Wednesday, March 28, 2007
CHINA OFFERS THE COMPLETE PACKAGE FOR GOODS SHIPPED OVERSEAS
By Robert Wright, Transport Correspondent
Wednesday, March 28, 2007, FT
The cardboard boxes sitting shrink-wrapped in NYK Logistics' dimly-lit warehouse in Shanghai look unexceptional. But, on closer examination, they form a small part of the latest trend in outsourcing to China. According to Sachiko Dohi, general manager of domestic Chinese operations for NYK Logistics, part of Japan's largest shipping line, the boxes – going to Tesco, a UK supermarket chain – would once have been packed loose into containers and unpacked box by box at a UK distribution centre. Now, they are sorted into the quantities needed for each superstore, shrink-wrapped and placed on their own pallet. Expensive handling at the UK distribution centre will be sharply reduced.
The technique is only the least sophisticated of a series of methods spreading fast among logistics companies to allow rich-country customers to move all but the most unavoidable handling of goods made in east Asia away from the main consuming countries. Companies from countries as far apart as Japan, Chile, Spain and the US now have goods sorted before they leave China into the right mixes for individual stores or distribution centres and labelled with the correct price. Many will even be ready-packed into a cardboard display stand.
The most sophisticated efforts to outsource work see workers in Hong Kong sorting more than 100 items made in China into a miniature chest of drawers full of all the equipment a child will need for the school year.
The new methods have spread rapidly because factories in the fast-growing Yangtze River Delta, which used to declare goods to customs officials only when they arrived at a port, increasingly declare goods when they leave their factory in a sealed container. The change has meant companies buying the goods often need to use specialist logistics companies with bonded, customs-supervised warehouses for any sorting between the factory and export. Logistics companies then seek to offer more and more sophisticated sorting, testing and labelling services to their warehouse users.
“Rather than focusing on simple transportation and simple warehousing, we try to develop solutions for customers,” says Erxin Yao, managing director for China for OOCL, a Hong Kong shipping line, whose logistics arm handles sophisticated distribution for Japanese and South Korean department stores from Shanghai.
The changes have also been made possible by the spread of fast, reliable, cheap container shipping services – some voyages from Hong Kong to Europe take only 20 days – and the internet, which allows retailers to adjust orders up until just before they are dispatched.
Vera Tang, of Hong Kong-based Kerry Logistics, says it can offer companies services such as picking – selection of the correct goods to go in the correct container – to quality control, price-tagging and building display towers. “All these activities used to be done at the distribution centre,” she says.
The techniques were first used in the Shenzhen area of southern China, where factories started declaring goods at the factory gate far earlier.
The practice is also one where Hong Kong retains a distinct advantage over mainland China. The former British colony levies no customs duties and, as a result, goods made in mainland China can easily be sent to Hong Kong for sophisticated sorting before export.
But operators across China hope to pick up at least some of the increasingly sophisticated business. Ms Dohi says that in Shanghai NYK does none of the most sophisticated pre-shipping sorting of goods for its customers. However, it now has the capability and hopes to start doing so soon.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007, FT
The cardboard boxes sitting shrink-wrapped in NYK Logistics' dimly-lit warehouse in Shanghai look unexceptional. But, on closer examination, they form a small part of the latest trend in outsourcing to China. According to Sachiko Dohi, general manager of domestic Chinese operations for NYK Logistics, part of Japan's largest shipping line, the boxes – going to Tesco, a UK supermarket chain – would once have been packed loose into containers and unpacked box by box at a UK distribution centre. Now, they are sorted into the quantities needed for each superstore, shrink-wrapped and placed on their own pallet. Expensive handling at the UK distribution centre will be sharply reduced.
The technique is only the least sophisticated of a series of methods spreading fast among logistics companies to allow rich-country customers to move all but the most unavoidable handling of goods made in east Asia away from the main consuming countries. Companies from countries as far apart as Japan, Chile, Spain and the US now have goods sorted before they leave China into the right mixes for individual stores or distribution centres and labelled with the correct price. Many will even be ready-packed into a cardboard display stand.
The most sophisticated efforts to outsource work see workers in Hong Kong sorting more than 100 items made in China into a miniature chest of drawers full of all the equipment a child will need for the school year.
The new methods have spread rapidly because factories in the fast-growing Yangtze River Delta, which used to declare goods to customs officials only when they arrived at a port, increasingly declare goods when they leave their factory in a sealed container. The change has meant companies buying the goods often need to use specialist logistics companies with bonded, customs-supervised warehouses for any sorting between the factory and export. Logistics companies then seek to offer more and more sophisticated sorting, testing and labelling services to their warehouse users.
“Rather than focusing on simple transportation and simple warehousing, we try to develop solutions for customers,” says Erxin Yao, managing director for China for OOCL, a Hong Kong shipping line, whose logistics arm handles sophisticated distribution for Japanese and South Korean department stores from Shanghai.
The changes have also been made possible by the spread of fast, reliable, cheap container shipping services – some voyages from Hong Kong to Europe take only 20 days – and the internet, which allows retailers to adjust orders up until just before they are dispatched.
Vera Tang, of Hong Kong-based Kerry Logistics, says it can offer companies services such as picking – selection of the correct goods to go in the correct container – to quality control, price-tagging and building display towers. “All these activities used to be done at the distribution centre,” she says.
The techniques were first used in the Shenzhen area of southern China, where factories started declaring goods at the factory gate far earlier.
The practice is also one where Hong Kong retains a distinct advantage over mainland China. The former British colony levies no customs duties and, as a result, goods made in mainland China can easily be sent to Hong Kong for sophisticated sorting before export.
But operators across China hope to pick up at least some of the increasingly sophisticated business. Ms Dohi says that in Shanghai NYK does none of the most sophisticated pre-shipping sorting of goods for its customers. However, it now has the capability and hopes to start doing so soon.
Labels: distribution, 物流
¶ 6:37 AM
