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Passenger car sales in Bulgaria declined 1.0% y-o-y in the first 11 months of 2013, to 27,256 units. In 2013, we expected private consumption to remain weak on the back of prolonged political uncertainty exacerbating existing dynamics in the labour market. Our bearish outlook for consumer sentiment has informed our forecast for a 2% drop over the year. In 2014, we forecast a decline in sales of 1.8% as consumer weakness continues to weigh on the passenger car segment.

Smart Transportation Market (Ticketing Management, Parking Management, Traffic Management, Smart Signalling System, Multimodal Information System, Cloud Services, Business Services) - Global Advancements, Forecasts and Analysis (2014 - 2019)

MarketLine's Company Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Partnerships & Alliances and Investments reports offer a comprehensive breakdown of the organic and inorganic growth activity undertaken by an organization to sustain its competitive advantage.

Since its inception in the year 2003, The Star Movers have carved out a niche for itself in offering high quality and cost effective moving solutions to its clients. The moving company possesses the wherewithal to offer a comprehensive door-to-door relocation services for all household items overseas or within Malaysia at the most reasonable prices. The online moving firm specializes in providing storage solutions, international relocations and residential and commercial moving to its clients scattered across the globe.

Like much of Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary's auto sector is very much output-led, with a focus on mass production of low profit small and medium-sized cars.

Economy Set To Remain Flat In 2014

Sunshine Biofuels, the US based Biofuel manufacturing company, continues to offer its premier product to owners of trucks and fleets. Truck and fleet operators have reduced their diesel costs upwards of 10% using this proven Biofuel. In addition to cost savings, reduction of carbon emissions by 60% can be achieved. The fuel has a proven track record with Class 5 to Class 8 semi-trucks and delivery trucks including, Mercedes powered Fedex step vans.

Following a year in which BMI believes saw increasing volumes in all freight modes but one, 2014 will signal growth across the whole freight transport sector and new historic high freight volume levels in some of the modes.

Our outlook for the Iranian freight transport sector in 2014 is that the country will begin to see a return to growth in volumes, in part due to base effects, and in part due to the more moderate stance adopted by new President Rouhani, and the loosening of sanctions against the country. Although the ports and shipping continue to face significant challenges, rail freight continues to see strong investment.

US light vehicle sales ended 2013 up 7.6% at 15.60mn, in line with BMI's forecast of an 8.2% increase to 15.68mn. With macroeconomic conditions largely favourable, we expect further growth, albeit slightly slower at 3.6%, to be achievable in 2014, taking the market back to 16mn units for the first time since 2007. We expect light trucks to continue to outperform the car segment, led by a slew of new product launches.

The medium-term outlook for Iranian auto production remains cautiously optimistic, reflecting the temporary deal reached between the US and major powers over the future of its nuclear programme in November 2013. BMI's Country Risk team's core view remains that talks will continue over the coming years, with the potential for a long-term agreement to be found, although we cannot preclude a breakdown in talks over the coming quarters, which could unleash a Western military response. Over the very near term, there is the chance that the six-month interim arrangement agreed in November 2013, which expires on July 20 2014, could be extended by an additional six months should both parties agree.

The Certificate of Entitlement (COE) bidding exercise on February 5 2014 was the first COE auction since the formal adoption of the revised COE category criteria (see 'New COE Regulation Could Reverse Sales Trends', September 17 2013). The outcome of the bidding, however, elicited surprise among some motor traders.

Singapore's role as a global transhipment hub is both its blessing and its curse. In times such as these, when key markets in Europe and the US are either recessionary or growing sluggishly, it can be hit by depleted freight volumes. In 2014 we forecast growth in both port and airport total tonnage volumes, albeit it will be sluggish. Both facilities are investing considerably, and we are confident of growth over the medium and long term.

Following a year in which BMI believes saw increasing volumes across the whole freight transport sector, 2014 will signal further growth in line with Romania's macroeconomic outlook.

The Israeli ports sector is undergoing a state of flux, with the major ports set to be expanded with new, privately operated, terminals, which will be able to handle the larger vessels that are becoming the norm on the key Asia-Europe trade route on which Israel stands. However, the developments are facing strong opposition from current port workers and unions. In terms of demand, moderate growth at Israel's containerhandling facilities should be supported by steady, though unspectacular, economic growth.

We continue to see Indonesia undergoing an adjustment processs, which will see lower growth on the short term, as the authorities seek to cool and rebalance an economy that had overheated. Quarterly growth was below expectations in Q313, but then above expectations in Q413. Despite this fluctuation the economy in our view remains on a slight downtrend as efforts are made to narrow the current account deficit, squeeze out inflation, and tighten monetary policy. For full-year 2013, GDP growth was 5.8%, the lowest level in four years. We are forecasting a further slowing to 5.4% GDP growth in 2014 (no change compared to our last quarterly report), picking up to 6.5% growth in 2015.

FP Mailing Solutions, the fastest-growing mailing systems vendor in the United States, has released an important update for its MailOne 2.0 software. The update will improve the software’s ability to support electronic U.S. Postal Service delivery confirmations.

The Dutch economy finally appeared to break out of recession during the third quarter of 2013, just as the eurozone recovery has shown signs of faltering. With domestic demand hit by falling house prices and a lack of appetite for fixed investment, the strength of global demand will be key to safeguarding the domestic recovery given the Netherlands' substantial current account surplus. We stress, however, that a continued deterioration in eurozone demand or insufficient monetary easing from the ECB pose key risks to our forecasts for 2014 which, among other industry sectors in the Netherlands, could end up having a detrimental effect on the country's freight industry.

Following a year which BMI believes saw slow or negative growth in the Czech Republic's freight transport, albeit better than the year before, 2014 will signal further improvement, although pre-downturn freight levels are still far from being recovered.

Following a year which BMI believes saw the slow recovery begin, 2014 will signal further growth across the whole freight transport sector in line with our macroeconomic forecasts for the country. Total trade is projected to pick up with our Country Risk desk forecasting a y-o-y increase of 2.12% in 2014 following an estimated growth of 2.26% in 2013.

Despite the devastating result of Typhoon Yolanda on the Visayas (the impact of which was felt by the country's freight industry), the Philippines does have a lot going for it over the medium term. Political stability and prudent monetary and fiscal policies are all combining to inform BMI's optimistic outlook. Therefore, we have upgraded our 2014 real GDP growth forecast to 6.3% (from 6.0% previously), and also see scope for the economy's long-term trend growth rate to increase as long as the aforementioned factors remain in play.

In 2014, we forecast a 4.7% increase in vehicle sales in 2014. BMI forecasts a 4.6% increase in passenger car sales in 2014, chiefly on the back of low base effects from substantial declines in 2013, and pent-up demand from several years of sustained declines in the market and delayed purchasing decisions. As the monthly chart shows, sales volumes in the country were erratic over the year, and the market experienced both strong increases and decreases- we attribute this sharp January sales increase to low base effects, but believe the growth rate will temper somewhat over the year.

Romania - Q2 2014

In 2013, vehicle sales in France declined 5.4% on the back of a 5.7% fall in the passenger car segment and 3.9% fall in the CV segment. In 2014, we forecast a 2.2% increase in vehicle sales. This comes from a 2% forecasted uptick in the passenger car segment, and 3.2% increase in commercial vehicle (CV) sales.

Looking at trends for 2014 and beyond, BMI believes that the Bahraini auto market will continue to see strong and steady growth, with total sales set to near 65,000 per year by the end of our newly extended forecast period in 2018.