Supply chain radar: Expeditors' core customs business is the next battlefield for supply chain consolidators

ID 104160837 © Vladimir Grigorev | Dreamstime.com

The takeover of Switzerland’s Panalpina – still apparently destined to tie the knot either with Kuwait’s Agility or Denmark’s DSV, and set to add firepower to either partner’s freight forwarding activities – is uniquely attractive size-wise, and great M&A stuff for the headlines.

However, more strategic M&A action, on a smaller scale, is taking place elsewhere, where the interests of several supply chain actors of different kinds are aligned and intertwined.

The battlefield is customs brokerage (CB) services – where Expeditors is ...