they did in 2024: Romanian hauliers, which have conserved their resources better than their Polish, Lithuanian or Bulgarian colleagues, have only marginally reduced their fleets so they can now plus up in the European market with an economy that is starting to recover, and logisticians and shippers are happy to see the domestic market growing, thanks to a few new manufacturers that have built or are still building new production capacities here in our country. More and more retailers from all industries – fashion, food, construction and so on – are strategically positioning their regional distribution hubs, encouraged not only by Romania’s favoured geographical position, but also, more recently, by the possibility of higher transport speed due to the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen with land borders, as well as the expanding the highways network, which, in addition to speed, also bring lower distribution costs.
For 2026, however, the Romanian market will accelerate the European trend of increasing transportation costs, as Romania will adopt the new Eurovignette, which is paid according to weight and the number of kilometres driven and which will increase the road tax by about 6-7 times compared to now.
Until then, transportation and storage costs will also be influenced by the increase in the minimum wage, which in Romania has risen to 4,050 lei since January, an increase of 9.46% compared to December 2024. On the one hand, higher costs are causing concern among entrepreneurs, but on the other hand, higher wages also mean more consumption and a hope that the local labour force is less tempted to leave to work abroad.
So, all things considered, 2025 is another year that is unlikely to resemble previous ones, so plans are being made again… as opportunities arise.
