December 2025 freight & logistics market update
The final month of 2025 brings a familiar mix: ocean schedules still shaped by diversions and weather, targeted air freight peaks, structurally tight road capacity on certain corridors, and warehouse operations running close to full. In this update we summarise what matters in December across sea, air, road and warehousing; and what you can do about it.
Road Freight (Europe)
European road freight remains structurally affected by driver shortages and regulatory complexity, even as overall demand is relatively balanced. Fuel and toll regimes, plus potential energy price swings linked to geopolitical events, shape cost baselines going into 2026.
Ocean Freight
Ocean freight closes the year with comfortable nominal capacity but continued operational volatility. Diversions around high-risk corridors and winter weather patterns keep effective capacity tighter on some East–West trades, especially Asia–Europe.
Shippers are segmenting cargo more explicitly by urgency, moving part of their flows earlier or via sea–air to de-risk Chinese New Year and potential congestion in January.
Air Freight
Air cargo enters December after a long run of strong demand, driven by e-commerce and high-value goods. Additional capacity from belly networks helps, but on certain ex-Asia and transatlantic lanes, ground handling and screening remain the bottleneck rather than aircraft space itself.
Warehousing
Warehouse operations across Europe run close to full utilization in December, especially in prime gateway and urban locations. Labour availability, energy costs and service expectations accelerate investment in automation and energy-efficient, “future-ready” facilities.
Secondary parks in the hinterland offer faster move-in options and more room for tailored automation projects, supporting flexible omnichannel and returns handling.
Snapshot: Demand • Capacity • Rates
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Demand: Air and warehousing benefit from late-year activity; ocean hinges on routing and inventory strategies; road is steady with corridor variability.
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Capacity: Ocean/air broadly adequate with short peaks; road uneven on driver-intensive lanes; prime warehousing remains tight.
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Rates: Ocean generally soft with brief uplifts around schedule changes; road broadly stable with compliance effects; air steady with “green” components; warehousing firm for automation- and energy-ready assets.
Around the world,
with a personal approach
Whether you have a shipment going to Barcelona or airfreight destined for Beijing, we like to keep it personal. For you as a customer, that means contact with one employee who ensures your shipment is delivered to the right place at the right time – as agreed.
