Navigating a new era

Top 25 Freight Forwarders: Navigating a new era

Consolidation, AI, evolving trade lanes and geopolitical disruption are reshaping the competitive landscape as the world’s largest freight forwarders position for the next phase of global commerce.

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From the September 2026 Issue of
Logistics Management

35th Annual Study of Logistics and Transportation Trends: Trust, but verify
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Despite continuing geopolitical trade route disruptions and challenges resulting from shifting regional manufacturing hubs, the global freight forwarding industry continues to grow, despite increasingly challenging headwinds.

According to Transport Intelligence’s latest “Global Freight Forwarding Market Sizing Report,” the global market was valued at approximately $240 billion in 2025. But growth is expected to slow sharply in 2026 with an expansion of just 2.5%. Some researchers estimate its market value to hover around $235 billion and reach over $340 billion by 2033.

According to Evan Armstrong, CEO of Armstrong & Associates (A&A), 2026 is shaping up to be a favorable market for international transportation management (ITM) third-party logistics (3PL) providers. “This year has turned into a tight-capacity, rising-rate market, and ITM 3PLs are the ones capturing the spread,” he says.

Mordor Intelligenceattributes that growth to rising container demand out of Asia, expanding cross-border e-commerce, supply chain diversification through China-plus-one manufacturing strategies, and increasing demand for temperature-controlled pharmaceutical logistics. Based on those trends, the firm forecasts the market will reach $776.04 billion, growing at a 5.19% CAGR between 2026 and 2031.

Winners and losers

One fact remains: global forwarders continue to face pressure from weaker trade volumes, falling freight rates, tariff uncertainty and geopolitical disruption.

“Sea freight is also facing significant overcapacity, while airfreight remains comparatively more balanced,” say analysts at Transport Intelligence (Ti).

Overall, analysts are hesitant to identify clear winners and losers in the industry, as performance varies considerably by geography, trade lane and business model. “However, we believe companies with strong financial resilience, diversified capabilities and the ability to adapt quickly are generally better placed to navigate the current uncertainty,” says Ti.

According to Ti’s research, DSV was the major outlier, with its 31.4% revenue growth largely reflecting the consolidation of DB Schenker rather than organic growth.

In the meantime, A&A’s research found that, by mid-summer 2026, Kuehne + Nagel (K+N), DHL, DSV, and Maersk had all raised their estimates and forecasts for the full year. “All are anticipating that the second half of 2026 should be at least as strong as the first half,” says Armstrong, who admits that this is not what anyone forecasted in December. “Acquisition-driven consolidation reshaped the leaders,” adds Armstrong. “Freight forwarding is where consolidation has been most concentrated.”

Based on revenue and international freight forwarding volumes, Armstrong & Associates’ (A&A) Top 25 Global Freight Forwarders ranking places Kuehne+Nagel and DSV at the top, followed by DHL Supply Chain & Global Forwarding, Sinotrans, Nippon Express and CEVA Logistics. (See chart)

“DSV is the archetype,” says Armstrong. “DSV consolidated the segment almost single-handedly. The megadeal era turned a one-leader field into a three-way race.”

DSV climbed to number two through four transformative acquisitions: Uti Worldwide (2016), Panalpina (2019), Agility’s Global Integrated Logistics business (2021), and DB Schenker (2025).

Armstrong emphasizes that when he compares A&A’s Top 25 Global Freight Forwarders for 2010 against the 2025 list, it shows that major forces (M&A, ocean-carrier integration, and the rise of Chinese providers) are operating with even greater intensity in this single segment.

“The top tier tripled in scale, and one acquirer, DSV, absorbed four separate 2010 top 25 forwarders,” says Armstrong. “In 2010, DHL led with $30.5 billion in gross revenue. No other forwarder was close on the combined metric. DSV, a provider who ranked 10^th in 2010 and acquired its way to the very top of global freight forwarding, is the clearest single illustration of M&A over organic growth anywhere in logistics.”

Its report, “Top 20 Global Freight Forwarders by Revenue and Market Shares 2025,” reveals that 16 global forwarders posted year-over-year revenue declines, with Sinotrans, C.H. Robinson, Dachser and Yusen Logistics among those experiencing the steepest drops.

Meanwhile, the freight forwarding landscape continues to evolve. Well-known names that ranked among the Top 25 in 2010, but have since disappeared, include Toll Holdings, whose operations were sold to Allcargo; Hyundai GLOVIS, which now generates more than half of its revenue from in-house logistics for the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group; and Sankyu. Others, including Kerry Logistics (now KLN) and Pantos (now LX Pantos), remain in the market but operate under new ownership or branding.

“Of the 2010 top 25, at least seven were acquired or dissolved into competitors,” Armstrong says.

Note: Ranks 1 (Kuehne + Nagel and DSV), 7 (C.H. Robinson and KLN), 15 (DACHSER and LX Pantos) are ties, yielding 25 providers through rank 22. *Revenues cover all four 3PL Segments (DTM, ITM, DCC, and VAWD) and are company-reported or Armstrong & Associates, Inc. estimates. Currencies have been converted to US$ using the average annual exchange rate. Freight forwarders are ranked using a combined overall average based on their individual rankings for gross revenue, ocean TEUs, and air metric tons.

Directional moves

Noteworthy trends continue to shape the direction of the industry. For example, digital entrants such as Flexport, Forto, and Beacon have structurally transformed global logistics by replacing opaque, paper-heavy legacy processes with cloud-based automation, real-time data transparency, and AI-driven workflows.

According to Mordor Intelligence, this has intensified competition since these companies are leveraging venture funding to scale carriers and utilizing web-based API protocols and visibility tools to attract small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-market shippers that prefer transparency over legacy relationships.

Driven by cost efficiency on dense lanes, ocean carriers are also moving into freight forwarding, capturing a 61.77% market share in 2025. Two of the most significant carrier-owned players last year were Maersk Logistics—which absorbed 2010 member Damco—and Cosco Shipping Logistics

“Both rank in the top tier, reflecting container lines integrating forward into transportation management and integrated solutions offerings,” says Armstrong. “CEVA, now under CMA CGM, is a third example of the shipping-line playbook, and it absorbed 2010 member Bollore/SDV along the way.”

Another trend is the surge of Chinese freight forwarders. Sinotrans was the lone mainland-China name in A&A’s 2010 top tier ranking. It’s 2025 list now includes Sinotrans, Cosco Shipping Logistics, CIMC Wetrans, AWOT Group, and CTS International. “These five Chinese providers mirror the broader shift toward Chinese mega-3PLs and cross-border e-commerce volume,” Armstrong says.

Driving the market

The largest driver affecting the industry is the cross-border e-commerce parcel boom. With a +1.2% impact on the CAGR forecast, this global segment is most largely concentrated in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific, Mordor reports.

The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing and largest regional market for global forwarders. According to Mordor Intelligence, that region generated 36.49% of forwarding revenue in 2025. It predicts the Asia-Pacific region to grow 7.80% CAGR between 2026-2031.

China remains the largest single origin, yet Mordor researchers maintain that Vietnam, India, and Indonesia collect rising investment under China-plus-one diversifications.

Another key driver is sourcing trends. Ti finds that 29% of shippers responding to its Freight Procurement Survey reveal that over the next 12 months they prefer toification within their supply chains

Near-shoring is also increasing in importance with 21.5% of shippers responding to Ti’s survey indicating they will look for suppliers near home and 20.4% saying they will bring production closer to end markets. Ti’s research also finds interest in dual/multi-shoring (per 18.3% of respondents), and re-shoring (10.8%).

Mordor research finds increasing early adoption of end-to-end shipment visibility in North America and Europe, and increased use of multimodal and intermodal forwarding as shippers balance speed, cost, and carbon impact.

“The freight forwarding market is restricting networks to blend ocean trunk haul with rail or air final legs, reducing buffer inventory without incurring full air premiums,” Mordor says.

Business segments

A&A’s “Convergence: Trends in 3PL/Customer Relationships 2026” report shows that the three fastest-growing segments over 2016-2026E are Technological (8.7% CAGR), Retailing (7.9%), and Healthcare (7.8%). Each is propelled by a structural demand driver: the AI and semiconductor buildout, the e-commerce revolution, and the biologics and cold-chain expansion accelerated by COVID-19. 

“However, AI and semiconductor demand is replacing e-commerce as the growth engine,” Armstrong says. “AI as freight, moving GPUs, servers, racks, power, and cooling gear, is where freight forwarders are responding aggressively. DHL announced 10 dedicated data-center logistics warehouses totaling over 7 million square feet in North America, slated to launch in 2026, and called it ‘only the beginning of our group-wide expansion.’”

AI as an operating tool—and the use of AI within forwarders’ own operations—is much less developed. “And this is where the structural risk sits,” he says. At the other end, Automotive has grown at just 1.8%, weighed down by the costly EV transition, tariff volatility, the semiconductor shortage, and intensifying Chinese competition.

Challenging phase ahead

Meanwhile, circumstantial challenges abound, most notably the continuing conflict with Iran and uncertainty in the Red Sea.

“Iran and the Strait of Hormuz is the dominant story,” Armstrong says. Also impacting, the industry has been the practice of tariff-driven front-loading, where importers pulled volume forward ahead of the July 24 U.S. tariff decision and Section 301 deadlines

“This resulted in a roughly 15% month-over-month jump in inbound U.S. volume that created an artificially early peak season,” says Armstrong.

Meanwhile, there remains a severe shortage of 40-foot containers across China and Southeast Asia in addition to consolidation and network churn by ocean carriers.

But Armstrong remains optimistic. “For ITM 3PLs, volatility is their business model,” he says.  “Chaos widens the spread between what they buy capacity for and what they sell it for, pushing shippers toward asset-light intermediaries who can reroute quickly. “The problem for freight forwarders in 2024 and 2025 was too much stable, cheap capacity.”

This year presents the opposite situation. Today, ITM 3PLs are critical in assisting customers in providing preemptive rerouting before they ask. In essence, they are playing an important advisory role especially when it comes to “destination-based routing triage.”

Early adoption of AI is the next game changer

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) weaves its way into many aspects of the business world, forwarders find they are not immune. That’s because AI is no longer experimental, but increasingly applied to tasks such as quoting, customer service, document processing, visibility, forecasting and decision-making.

“The key differentiator will likely be how effectively companies integrate AI into their wider operations and digital platforms, rather than treating it as a standalone technology project,” says analysts at Transport Intelligence (Ti).

Ti’s first half of 2026 Logistics Playbook identified CMA CGM, Amazon, C.H. Robinson, DHL Group and ID Logistics as leading adopters based on their AI initiatives.

In its research, Ti found that AI adoption across the air and sea freight forwarding industry is further advanced in live operational deployment than many comparable sectors with 94% of identified use cases classified as live rather than experimental. 

Ti also found that in-house development dominates. Unlike contract logistics, where external technology partnerships account for the majority of AI deployments, freight forwarders—particularly the largest global operators, are building proprietary AI capabilities at scale.

“This reflects the strategic importance of routing intelligence, TMS integration, and customer data as competitive assets, and signals a growing divergence in AI capability between major global forwarders and smaller regional players,” Ti says.

Secondly, the concentration of deployment in network and route optimization reflects the fundamental commercial logic of the sector: transport costs, fuel efficiency, emissions, and schedule reliability are the defining variables in freight forwarding competitiveness. AI optimization of these variables is directly material to margin, customer retention, and sustainability performance.

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35th Annual Study of Logistics and Transportation Trends: Trust, but verify
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