Kilimall employees work in overseas warehouses in Mlodongo, Kenya. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Yahui

The warehouse area of Chepel Port Logistics Park captured in Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Fan

In 2024, overseas warehouses will become a hot topic for central and local planning and deployment. The construction of overseas warehouses enables export enterprises to send goods in bulk to foreign warehouses, achieving local sales and distribution. The local warehousing model of overseas warehouses provides a stable and fast channel for Chinese goods to be sold globally, ensuring smooth flow, stability, and cost reduction. The upgrade and iteration of service models, coupled with the powerful empowerment of high-tech, have made overseas warehouses an important infrastructure for expanding cross-border e-commerce exports.

Cross border logistics——

An important link in enhancing supply chain resilience

Just after 8 o'clock in the morning, at the Cainiao overseas warehouse in Bremen, Germany, nearly a hundred AGV robots received instructions and neatly picked up the goods that left the warehouse on the same day according to the path. In the eyes of warehouse outbound team leader Ekvi Semmi, this warehouse covering an area of over 40000 square meters seems like a Chinese market, with 1 million pieces and nearly 20000 SKUs (minimum inventory units) of Chinese goods neatly arranged on the shelves: household items, 3C appliances, auto parts, outdoor furniture

In recent years, China's trade with countries and regions around the world has become increasingly frequent, and new advantages in international economic cooperation and competition have been continuously strengthened. Emerging trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce have shown vigorous vitality. The increasing volume of foreign trade has put forward higher requirements for cross-border logistics chains. In order to promote the development of cross-border trade, various links in the cross-border logistics chain actively explore and promote mode innovation, and improve the speed and smoothness of cross-border logistics chain services.

As an important component of cross-border logistics supply chain infrastructure construction and overseas transit stations for Chinese goods, overseas warehouses can effectively enhance supply chain resilience and industrial competitiveness.

According to preliminary statistics from various regions, the number of cross-border e-commerce entities in China has exceeded 120000, with over 1000 cross-border e-commerce industrial parks and over 2500 overseas warehouses covering an area of over 30 million square meters. Among them, there are over 1800 overseas warehouses dedicated to serving cross-border e-commerce, covering an area of over 22 million square meters.

Associate Professor Huangdi from the School of Economics and Management at Beijing Jiaotong University stated in an interview with this newspaper that the development of China's overseas warehouses is currently in a stage of high-quality and rapid expansion. Specifically, the total storage area has doubled in the past two years; Business scope radiates to major consumer regions worldwide; The service functions are more comprehensive, providing not only traditional warehousing and distribution services, but also comprehensive supply chain value-added services such as after-sales, supply chain finance, compliance consulting, and marketing promotion.

Currently, China's overseas warehouses are committed to strengthening infrastructure construction, improving refined management and personalized service levels, "Sun Ting, General Manager of Cainiao Group's overseas warehouse supply chain, said in an interview with this newspaper. The overseas warehouses are providing customized services for manufacturing and other related enterprises, helping China's new foreign trade engines such as" New Three Samples "to improve the system construction of overseas supply chains.

Huangdi believed that overseas warehouses can enhance the efficiency of the international supply chain in the following three aspects: first, to ensure smooth operation and play the role of a supply chain reservoir; The second is to maintain stability and enhance supply chain resilience by holding inventory; The third is to reduce costs, leverage economies of scale, lower the cost of warehousing leasing, and ultimately lower the overall cost of international logistics and supply chain.

On site warehousing——

Speed guarantee for cross-border e-commerce 'selling globally'

According to data from the German Federal Statistical Office, the trade volume of goods between China and Germany in 2022 is approximately 298 billion euros, and China has become Germany's most important trading partner for the seventh consecutive year. Business flow drives logistics, and more and more Chinese logistics companies are choosing to set up overseas warehouses in Germany. Goods from China are shipped by sea to Hamburg Port in Germany, and then transferred by land to overseas warehouses for storage. As long as the consumer places an order, the goods can be picked up and shipped out in the first time, and it only takes one day for the goods to reach the hands of European consumers. Due to better timeliness, this logistics model of stocking goods through overseas warehouses has gradually become the mainstream of cross-border e-commerce in China.

Cross border e-commerce is injecting new momentum into China's foreign trade growth. According to customs data, in 2023, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports will reach 2.38 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.6%. Among them, exports amounted to 1.83 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.6%; Imports amounted to 548.3 billion yuan, an increase of 3.9%. Cross border e-commerce is conducive to deeply linking global resource elements, promoting the formation of a new development pattern of domestic and international dual circulation with higher levels, higher quality, and higher levels.

The coordinated linkage between cross-border e-commerce and new foreign trade infrastructure such as overseas warehouses has a fast development speed, great growth potential, and strong driving effect. The intensive establishment of overseas warehouses is helping China's foreign trade break through time and space limitations, improve logistics technology and systems, and significantly enhance the overseas competitiveness of China's cross-border e-commerce.

In terms of supply chain timeliness, if overseas warehouses adopt a pre stocking mode of transporting goods to consumer market warehouses in advance, it can save at least 80% -90% of shipping and delivery time. Huangdi said.

The "local warehousing" model of overseas warehouses connects the "last mile" of cross-border sales, bringing Chinese goods closer to consumers around the world. People from all over the world can receive goods directly from local warehouses with just a few clicks of a mouse on their computer and a few clicks of their fingers on their mobile phones, allowing thousands of high-quality goods produced in China to arrive quickly.

Jessica Castillo, the head of Cainiao's overseas warehouse operation team in New Jersey, USA, said, "With the establishment and improvement of overseas warehouses, more and more Chinese brand customers and local customers in the United States are cooperating with us for stocking and delivery. We hope to enable American consumers to experience the flying speed of China

Timeliness and quality are the key factors for Chinese cross-border merchants to win overseas. The overseas warehouse that adopts the stocking mode ensures the timeliness of product delivery. By setting up overseas warehouses in the target market, cross-border e-commerce enterprises can significantly improve logistics efficiency, reduce operating costs, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance market competitiveness. "Sun Ting said," We hope to apply the supply chain experience and technology accumulated in China to overseas warehouses to provide a better logistics experience for Chinese cross-border merchants and overseas consumers

Numerical Intelligence System——

Efficiency Accelerator for Logistics Warehousing

The digitization system has greatly improved our work efficiency. By using a visual outbound screen, we can see real-time cargo data from the warehouse, such as the total number of orders for the day and the quantity we need to outbound. Combined with the AGV robot warehouse area in the warehouse, the efficiency of outbound and distribution has been greatly improved, and the fastest delivery can be achieved on the same day, "said Ekvi Semmi.

Sun Ting introduced that Cainiao's self-developed GIWS global intelligent warehousing system can achieve full chain data visualization in the warehouse, from warehousing to outbound, all data can be transmitted back to domestic merchants in real time. At the same time, based on the product volume, the big data team can use simulated packing algorithms to increase the loading rate of sea freight containers by up to 15%, helping customers reduce costs and increase efficiency.

With the help of digital technology, overseas warehouses serving cross-border e-commerce enterprises have also gained digital wings and become increasingly "smart". Chen Haiyan, the manager of the overseas customer service department of Ningbo Discovery International Logistics Co., Ltd., said that an overseas warehouse enterprise in Ningbo, Zhejiang, has encountered difficulties in arranging the shipment of over 2000 sets of home products to the United States. The customer wants to distribute goods in the southern United States. According to data analysis, Savannah's warehouse is a suitable choice. In the future, customers can also choose to stock in Atlanta, which will have a wider coverage area. We use the latest developed smart logistics supply chain platform for digital analysis, and update overseas warehouse data and export data in real time through information sharing, intelligent analysis, etc., to help cross-border e-commerce companies make data decisions, "said Chen Haiyan.

Huangdi believed that the future development direction of China's overseas warehouses should be to build comprehensive international logistics bases with Chinese characteristics. He said, "Overseas warehouses are strategic support nodes for China to build a global material circulation system, display windows for international business cooperation and cultural exchanges, and will also become application bases and innovation venues for new technologies, equipment, and models in the logistics industry

People's Daily Overseas Edition (June 15, 2024, Issue 06)