[photopress:schneider.jpg,full,alignright]Southco Global Logistics recently tried a new guaranteed ‘port-to-door’ service from China to the United States offered jointly by APL Logistics, a unit of Singapore-based shipper Neptune Orient Lines and San Mateo, California-based trucking and logistics company Con-way.
The service allows the tracking of shipments online all the way from China. Southco will ‘definitely’ use it again, it said.
The company isn’t alone. As U.S. manufacturers shift their operations to China, they need transport companies to shepherd the return of finished or partly finished goods.
U.S. shippers like railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe and trucker YRC Worldwide have responded by setting up shop in China’s transportation market to provide visibility and consistency for their U.S. customers.
Andrew Meister of Thrivent Asset Management, which holds stakes in a broad range of transport companies, said, ‘These companies have to be in China because it’s what their customers need and in many cases require.’
Chris Lofgren, chief executive of truck operator Schneider National, which opened a Shanghai office in November 2005, said, ‘China is going to be the next great long-haul trucking market.’
Andrew Meisterr and others say U.S. transport companies not considering a move into China may be missing out on an important opportunity as the market there expands. He said, ‘If they don’t have a China presence, they won’t have a grasp of the competitive landscape there’.
Schneider, the largest private U.S. trucker, plans to acquire a Chinese truck company in the first quarter and take over operations at a port from the government during the year. The Green Bay, Wisconsin-based company will initially serve U.S. customers, but expects massive growth in business from Chinese customers as discretionary spending of the nation’s 1.3 billion people rises.
Source: Logistics Management