How does the logistics industry catch up with the imported express train?

Article source: China Road Transportation Network

In the face of changes in the domestic and international environment, China will implement a more active open strategy and build an open economic system. One of the important measures is to actively expand the scale of imports by holding the first international import fair. The expansion of the scale of imports means that the proportion, structure and flow of imported goods in China will change significantly, which will bring significant benefits to China's freight logistics industry. The author believes that the most anticipated impact is that it may change the control of foreign-funded logistics enterprises on import and export transportation rights.

For a long time, China's foreign trade export goods are mostly traded on FOB terms, and the decision to transport is in foreign buyers. Due to the heterogeneity of services and the lack of overseas networks of domestic enterprises, buyers will choose foreign logistics companies. According to preliminary statistics, FOB goods accounted for more than 70% of China's foreign trade transportation, resulting in a large loss of shipping foreign exchange income. Since the statistics service trade data in 1982, China's transportation service deficit has been severe, and it has been the first in the long run. In recent years, due to the rapid expansion of the travel service deficit, the transport deficit has fallen to second place. In 2017, China's transportation deficit reached 55.84 billion US dollars, accounting for 377.19 billion yuan, which is incompatible with the status of China's major trading countries and shipping countries.

The author believes that if China insists on expanding the scale of imports, this situation is expected to be contained and reversed. Because in the import contract, the importer, that is, the domestic trader and the manufacturing enterprise, can grasp the initiative of international trade and determine the choice of price and transportation service. Based on cultural and cooperative relations, domestic import enterprises are expected to choose domestic logistics enterprises as full-service logistics service providers, and to some extent reduce China's transportation service deficit. The author will analyze the cargo volume, business structure and overseas market layout in detail.

First, the expansion of the scale of imports means an increase in the import volume of domestic logistics companies. From the perspective of goods, China's imports mainly include bulk resource products, key facilities and high-end equipment, as well as high-quality people's livelihood necessities, such as fresh food, medicines and cosmetics. In addition to strategic large-scale resource products that must be properly imported, reducing the proportion of large-scale resource products is one of the key points for China to improve its import trade structure. Domestic logistics companies should closely follow changes in commodity structure and focus on the import of key facilities and equipment and high-end equipment. The unit value of such goods is relatively high. From the perspective of timeliness, in addition to container transportation, the proportion of goods transported by air and CEIBS will increase steadily. In 2017, the monitoring data of key international freight forwarding enterprises showed that the import volume of air cargo of nearly 20 enterprises showed a high growth rate of more than 30%; according to statistics, the proportion of imported goods that benefited from the return of high-value auto parts, machinery and equipment In the first half of 2017 and the first half of 2018, the return trains of the China-Europe team increased by 123% and 100% respectively. The increase in imported cold chain foods and high-end consumer goods will bring opportunities for the development of cross-border e-commerce and bonded logistics business. In 2017, the value of imported goods through customs cross-border e-commerce customs clearance management system totaled 56.22 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 115%. This makes cross-border e-commerce logistics become the operating highlight of some freight logistics enterprises. In addition, regardless of the mode of transportation, customs clearance is an essential part of the import and export of goods. At present, the export customs declaration price is transparent and the labor service fee is low. Relatively speaking, due to the classification of goods taxation, the import customs declaration process is complicated and the profit rate is relatively high. Therefore, the continuous increase of import cargo volume will bring to the depressed customs declaration market. vitality.

Secondly, the import business can bring opportunities for domestic freight logistics enterprises to adjust their structure and promote transformation. At present, the domestic logistics market is fiercely competitive and the profit margin is low. The fundamental reason is that its business chain is short and its integrated service capability is not strong. At this stage, most of China's import freight forwarding business is limited to import customs declaration and transit, and there are fewer overseas-end businesses that are likely to generate value-added. In recent years, small and medium-sized logistics enterprises in some market-active areas such as Shenzhen, Yiwu, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, etc. have seized the opportunity of China's vigorous development of cross-border e-commerce and the rapid growth of imported high-quality agricultural products and fresh food, and started through the combination of trade and transport. Providing one-stop supply chain services such as import trade, transportation, customs declaration, bonded, distribution, wholesale and retail, which not only increases customer stickiness, but also greatly increases profit margin and business volume, and has a promising future. Therefore, for many domestic logistics companies, whether the potential opportunities brought about by the expansion of import business volume can be transformed into a realistic competitive advantage depends on whether they can extend the business chain in time and improve the intensification and specialization of services.

Finally, expanding imports is expected to bring rare opportunities for domestic logistics companies to upgrade their internationalization. High-quality operation of importing cross-border e-commerce business requires us to establish overseas warehouses in key import areas; customers will entrust the entire import transportation business to domestic logistics enterprises, and whether these full-service businesses, especially overseas ones, can be operated well, the key lies in domestic enterprises. Overseas network layout and localized service level. In recent years, many domestic and international freight forwarding logistics enterprises have seized the opportunity of jointly building the “Belt and Road” and “going out” to accelerate the overseas network layout. Now, they have “goed in” to actively carry out the tackling stage of localized operation. Therefore, we should seize the opportunity of expanding import scale and strengthen the physical network layout in overseas regions through joint ventures and project cooperation. On this basis, we must concentrate on the demand of the import logistics market and the complex logistics operation environment. Overseas regions such as Europe, Central Asia, Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, etc., increase investment in asset facilities, improve network functions, and intensify the training of composite overseas talents, and adopt measures such as reverse marketing, domestic and international cooperation, import and export, and other measures. Going out - going in - going up, the path to comprehensively enhance the international level of domestic logistics companies.