A precise picture of the world’s cargo flow with global Kuehne + Nagel indicators
Monteiro is now Head of LogIndex AG, a subsidiary of the logistics company. “But then we wondered how the future of the harbor and the worldwide logistics sector might look. That’s even more exciting!” That was when the idea to develop an indicator based on data processed a million times a day by one of the world’s largest forwarders was born. Based on this data, it should be easy to extract a lot of information regarding the flow of goods. Where are the goods coming from, where are they going, in what quantities and how are they shipped? “I was asked to put a team together to find out if it was even possible,” Monteiro remembers.

“I’m building a new nervous system for the logistics industry. To do this, we need people who have the mindset of a start-up, but don’t want to work in one.”
Managing Director LogIndex AG and Head of New Business at the Kühne + Nagel Group
The idea generated a lot of interest – and not just within the company. “We spoke to analysts, hedge funds, financial services, stock exchanges and investors, too. They all wanted a quick, and above all current overview of trade flows. They didn’t want to wait weeks or months anymore for imprecise official statistics.” Feeling encouraged, Monteiro got to work in mid-2015. By the end of the same year he was in a position to present the first prototype to the Kühne + Nagel Executive Board. “We quickly recognized that our figures were much better than, for example, those the banks publish in their own surveys and forecasts.” The Board gave the green light and set up a separate subsidiary.
Shortly thereafter, in 2016, LogIndex AG introduced their first product, global Kuehne + Nagel indicators (gKNi). It quickly became clear that gKNi not only had potential for internal use, but that it could be a great commercial product, too. “gKNi certainly is not expected to be an important source of revenue for the group,” says Monteiro. “We see our LogIndex business almost as a playground for the development of new capabilities and new technologies which could help Kühne + Nagel for the future. That is the real value of what we are doing.”
global Kuehne + Nagel Indicators (gKNi)
global Kuehne + Nagel indicators is a financial services and information product, developed and offered on a subscription basis by LogIndex, a Kühne + Nagel subsidiary. The indicator is based on anonymized shipment data from Kühne + Nagel’s order book across different modes of transport. This is then combined with external sources such as transshipment figures, customs data and ship and aircraft movements in real-time. The cloud-based system has access to a huge inventory of information. Thanks to its extensive shipment volume alone, the logistics company is able to produce and interpret Trade Nowcasts – real-time assessments of world trade. In addition, gKNi monitors all major ports around the world, which handle more than half of all maritime trade, and the 25 biggest cargo airports, accounting for 75 percent of the total air freight volume.
LogIndex also makes selected key trends and analyses available free of charge. For example, a regular overview of diverse global trends, such as the growth rates of the most important cargo airports worldwide, before all other official statistics.
The world’s most dynamic airports by cargo traffic
*12-month moving average (MA) compared with previous year
LogIndex AG | Kühne + Nagel Group | Update June 2018
- 1 | 15.5 % | Madrid Barajas International Airport (MAD)
- 2 | 12.1 % | Mexico City International Airport (MEX)
- 3 | 10.0 % | Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)
- 4 | 9.8 % | Newark Liberty Int Airport, New York (EWR)
- 5 | 9.7 % | Zurich Airport (ZRH)
- 6 | 8.4 % | O’Hare International Airport, Chicago ( ORD)
- 7 | 8.0 % | Heathrow Airport, London
- 8 | 6.7 % | Changi Airport, Singapore (SIN)
- 9 | 6.5 % | John F. Kennedy Int Airport, New York (JFK)
- 10 | 6.1 % | Taiyuan International Airport (TPE)
- 11 | 6.0 % | Louisville International Airport (SDF)
- 12 | 5.4 % | Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong (HKG)
- 13 | 4.6 % | Narita International Airport, Tokyo (NRT)
- 14 | 4.4 % | Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- 15 | 4.1 % | Miami International Airport (MIA)
- 16 | 2.1 % | ShenzhenBao’an International Airport (SZX)
- 17 | 1.8 % | Airport Frankfurt (FRA)
- 18 | 1.6 % | Memphis International Airport (MEM)
- 19 | 1.0 % | Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)
- 20 | 0.9 % | Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
- 21 | 0.7 % | Dubai International Airport (DXB)

“The gKNi forecasts are so reliable and available so early that we have decided not only to use them ourselves, but also to offer them to the market as a financial product.”
Chair of the Board of Administration at LogIndex AG and CEO of the Kühne + Nagel Group
Photos: Fotolia, Kühne + Nagel
Table: LogIndex