191B.-l. Liu et al. (eds.), Contemporary Logistics in China: Transformation and Revitalization , Current Chinese Economic Report Series, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-33567-9_7, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013The year of 2011 had wrought much complexity to China’s economic situation. On the one hand, China accelerated its transformation of economic development mode and promoted the strategic adjustment of economic structure, leading to a rapid and steady development of its national economy. On the other hand, by posi-tively implementing the A djustment and Revitalization Plan for Logistics Industry issued in 2009 by the State Council and promulgating a number of policy docu-ments to promote industrial transfer and restructuring as well as construction of the rural circulation system, governments at all levels created a favorable macro envi-ronment for a holistic and rapid development of its logistics industry. This chapter provides a summary of the discussions in the preceding chapters, and offers some conclusions and an outlook for the logistics development in China.7.1 D evelopment Environment of China’s Logistics In term of economic environment in 2010, the growth in international trade rapidly recovered from the aftermath of the global fi n ancial crisis and the domestic logistics demand rose steadily as well. Since China has continued to increase the input in transport infrastructure in recent years, the construction of logistic infrastructure has seen some tangible results and an integrated transport system has taken shape. However, due to in fl a tion the cost of various production factors also hiked percepti-bly, posing a mounting cost pressure on the logistics enterprises.L . W ang (*)L ogistics Research Center ,N ankai University ,N o.94 Weijin Rd. ,N ankai District T ianjin 300071 ,P .R. Chinae -mail: wlnk3006@C hapter 7C onclusions and OutlookL ing W ang192L. WangI n term of policy environment, in 2010, relevant departments and governments at all levels developed special plans and local ordinances for implementing the general stipulations set by the A djustment and Revitalization Plan for Logistics Industry. The Central Government also introduced measures to speed up the construction of rural and agricultural circulation system, giving great importance to the rural mar-ket. All these measures provide the necessary policy assurance for the development of China’s logistics. In the meantime, China successively put forward a number of documents to promote industrial transfer and restructuring and provide guidance for logistics development. A noticeable move is the enactment of the E conomic Cooperation Framework Agreement(ECFA), of fic ially coming into effect in 2010, which has greatly promoted the rapid development of trade and logistics across the Straits.7.2 D evelopment of China’s Logistics MarketA long with the recovery of domestic and international macro economy, China’s logistics market also rapidly rebounded in 2010; the total social logistics expenses, port throughput and container throughput, etc. all saw signi fic ant growth over 2009, and they even surpassed the development levels of 2007–2008 peak years prior to the global fin ancial crisis.I n term of logistics demand in 2010, since the international logistics market rebounded swiftly from the decline, the logistics volume of bulk energy and raw material remained high; the markedly accelerated demand in logistics market in the Central and Western China drove the development of logistics service in these regions; auto, online shopping, cold chain for food and other markets all showed high rates of growth and emergency logistics also began to take shape.I n term of logistics supply in 2010, the overall concentration of the logistics industry was still low; foreign enterprises continued to fortify their network con-struction, actively engaged in emerging logistics market segments, expanded the local customers base, and competed with the local enterprises. Domestic logistics enterprises were striving to improve their market competitiveness by direct fin ancing and improving their service network.7.3 D evelopment Trend of China’s Logistics InfrastructureI n 2010, China’s investment in logistics infrastructure, particularly in transport infrastructure, reached its highest level over the years. With strong support from the Government’s massive investment, China’s railway, highway, waterway, airport and other transport infrastructures have seen signi fic ant improvement in both scale and technology, and the network structure was further optimized to sustain the growing logistics market. In the meantime, China also made rapid progress in professional193 7 Conclusions and Outlookstorage facilities, bonded logistics centers, professional logistics centers and public logistics information platforms. As a result, China’s logistics infrastructure has seen marked improvements both in scale and in quality.7.4 D evelopment of China’s Regional LogisticsI n 2010, China strategically promoted the formulation of development plans for the major economic regions and established the development pattern comprising the Eastern, Northeastern, Central and Western regions, each with its own focus. Several of these areas have been given special attention recently due to their unique attri-butes and strategic importance; their logistics development is vital to China’s over-all economic growth. Speci fic ally, the Chengdu – Chongqing Economic Zone has evolved into an important economic powerhouse in the Western region; Xinjiang is playing an increasingly important role in China’s international trade along Asian boarder by virtue of its unique advantages in geographical location and natural resources; the Zhongyuan City Cluster has become the signi fic ant grain production base, energy and raw material base and modern equipment manufacturing and high-tech industry base; the Northeastern region has long been China’s heavy industry base and grain production base and has recently witnessed a rapid growth in logistics development. Therefore, this book has chosen these regions as examples to highlight China’s regional logistics development.F rom 2006 to 2010, China continued to pursue its “Grand Western Development” strategy and industries in the Eastern region continued to migrate to the Western region in an accelerated pace. Relying on its solid industrial base, dominant loca-tional advantage and complete and integrated transportation network, the Chengdu – Chongqing Economic Zone has achieved rapid progress in logistics development. The upgrade in industry and shift of industry from East to West expanded the demand in logistics market for the Zone and facilitated its market development. By virtue of its favorable location, the infrastructures in railway, highway, waterway and airport were further improved, and a number of logistics parks and centers were established. In addition, the IT application in logistics also saw improvement. All these advancements helped the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone to become an economic and logistics powerhouse.U nique advantages in location and natural resources as well as policy support from the Central Government provide an important foundation for Xinjiang to accelerate its economic development and rationalize its industrial structure. In term of logistics market, Xinjiang is the international passage for China to import energy and scarce mineral resources and is gradually developing into the processing base, transit distribution center and logistics passage for China’s opening-up to the West, thus playing a strategic position in promoting the economic cooperation between China and the Central Asian countries. Meanwhile, as the New Eurasia Continental Bridge traverses Xinjiang, port logistics has become an important feature in Xinjiang’s logistics development. With improved logistics facilities and policy194L. Wang environment, port logistics in Xinjiang develops quickly as well. Urumqi, Kashgar, Ala Mountain pass, Khorgos and other nodes are playing an increasingly important role in regional trade between China and Middle Asia, West Asia, Russia and Mongolia.T he rapid development of regional economy, the adjustment and improvement of industrial structure and in particular, the fast expansion of consumer market together provide favorable economic base and huge market space for the logistics develop-ment of the Zhongyuan city cluster. Recently, the logistics market of the Zhongyuan city cluster has expanded rapidly; its logistics industry and major logistics enter-prises have also grown substantially. In particular, its kernel city, Zhengzhou, as the comprehensive transport hub which has the potential to develop into an inland inter-national logistics center in Zhongyuan city cluster is much highlighted.U nder the more slack money policy and the expansion fis cal policy of the State, the Northeastern region has achieved signi fic ant growth in regional economic aggregate, total sales of social consumer goods and foreign trade. In the region, the logistics market is continually expanded, the logistics and transport infrastructures (railway infrastructure in particular) are well developed and the construction of logistics parks continues to make progress. Promoted by the Government and regional economic integration, the progress of regional logistics integration also continues to advance. In addition, since the Northeastern region serves as China’s heavy industry base and grain base, its manufacturing logistics and grain logistics attain rapid development as well.7.5 D evelopment of China’s Industrial LogisticsT his section mainly analyzed the market segments of industry with large logis-tics demand and high degree of logistics operational specialization. Since fresh agricultural products are perishable, their logistics characteristics are quite dif-ferent from goods transported at room temperature, thus professional logistics operations are needed to handle them. China is the largest coal producer and consumer in the world, so coal logistics plays an important part in bulk commod-ity logistics market. Express service is also a much specialized market segment for logistics. In 2011, China’s express market ranked No.3 in the world, after the U.S. and Japan. Therefore, Chap. 5of the book is devoted to the development trend of China’s logistics regarding fresh agricultural products, coal and express service.W ith the constant increase in the distribution scale of China’s agricultural products logistics, the market trading volume and turnover also grew year by year. The logistics infrastructure for agricultural products continues to be improved, the network of green channels has been constructed and the operational level is being promoted gradually. Self-managed logistics mode and third party logistics mode are in simultaneous development. Third party logistics enterprises, especially cold chain logistics enterprises, have evolved into the principal party. However, China’s195 7 Conclusions and Outlookfresh agricultural products logistics is also challenged by such defects as low logistics ef fic iency, high circulation loss and backward facilities and equipment, especially in cold chain logistics development.C hina’s coal industry features the transport pattern of “transporting coal from west to east and from north to south.” Channels for coal logistics have gradually taken shape in China; construction of coal logistics park, coal railway and other infrastructures is in an accelerated stage; integration of logistics resources of coal enterprises has been further enhanced. However, insuf fic ient transport capacity of coal railway is still the “bottleneck” which restricts the outbound transport of coal. In addition, the market level of coal logistics is low; many large-scale coal enterprises adopt the traditional integrated self-operating mode, which follows the “production + transport + sales” pattern; the resource integration of coal logistics is also insuf fic ient.T he continued improvement of China’s express service management system and the formulation of a number of new express service standards, related laws, regulations and plans have further upgraded the express service in China. At present, the service capability of China’s express enterprise has been greatly improved. The business entity in China’s express market begins to show a diversi fic ation trend, and a market competition pattern featuring co-existence of state-owned, private and foreign–funded express enterprises has taken shape. As market competition intensi fie s, merger and acquisition begin to occur among different express enter-prises. However, there are still some problems with China’s express logistics. For example, policy treatment for enterprises with different ownerships varies, the market’s response capacity is low, most of domestic enterprises have relatively backward internal management level, etc.7.6 H ot Issues in China’s Logistics DevelopmentC hapter 6of the book describes some major issues or hot issues regarding logistics in China’s economic and social fil ed. Since China’s accession to the WTO 10 year ago, international trade has contributed greatly to the rapid development of China’s logistics. As a new mode of transportation, multi–modal transport is an important transport form used by China in international trade. In the meantime, bonded logis-tics also develops itself into an important form in China’s international trade logis-tics. Additionally, under the framework featuring energy conservation, low carbon emission and environment–friendliness, awareness and concern for environmental logistics is increasing throughout the society. Therefore, this chapter mainly dis-cusses the development trend of multimodal transport, bonded logistics and envi-ronmental logistics in China.R ecently, the container transport service of China has been subject to continued expansion, which provides a huge potential market for developing multimodal transport. The constant expansion of multimodal transport channels and lines, the opening of a number of inland ports and the improvement of operational ef fic iency196L. Wang offer more choices for multimodal transport. Transport service network of various transport modes is being actively promoted; the improvement of facilities and equipment provides favorable physical conditions for multimodal transport; the cooperation among different departments and local governments and ports also provides strong policy support for multimodal transport. However, China’s multi-modal transport is still confronted with problems as follows: low proportion of sea and rail transport, feeble management system, bottleneck in railway capacity and hub linking, low market credit level, backward development of operational sub-jects, etc. In the future, the market scale and network coverage of multimodal transport will be further expanded, especially sea-rail transport and river-sea trans-port which will become the focus of future development. The construction of mul-timodal transport will be further speeded up. And the sea, port and inland transport enterprises will be linked and integrated to provide operational service platform for multimodal transport.T he needs for bonded logistics are growing in China, leading to the rapid increase in the number of bonded logistics supervision zones, which have expanded from the East to the West in terms of spatial distribution and have been equipped with more integrated functions. The service capability of bonded logis-tics enterprises has continually been improved. Yet the spatial distribution and the functional orientation of the special supervision zones, the ef fic iency of the customs, and the supporting service system for bonded logistics are still in need of further improvement. To facilitate the integration of these special supervision zones of China’s Customs, the Government will need to rationally plan and effectively integrate the policies, modes and resources among different types of supervision zones, and actively expand the logistics functions of such zones.G reen logistics not only conforms to the development trend of green economy in the world, but also is China’s set objective to transform its mode of economic development and upgrade its logistics industry. Although China’s green logistics has made certain progress in terms of policy guidance, green equipment and facilities, optimization of logistics o peration organization, development of recycling and remanufacturing industry and other aspects, it is still at the preliminary stage of development, and therefore requires further adjustment and improvement in its policy system, operations organization, certi fic ation and monitoring, technology and equipment, etc.7.7 O utlook of China’s Logistics DevelopmentT he coming years will be critical for China in view of the stagnated global economy. The outlook for China’s economy in general and logistics industry in particular, is of a modest optimism. It is therefore advisable for China to focus its development effort on building a moderately prosperous economy, to deepen its reform and opening- undertakings, and to accelerate the transformation of its mode of economic development. The economic development will turn from197 7 Conclusions and Outlookrapid growth induced by policy stimulation of the past years to steady growth via fundamental structural adjustment. As the national economy maintains a steady pace of growth, the logistics gross value will likely hold a steady and mild upward growth trend. However, affected by the weakened global economy, China’s international logistics will probably remain in a fairly stable state. China will continue to build long-term mechanisms to expand its domestic demand so that the domestic logistics demand will keep growing. Promoted by the strategic adjustment of the national economic structure, China’s logistics industry will respond by accelerating its transformation, and the logistics enter-prises will speed up their internationalization endeavors.。
