Freight Forwarding in China8852676
Latest figures show that China has now overtaken Japan as the second biggest economy in the globe following Japan.
This improvement in the relative overall 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 global slowdown, there was some development in China's freight transport infrastructure in 2009, as it anticipated this improvement in 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 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 massive impact on the freight solutions business of the export dependent nation. Demand for China imports such as toys, furnishings and textiles has been dampened by the most serious economic downturn in decades.
Nowhere has the decline in demand for China imports been felt more keenly that in the box visitors trade. China's two largest container ports are Shanghai and Shenzhen. The throughput figures at each have seen 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 personal domestic slowdown, the volume declines have been evident in both inbound and outbound containers.Inbound cargo includes raw materials and elements, which are then processed into finished goods for export at factories in the southern Guangdong, China's economic powerhouse. The high level of import of raw materials for subsequent processing and export means that the freight services 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 visitors into China as well.
Throughout this difficult period, domestic demand in China has accounted for some increases in domestic container trade, and this has been welcome news for many a shipping company. Domestic demand has generally been noticed in increased trade in cargo from the south of China to the North.In common, the advantages of domestic freight transport have been skilled more in the Shanghai, northern ports such as Quingdao and Tianjin and the smaller sized ports, as they handle a bigger proportion of domestic trade by shipping companies.
However, spurred on by the influence of the international slowdown on China, Beijing has elevated its concentrate 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 financial rise, as a lack of direct transportation hyperlinks with China undermined its position and importance for the freight business.
A deal in between the two former political rivals has renewed Chinese interest in the port, driving investment plans. Shipping businesses previously made pricey detours via third countries to get cargo from 1 side to the other. So the new direct shipping hyperlinks will make freight transport much more streamlined and price effective.
Other initiatives related to the freight services business have also taken shape during the period of financial slowdown, placing China in a much better position as the recovery arrives.
One interesting initiative has been a joint venture in between America's CYBRA Corporation and Important West Technologies which have joined forces with the Chinese Transport Ministry's Water borne Transportation Institute (WTI) to develop and manufacture container tracking devices for international freight. A joint venture, Beijing Smart Shipping Technologies (SST),has been set up to develop smart shipping container devices and other smart transport tools to create higher consignment visibility in maritime shipping. CYBRA, which is a developer and distributor of bar code software for IBM, will join its partners in developing the world's only real end-to-end global tracking and monitoring answer for the freight services business.
As world leader in exports, despite the slowdown, China is thus taking a leadership function in supply 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 great advantage to shipping businesses and certainly every freight business, permitting them to add worth to their service. The intelligent technology will allow every piece of cargo to be tracked, monitored and managed anywhere in the globe.
