Cao Zhen
AIMING to build Shenzhen into an international logistics hub, the city government injected 20.6 million yuan (US$3.07 million) into 12 local logistics companies Friday, including Jade Cargo International and SF-Express and Hercules Logistics.
Last year, Shenzhen s logistics output was 198.1 billion yuan, 7.5 percent higher than a year ago. The added value for the city s logistics industry last year was 78.95 billion, accounting for 9.63 percent of the city s general domestic product, said Executive Vice Mayor Lu Ruifeng at the 2010 China (Shenzhen) International Logistics and Transportation Fair, where the financial support was announced.
At the annual fair, from Friday to Sunday, 13 cooperation programs involving logistic services, supply chain management and electronic business, signed with a total capital of 1.5 billion yuan. Organized by the Ministry of Transport and the city government, the fair attracted more than 1,000 companies from home and abroad, including UPS, FedEx and Port of Hamburg.
China has become the second-largest economy in the world. More and more Chinese companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, have overseas business, which is a good news for the logistics sector, said Eddy Chan, president of FedEx China.
However, compared with international logistics giants, which provide integrated ordering, checking, dispatching and transport service, domestic company services lack competence, said Hu Jianhua, general manager of Shenzhen-based China Merchants Holdings (International) Co. Ltd.
China s top 10 logistics companies accounted for only 13 percent of the country s market share, said Hu, whose subsidiary China Merchants Logistics container TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) throughput accounted for 35 percent of the nation s total last year.
Hu said most Chinese logistics companies were transformed from transport or storage firms, which provided only transport services. And well-performing logistics companies were found only in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Bay Rim.
With China s manufacturing migrating from coastal to inland areas, logistics business will get a boost in the inland, Hu said. But he warned that with the trend to a low-carbon economy, waterways and railway transport would acquire greater market share, while challenging road transport.
