Market Trends of Sweden Freight And Logistics Industry
Growth in the rail freight segment
The share of new entrants in the Swedish rail freight sector has significantly increased. The vertical separation of the Swedish rail industry between infrastructure and train operations is often regarded as highly successful, bringing the benefits of competition. The Swedish government has established that new main lines are needed between Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. To increase opportunities for sustainable and reliable passenger and freight transport by rail, the Swedish Transport Administration is planning and building new main lines. The new main lines will be made in stages, with the first three being the East Link, Gothenburg–Borås, and Hässleholm–Lund.
The rail freight sector in the country faces high competition from the road freight industry. The Shift2Rail initiative is based on digitalization, enabling various levels of automation and intelligence in the rail system, and it involves an investment of about SEK 8 million (USD 0.76 million). Multimodality is a required field where also ITS solutions/applications are developed. More than 60% of the containers handled in the port are transported by rail, and around 70 trains arrive and depart from the Port of Gothenburg daily. Also, the rail-port intermodal concept of the port contributes to significant emission reduction. One subproject is about intelligent video gates (IVG) capturing data with the help of optics and RFID, enabling better information sharing and operational planning in, e.g., intermodal terminals.
Growing e-commerce accelerating the demand for logistics facilities
E-commerce revenue in Sweden in 2022 was estimated to be around 136 billion kronor (USD 12.24 billion), which is more than 12 billion euros (USD 12.86 billion) in comparison to the previous year. User penetration stood at the level of 74.8%, and by the end of 2025, it is expected to hit 81.8%. About 8 million people shop online in Sweden, which is quite a lot considering that the country has only ten million people. This means that many Swedes depend on digital commerce to fulfill their shopping needs. Online shopping is convenient because it is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and at lower prices than in-person shopping.
According to e-commerce demographics, geography, age, and income play a role in online shopping. Younger generations purchased more online in 2022 than older generations did in the past. Women aged 25-34 bought the most online, while older men aged 35-44 did the same. All eight national regions were highly familiar with online shopping. However, Western Sweden has the largest number of online shoppers. When we look at income levels, we see that the higher your disposable income, the more likely you are to shop online. More than 80 percent of shoppers who had the highest disposable income bought online, compared to 55 percent who had the lowest disposable income.
