South Korean express and logistics group CJ GLS is cutting delivery time to China by 1-3 daysthrough a new partnership with EMS China, the China Postal Express subsidiary, as part of its
ongoing international expansion.CJ GLS said it has signed an agreement with EMS in Liaoning Province, China, in order to expandits international door-to-door delivery business between Korea and China. Liaoning Province,north-east of Beijing and bordering North Korea, includes the port of Dalian and the metropolis ofShenyang.
Under the partnership, CJ GLS will ship international items to the Chinese province, and EMS inLiaoning will be in charge of same-day customs clearance and shipment services within the country.This rapid customs clearance ensures next-day delivery within Liaoning Province and faster deliverytimes to all other regions within China, with shipments arriving 1-3 days more quickly compared tothe past.
The Korean company said the partnership is the first EMS China agreement with a foreign companyand enables it to use the entire EMS China network and infrastructure. EMS China is the largestdoor-to-door delivery service company within China, with 12 planes, around 20,000 vehicles and some20,000 employees.
The scale of the market for international delivery services between Korea and China is estimatedto be around 200 billion Korean won annually and this market is continuing to expand, due to theincreasing preference for Korean commodities and the explosive growth of the e-commerce marketwithin China, according to the company.
In order to target the market for Korea-China international delivery services, CJ GLS plansto reinforce its sales activities in large scale markets, department stores, shopping malls, andoutdoor markets, while also increasing the number of its venues handling international deliverieswith a focus on commercial zones with high concentrations of Chinese tourists and the residentialareas of Chinese citizens in Korea.
CJ GLS CEO Kwan Soo Shon explained that “international door-to-door delivery is arapidly growing industry that has continued to achieve an average annual growth rate of 20% ormore, and this market expansion is expected to accelerate further with the development of thee-commerce market and the extension of the FTA” and stated that “by further expanding our globalnetwork, CJ GLS will be able to achieve the stature of a global logistics company rivaling DHL orUPS.”
CJ GLS is already directly active in China with several branch offices. Last November it openeda new office in Chongqing following previous openings in Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin, Dalian,Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and announced plans to create a network for logistics serviceswithin China. CJ GLS said it planned to provide logistics services connecting key locations in theYangtze delta region including Chongqing, Nanjing, and Shanghai and including river transport onthe Yangtze, overland transport, warehouse storage, import and export forwarding, etc.
Vice-President Tae-Jik Lee of CJ GLS, head of its global business division, explained that “China is the market of the highest interest to CJ GLS, and in particular the western inland regionscentered around Chongqing is a Blue Ocean market that is undergoing rapid economic development” andstated that the company will “provide optimized services that will bolster the logisticscompetitiveness of Korean companies that have been recently expanding their entry into the westernregions of China and accomplish a win-win effect.”
In other moves in recent months, CJ GLS has signed an international partnership with Aramex, andlaunched door-to-door delivery services from Japan and Taiwan to South Korea.
