Alibaba’s Cainiao Network announced a partnership with sea & air freight customs brokerage SGH Global Japan (SGJ) to help Japanese businesses gain better access to the Chinese market, in time for major shopping festivals like the 618 this month and Double 11 in November.
“Japan has always been a key market for us,” said James Zhao, General Manager of Cainiao Global Supply Chain.
“SGJ has demonstrated extensive logistics capabilities and business connections that will be instrumental in helping Japanese businesses expand overseas to establish greater resilience amid the current business landscape. This will hopefully bring us closer to our goal of delivering globally within 72 hours,” he added.
SGJ said it completed all system integrations with Cainiao and launched the full-fledged operation on 26 May. Cainiao will be leveraging SGJ’s B2C warehousing, customs clearance services and line haul for cross-border shipping from Japan to China, including six weekly flights from Japan to China via Osaka (KIX). Plans are underway to launch flights from Tokyo after the end of June.
The Alibaba logistics unit said that a full suite logistics service between Japan and China will play an instrumental role in supporting Japan’s export industry, as data from World Bank showed that China is the country’s largest export customer at US$144 billion (19.51 percent).
In November last year, the logistics operator launched its Japan services and partnered with Nippon Express, 4PX, Sinotrans, and Hongyuan Group for first- and last-mile trucking services and customs clearance.
Cainiao has been upgrading its logistics capabilities with the customer in mind. It launched a Whatsapp channel in Singapore and Malaysia for customers to receive timely update and facilitate enquiries.
It also extended the parcel size and weight limits for air freight and doubled the sea and air freight frequency to seven times weekly (from the previous three to four per week), with capacity up to 15 tonnes per flight and 10 shipping containers per sea freight.
