The characteristics and trend of the development of China's logistics industry
- 2018-04-26 14:07
- Logistics development, supply chain outsourcing, third party logistics, Fourth Party Logistics
As the arterial system of the national economy, the logistics industry connects all sectors of the economy and makes it an organic whole. The development degree of the logistics industry is one of the important signs to measure the degree of modernization and the comprehensive national strength of a country.
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In the rapid development period of the 80s of last century, the problem of high logistics cost was covered by the high gross profit rate of goods. With the soft landing of the economy in 1997, the importance of cost control was realized in the fierce competition. The more attention was paid to the logistics as the third profit source outside of resources and manpower.
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The current situation of the development of China's logistics industry
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Although it has skipped the smooth development stage of the logistics industry in the United States and Japan, compared with the developed countries, our country is still relatively backward in infrastructure, management, theoretical research, logistics technology, information technology and so on. But its market size is huge and its prospects are wide.
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In recent years, China's economy has been growing steadily and rapidly, providing a good macro environment for the rapid development of logistics and supply chain management outsourcing service industry. According to the National Bureau of statistics, the total cost of logistics in China was 10 trillion and 800 billion yuan in 2015, an increase of 1.9% over the previous year.
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The logistics industry outlook index (LPI) reflects the overall change of the economic development of the logistics industry, taking 50% as the demarcation point of the economic strength and weak point. When it is higher than 50%, it reflects the economic expansion of the logistics industry, and less than 50% reflects the contraction of the logistics industry. China's logistics industry outlook index has remained above 50% since January 2014, reflecting that China's logistics industry is still in a stable and rapid development cycle.
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The proportion of logistics cost in gross domestic product is one of the important indicators to measure the overall efficiency of the logistics industry. Although China's logistics industry has maintained a relatively fast growth momentum in recent years, its overall operational efficiency is still low. China's index dropped from 23.79% in 1991 to 16.9% in 2014. In the US and Japan, the proportion of GDP in logistics costs is about 8%, and the difference between China and the US and Japan is over 8%.
At present, the development of China's logistics industry mainly presents the following characteristics:
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First, logistics enterprises should strengthen mergers and acquisitions and speed up industrial integration. The low concentration of the logistics industry leads to the fierce competition in the market and the characteristic of reducing the service price as the main competitive means, and the whole industry lacks the differentiated products and services. Low entry threshold leads to low concentration of logistics industry and fierce competition. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of concentration, the industry still lacks leading companies with pricing power.
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Large scale logistics companies can take advantage of economies of scale in terms of network coverage, capacity allocation and other aspects to achieve timely, safe and low cost advantages. Small enterprises have low service function, low comprehensive degree, weak management ability, weak competitive ability, weak information ability, unstandardized economic order, and lack of adapting to the demand of modern logistics to pursue dynamic operation and respond quickly.
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Second, the scope of services continues to extend to both ends of the supply chain. At present, the linkage between logistics enterprises and manufacturing industry is developing in depth, and deep cooperation relationship has been established. The scope of logistics service has been extended to both ends of the supply chain.
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Some logistics enterprises extend from the third party logistics which only a small number of simple logistics functions are outsourcing to the fourth party logistics which is fully involved in the supply chain of manufacturing enterprises. In the upstream supply chain, we provide raw materials and parts procurement services, raw materials logistics services, raw materials inventory management services for manufacturing enterprises. In the downstream of the supply chain, the logistics processing service, product distribution logistics service, spare parts, logistics service and so on are provided for the manufacturing enterprises, and the service level and benefit of logistics specialization have been greatly improved.
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Since 2014, a number of leading supply chain management enterprises with a certain scale and international competitiveness have been formed in the industry. At the same time, national policies are strongly supported, and more logistics enterprises are encouraged and guided to extend the scope of service to both ends of the supply chain.
Third, general logistics and professional logistics differentiation. In recent years, the trend of differentiation in the logistics industry has become increasingly obvious. Specialization has gradually become the development direction of logistics enterprises. The trend of logistics to professional development is determined by demand. The demand of enterprises to reduce logistics cost is increasing. By optimizing internal logistics management to save cost, the enterprise profit can be increased, but the cost can be reduced by optimizing supply chain management. The requirement for professional ability is very high, and the specialization of logistics service is required.
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Compared with professional logistics, general logistics has less dependence on customers and larger market scale, but competition is more intense. There are few special requirements for some enterprises in the logistics link. Compared with the professional logistics, general logistics has lower customer threshold, less demand for its own resources and more cost advantages. The differentiation between general logistics and professional logistics is conducive to providing more suitable services for enterprises with different logistics needs.
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The development trend of China's logistics industry
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The supply chain management industry is a typical modern service industry with light assets and high technology content. Through in-depth study of the operation mode of different industries, supply chain management enterprises make use of comprehensive professional ability and their own integration ability to customize integrated solutions for customers. Trade, settlement services and other combination of supply chain management services products, to achieve business flow, capital flow, information flow, logistics "four flow" in one, to save the cost of customers and improve the value.
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The unique business model of supply chain management requires that supply chain management enterprises have the following capabilities:
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First, cross regional, cross regional and cross industry professional capabilities. Cross - domain capabilities, namely, the business flow, capital flow, information flow and logistics that run through the operation, have the professional ability to provide solutions at each single level. Cross regional capabilities, namely, cross regions and even different countries, different systems and different legal frameworks, have the professional ability to remove obstacles in different regions and to implement established programmes. Cross industry ability, that is, a profound grasp of different industries, different customers in the same industry, different types of business model, and have the ability to tailor the solutions to the customer's personalized needs.
Second, integration and operation capability. The supply chain management service is different from the general logistics service. The supply chain management enterprises only invest in the key nodes on the supply chain, and do not rely on the large-scale fixed assets to seek output, but emphasize the integration of the existing resources at all levels and provide the full service to the customers under the guidance of the supply chain management solutions. Seeking employment enterprises have strong ability of integration and operation.
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Third, information system support capability. Supply chain management integrated services have the characteristics of large scale, cross domain, multi-level and all dimensional integration. Information transmission also shows the characteristics of multilateral, cross and synchronization, and information flow is a key element in supply chain management. Enterprises are required to have advanced information system technology structure, clear function and efficient coordination to meet business needs.
The value creation of supply chain management is reflected in shortening customer transaction time, reducing transaction cost, improving the overall operating efficiency of enterprise supply, production and marketing, and improving the response speed of enterprises in responding to frequent changing market demand and fierce market competition.
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Source of the article: economic magazine