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The World Bank launched a new interactive benchmarking tool to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in their trade logistics and what they can do to improve performance
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The Logistics Performance Indicator is a redesign of WB’s former survey-based Logistics Performance Index toward a system grounded in shipment-level data
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The Europe and Central Asia region and the North America region on average tend to exhibit the strongest connectivity, depending on the logistics mode, while Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean lag behind
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Countries with the most efficient customs and seaports clear containers for import in less than three days, on average, whereas the least efficient take more than 21 days
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To enhance logistics performance and connectivity, economies can modernize border clearance, adapt regulations that affect market structure and service quality; and provide infrastructure services directly or via public-private partnerships
The World Bank (WB) has introduced a new interactive benchmarking tool to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in their trade logistics and what they can do to improve performance.
The Logistics Performance Indicator (LPI 2.0) is a fundamental redesign of WB’s former survey-based Logistics Performance Index (LPI) toward a system grounded in shipment level data.
Until 2023, the LPI was based on a survey in which logistics professionals rated the ease of establishing supply chains with economies they traded with.
LPI 2.0, on the other hand, measures the speed and connectivity of international supply chains across the world based on supply chain tracking data collected and made available by several data partners.
The indicators cover different logistics modes–aviation, maritime, postal–and are derived from actual movements of air cargo, sea containers, and parcel shipments via postal services. Data for the LPI 2.0 currently covers 2023 and 2024 across 172 economies, up from 139 in the last edition in 2023.
WB said this new edition allows policymakers to better identify areas where improvements may be needed for their specific country context and compare performance across up to three logistics modes: maritime, air transport, and postal.
Unlike the previous LPI, the LPI 2.0 does not include a single country ranking but allows users to rank countries based on each of the 21 indicators, which WB said provides a more nuanced view of logistics performance.
The indicators that make up the LPI 2.0 measure the connectivity and time of international trade supply chains, including the time shipments spend at key nodes such as seaports and airports.
The LPI 2.0 consists of 21 indicators, each reported at the economy level and with different statistical measures.
Core indicators
Of the 21, there are six core indicators – number of partner maritime economies, container import dwell time, number of partner aviation economies, aviation import dwell time, number of business-to-business postal partner economies, and business-to-business postal delivery time–and 15 supplemental indicators for maritime and postal logistics.
According to the Connecting to Compete 2025 report, which introduces LPI 2.0, the Europe and Central Asia region and the North America region on average tend to exhibit the strongest connectivity, depending on the logistics mode, while Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean lag behind.
These patterns reflect income, geography, and market accessibility. Within regions, some developing economies, such as Malaysia, Morocco, and Sri Lanka, showcase stronger performance due to their emergence as regional hubs.
Countries with the most efficient customs and seaports clear containers for import in less than three days, on average, whereas the least efficient take more than 21 days.
Roughly half of containers worldwide require at least one transshipment. Each transshipment adds about 18 days to maritime lead times, creating structural disadvantages for small, remote economies.
Several low- and middle-income economies clear imported containers within a few days, which is comparable to high-income economies, while others experience import dwell times exceeding 10 days. Longer dwell times are due to weak customs automation, inefficient risk management, and cumbersome inspection and clearance processes, the report noted.
Aviation dwell times are shorter than those for containers because air cargo typically involves smaller volumes, higher value goods, and more integrated logistics systems.
Delays are most unpredictable when goods are stationary—in ports and transshipment facilities—and more so for imports than exports. Aviation supply chains show especially high dispersion.
Digital visibility systems, such as those implemented in India and the United States, demonstrate how the value of real-time tracking can mitigate these risks.
Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) face some of the longest and most unpredictable import times globally, with most delays stemming from idling at ports, border controls, and inland checkpoints.
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According to WB, policy makers seeking to improve the speed and reliability of supply chains should focus on dwell time and other indicators in which their economy underperforms compared with peers.
They can enhance logistics performance and connectivity in three ways:
- Modernizing border clearance through the use of digital systems, improving risk management, and meeting international standards;
- Adapting regulations that affect market structure and service quality; and
- Providing infrastructure services directly or via public-private partnerships (terminal handling services, for instance).
The following is how the Philippines measured in the six core indicators with 2024 data:
Maritime
- Number of maritime partner economies – 18 partners (U.S. was highest with 97 partners and Bermuda was lowest with one partner)
- Container import dwell time – 6.6 days (Gibraltar was fastest with 1.4 days while Sudan was slowest with 52.50 days)
Aviation
- Number of aviation partner economies – 104 partners (U.S. was highest with 167 partners while St. Lucia was the lowest with 20 partners)
- Airport aviation dwell time – 2.6 days (Singapore was fastest with just 0.30 days while Algeria was slowest with 12.10 days)
Postal
- Number of business-to-business postal partner economies – 76.5 partners (U.S. was highest with 160 partners while Greenland has one partner)
- Business-to-business postal delivery time – 13.7 days (Latvia was fastest with 1.40 days while Equatorial Guinea was slowest with 79 days)
On supplementary indicators, the following is how the Philippines measured, excluding indicators for LLDs, based on 2024 data:
Maritime
- Number of alliances (liner shipping) – 0 (South Korea had the highest with 5.2 alliances)
- Number of services (container shipping) – 81 services (China topped with 626.80 services while Eritrea, Gibraltar, St. Kitts and Nevis, Palau, Tuvalu each only had one service)
- Number of transshipments – 0.50 (São Tomé and Príncipe was the highest with 2.60 while Gibraltar and Malta was lowest with 0.2)
- Container export dwell time – 5.5 days (Tunisia was the fastest with 0.60 days while Guinea-Bissau was slowest with 45.40 days)
- Export supply chain initiation – 3.1 days (Oman was lowest with 0.80 days while Equatorial Guinea was highest with 51.70 days)
- Import supply chain termination – 1.9 days (Macao was fastest with 0.30 days while American Samoa was slowest with 26.60 days)
- Lead time to import from port of origin to destination economy – 17.7 days (Gibraltar had the lowest at 15.50 days while São Tomé and Príncipe was highest with 80.40 days)
- Time spent in transshipment – 4.3 days (Malta and Gibraltar had the lowest at 1.80 days while Yemen had the highest with 40.80 days)
- Turnaround time at ports – 1.3 days (Faroe Islands had the fastest at 0.30 days while Kiribati was slowest with 5.40 days)
Postal
- Number of business-to-consumer postal partner economies – 75.5 partners (U.S. had the highest with 184.50 partners while Greenland and San Marino had one partner each)
- Business-to-consumer postal delivery time – 17.8 days (Luxembourg was fastest with 1.50 days while Democratic Republic of Congo was slowest with 102.80 days) — Roumina Pablo
