Freight Forwarding in China7219975
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 international downturn in trade in recent years. However, 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 development in demand for freight solutions. China's response to the global financial downturn has been to seize the initiative and strategy for a better future for China import.
Over current years, China has skilled a worldwide decline in demand for Chinese imports and this has of course had a massive influence on the freight solutions industry of the export dependent country. Demand for China imports such as toys, furniture 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 biggest 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 personal domestic slowdown, the volume declines have been evident in each 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 higher level of import of raw materials for subsequent processing and export indicates 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 effect on international freight visitors into China as well.
All through 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 company. Domestic demand has usually been noticed in elevated trade in cargo from the south of China to the North.In general, the advantages of domestic freight transport have been skilled much more in the Shanghai, northern ports such as Quingdao and Tianjin and the smaller ports, as they deal with a bigger proportion of domestic trade by shipping companies.
However, spurred on by the influence of the global slowdown on China, Beijing has increased its concentrate on enhancing 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 impact 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 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 companies previously made pricey detours through third countries to get cargo from 1 side to the other. So the new direct shipping hyperlinks will make freight transport more streamlined and price effective.
Other initiatives associated to the freight solutions business have also taken shape throughout the period of financial slowdown, placing China in a better position as the recovery arrives.
One fascinating initiative has been a joint venture in 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 develop and manufacture container tracking devices for international freight. A joint venture, Beijing Intelligent Shipping Technologies (SST),has been set up to develop intelligent shipping container devices and other smart transport tools to produce greater 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-finish global tracking and monitoring solution for the freight services industry.
As globe 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, safe inter modal freight transport will rely on intelligent technologies. China's role in facilitating the commercialisation of such products will be of great benefit to shipping companies and indeed every freight business, allowing them to add worth to their service. The smart technology will allow every piece of cargo to be tracked, monitored and managed anywhere in the globe.
