Freight Forwarding in China7499328
Newest figures show that China has now overtaken Japan as the second largest economy in the world following Japan.
This improvement in the relative performance of China is encouraging news to the freight forwarding sector in China, that has been battling with the global downturn in trade in current years. Nevertheless, even with the international slowdown, there was some development in China's freight transport infrastructure in 2009, as it anticipated this improvement in overall performance and planned for growth in demand for freight services. China's response to the international financial downturn has been to seize the initiative and strategy for a much better future for China import.
More than recent years, China has skilled a worldwide decline in demand for Chinese imports and this has of course had a huge impact on the freight services industry of the export dependent nation. Demand for China imports such as toys, furniture and textiles has been dampened by the most severe financial downturn in decades.
Nowhere has the decline in demand for China imports been felt more keenly that in the box traffic trade. China's two largest container ports are Shanghai and Shenzhen. The throughput figures at both have noticed year on year falls and the throughput figures mask an even worse performance in terms of laden containers. The Shenzhen port figures for freight forwarding are a direct reflection of manufacturing in the Pearl River Delta.
As imports to China have also declined as a outcome of its own domestic slowdown, the volume declines have been evident in each inbound and outbound containers.Inbound cargo consists of raw supplies and components, which are then processed into completed goods for export at factories in the southern Guangdong, China's financial powerhouse. The high level of import of raw materials for subsequent processing and export means that the freight solutions sector in China has had a double whammy, as declines in manufacturing due to decreased demand for China import has a direct knock on impact on international freight traffic into China as well.
Throughout this tough period, domestic demand in China has accounted for some increases in domestic container trade, and this has been welcome news for numerous a shipping business. Domestic demand has generally been noticed in elevated trade in cargo from the south of China to the North.In common, the advantages of domestic freight transport have been experienced much more in the Shanghai, northern ports such as Quingdao and Tianjin and the smaller ports, as they handle a larger proportion of domestic trade by shipping businesses.
Nevertheless, spurred on by the impact of the global slowdown on China, Beijing has increased its focus on improving the international freight transport infrastructure. The China government has spearheaded a raft of initiatives. This consists of both physical upgrades and revisions to the systems that affect international trade and international freight solutions.
Other initiatives have also helped pave the way for the next upturn, such as new direct shipping hyperlinks in between China and Taiwan. Kaohsiung in Taiwan, which was the world's third busiest container port in the 1990s,saw its ranking slip with China's economic rise, as a lack of direct transportation hyperlinks with China undermined its position and significance for the freight business.
A deal in between the two former political rivals has renewed Chinese interest in the port, driving investment plans. Shipping companies previously produced costly detours through third nations to get cargo from one side to the other. So the new direct shipping links will make freight transport more streamlined and price effective.
Other initiatives associated to the freight solutions business have also taken shape during the period of financial slowdown, placing China in a much better position as the recovery arrives.
1 interesting initiative has been a joint venture between America's CYBRA Corporation and Key West Technologies which have joined forces with the Chinese Transport Ministry's Water borne Transportation Institute (WTI) to create and manufacture container tracking devices for international freight. A joint venture, Beijing Smart Shipping Technologies (SST),has been set up to create intelligent shipping container devices and other intelligent transport tools to create higher consignment visibility in maritime shipping. CYBRA, which is a developer and distributor of bar code software program for IBM, will join its partners in creating the world's only genuine end-to-end global tracking and monitoring answer for the freight solutions industry.
As world leader in exports, regardless of the slowdown, China is therefore taking a leadership function in provide chain tracking, monitoring and management. It is believed that in the future, secure inter modal freight transport will rely on intelligent technologies. China's role in facilitating the commercialisation of such goods will be of fantastic advantage to shipping businesses and indeed each freight business, allowing them to add worth to their service. The intelligent technologies will allow each piece of cargo to be tracked, monitored and managed anyplace in the world.
