This is a comprehensive intelligence report detailing the global transportation landscape as of mid-2025, heavily influenced by the United States' aggressive tariff policies. It analyzes the impact of trade conflicts on the maritime, road, rail, and aviation sectors, noting widespread market distortions like declining ocean freight rates and a prolonged North American trucking recession. The report also highlights significant developments in autonomous technology and the challenges and opportunities in decarbonizing the transport industry, with a particular focus on contrasting regional progress and strategic infrastructure investments in Africa.

Our intelligent report offers a comprehensive overview of the African transportation and logistics sector, based on various sources in early July 2025, highlighting a dual narrative of external challenges and internal integration. A significant focus is placed on the escalating US-South Africa trade dispute, including the imposition of tariffs that threaten South Africa's key export industries like automotive and agriculture, while also serving as a catalyst for the country to diversify its trade relations and embrace the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Conversely, the sources illustrate a powerful push towards continental integration, emphasizing strategic infrastructure development fueled by investment-led partnerships, exemplified by over $2.5 billion in deals from the US-Africa Business Summit. Finally, the report provides a sector-by-sector analysis of transport, noting progress in aviation and ambitious rail projects alongside persistent inefficiencies in maritime and urban mobility, particularly contrasting Kigali's transformation with Johannesburg's public transport crisis, and underscoring the potential of private sector e-mobility innovations.

This report offers a comprehensive overview of global transportation trends from June 30 to July 6, 2025, highlighting significant shifts and challenges across various sectors. It details a renewed focus on maritime security following an attack in the Red Sea and analyzes the U.S. Department of Transportation's "America First" policies, which include deregulation and stricter labour controls. The report also covers major restructuring within the parcel delivery sector, particularly at UPS, and contrasts the aviation industry's struggle with crisis management and misinformation in India with the UAE's advancements in urban air mobility. Finally, it discusses speculation around mega-mergers in the U.S. rail industry and the cooling global freight market due to tariff uncertainties.