中国快递公司的未来

As major Chinese companies expand overseas, they're finding that doing business abroad isn't just a matter of moving money. They also need capable logistics companies to transport all the equipments abroad. So are China's courier companies up for the global challenge?

When you hear names like Shunfeng, STO and Yunda, what probably springs to mind is a man dressed in a uniform riding an electric scooter. Those companies saw double-digit growth along with the expansion growth of Jack Ma's e-commerce empire, but the logistics industry took a turn for the worse in 2012. Since then, the sector's growth has actually been slowing. More than half of the business of the top Chinese delivery services comes from consumer online purchases. Experts say that's only ten percent of the industry's potential. The companies need to be thinking about more than just the delivery guys.

"Four of the courier companies already have timetables for back-door listings, while another four companies are actively seeking listings of their own. So eight of those, plus two state-owned companies, all these 10 companies will want to transform themselves into full-service logistics companies in the future. But those companies are not able to provide supply chain solutions to solve their customers' core problems. At the moment, they can only move goods. They cannot provide logistics services that improve their customers' supply chain efficiency," said Zhao Xiaomin, Logistics Expert.

Yet as Zhao says, none of the Chinese courier companies have the resources to become full-service providers, and will likely be looking for areas in which to specialize. Each of the three current world leaders in logistics has its own territory. Centered in the European Union, DHL is well experienced in international operations worldwide. That gives it an edge over start-up companies that may not have the resources to reach out to international customers on their own.

"Overall the history of the whole industry is really to provide entrance and solutions for customers in a very complex way. If you think about just the rail transportation from China to Europe. You cross several countries so you have to understand how to declare the products around the border and how the infrastructure works. And that you build your relationship with local players and there are different providers for railways in different countries. And then you come back and end up at Europe you need custom clearance and you have to understand that you clear one country for the whole EU," said Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL Group.

DHL's American counterparts FedEx and UPS have also taken different routes to success. FedEx works closely with Fortune 500 companies, and that has given it a sizeable share of the market. Its competitor, UPS, has become so closely identified with international trade that it even publishes its own trade estimates. The company's 2016 survey of Chinese manufacturers says 29 percent of them expect the economy to contract. The company, however, sees opportunity in that. It says it will provide more cost-effective delivery solutions to Chinese manufacturers. Chinese delivery providers have been expanding overseas. But even the country's largest international service provider, Shunfeng, gets less than one percent of its annual revenue from the international market.