Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport [사진=로이터연합뉴스]
As China’s leading e-commerce companies known as ‘AliExpress, Temu, Shein’ are dominating the global market, the largest customer in China’s air logistics industry is changing from Apple to these companies.
On the 26th, Chinese business media Caixin reported that Alte, She, which represents consumer goods and clothing, has shown rapid growth all over the world and has become a new growth engine in the air logistics market.
According to last year’s performance report by China Eastern Airlines’ logistics subsidiary Eastern Airlines Logistics (EAL), the company’s cross-border e-commerce solution business sales (4.698 billion yuan) increased by 71.71%. The proportion of cross-border e-commerce business in EAL’s total revenue increased nearly ten-fold from 2.74% in 2018 to 22.79% in 2023.
On the other hand, sales (328 million yuan) of the customized logistics solution business (mainly high-tech products and electronic machines) decreased by 49.3% compared to the previous year.
Caixin pointed out that this change in performance was due to the rapid growth of e-commerce companies such as Temu and Shein.
The logistics companies of China’s three major airlines are all showing similar trends. In the first half of last year (January to June), Southern Airlines Logistics’ largest customer was Xuyin, which generated sales of 996 million yuan. Shein replaced Apple, which had been its largest customer until recently. During this period, Shein’s share of Southern Airlines logistics sales reached 12.79%.
As e-commerce companies show signs of rapid emergence, China International Freight Forwarding (Air China Cargo), a logistics subsidiary of Air China, has been increasing its investment in cross-border e-commerce business since 2018. In fact, according to data from the General Administration of Customs, China’s cross-border e-commerce import and export volume in 2023 recorded 2.38 trillion yuan, a 15.6% increase from the previous year.
However, as supply has stabilized since the pandemic, freight rates have plummeted, leading to a decline in net profits for air logistics companies. As freight rates soared due to the logistics disruption caused by COVID-19, EAL’s net profit soared 361.55% in three years from 788 million yuan in 2019 to 3.637 billion yuan in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government is known to be reviewing policies to support e-commerce companies through the construction of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones and support for the establishment of overseas logistics centers. On the 20th, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported, “Measures related to supporting the development of cross-border e-commerce companies are expected to be announced soon.”
Some local governments are already offering support measures. On the 11th, Suzhou City announced a three-year (2024-2026) action plan for the high-quality development of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive demonstration zone.
Reporter Information Jiwon Lee jeewonlee@ajunews.com
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