Business and Logistics Strategies of Global Logistics Firms Responding to the Changing Logistics Environment in China

Ninety percent of an average Chinese manufacturer's time spent is on logistics. Therefore, logistics presents the greatest challenge for multinational companies conducting businesses in China. Although more than 18,000 registered logistics companies exist in China, 85 percent of their revenues are generated from basic trucking and storage services. These facts indicate that China will need increasing presence of high-quality foreign 3PL providers, who are able to provide sophisticated IT systems, industry/operational expertise, standardized operating processes, and international networks, compared to their Chinese counterparts. However, they are facing complicated array of laws and regulations as well as difficulty of finding qualified people to fulfill these needs. There are a number of foreign 3PL providers engaged in China's logistics sector to reap a huge opportunity. Nevertheless, many 3PL foreign providers are still cautious about making large investments. Thus they arelooking for alliances that can provide complementarities instead. Another salient feature of strategy is to take over the transportation assets and warehousing of major Chinese manufacturers and distributors.