Multinational express companies aim at Shanghai
Latest Customs’ statistics show that Shanghai has become an air express (AXPS) hub in China, and even in Asia and the Pacific region. Multinational express companies are one after another increasing their investment and shifting their regional business focus to Shanghai.
Shanghai is an aviation hub port and a leading city in the development of the Yangtze River Delta area. Since this year, the amount of both inbound and outbound express delivery handled by Shanghai Port has grown over 50 percent over the same period of 2003, and the port even ranked first in China in terms of amount of air express handled, which had reached 8 million pieces by the end of September this year.
The world’s largest express operator, UPS of the United States, after shifting its Grand-China-Area headquarter from Hong Kong to Shanghai, plans to construct an Asia-Pacific area transshipment center in Shanghai, and then centering on Shanghai, to develop international through express business in Qingdao, Guangzhou and Xiamen. Several other international express giants, including DHL and TNT, are also planning such operation system in China. In order to gain an upper hand in competition, DHL has even opened midnight express service to gather in Shanghai all express deliveries from Asian countries to China for sorting, ready to be delivered by midnight or before-down flights. This move has improved work efficiency greatly.
As early as in August 2001, Shanghai Customs International Express Supervision Center officially went into operation as an APEC demonstration customs spot in China. The center covers 83,260 square meters of land and accommodates nearly 30 express companies. Of the existing five express mail banks, four belong to Federal Express, UPS, DHL and TNT4 respectively.
In terms of business mode, Shanghai Port has already expanded from handling domestic mails only to offering international through and transshipment services. At Pudong Airport, Shanghai Customs has opened direct transfer service to transfer all international expresses of DHL-Sinotrans directly to Suzhou. TNT Company is also negotiating for direct transfer service from Shanghai to Qingdao and Guangzhou. By then, the speed of expresses forwarded from Shanghai will be increased greatly.
Meanwhile, Shanghai Customs has, in cooperation with Xiamen, Guangzhou and Qingdao customs, opened multi-port through express relaying service. Enditem (?)
