Today, Hong Kong-based logistics company Kerry Logistics Network Ltd. announced a joint-venture with Spain’s national postal service, Sociedad Estatal de Correos y Telégrafos, to provide end-to-end cross border services for companies engaged in e-commerce exports from China.
Under the agreement, the companies will establish a new 200,000 square-foot sorting center in Southern China. The facility will be equipped with an automated sorting system and security controls for parcel screening. The center is expected to have an initial sorting capacity of 500,000 parcels per day and is set to open in the fourth quarter of 2019.
According to China’s General Customs Administration, cross-border e-commerce exports from China increased 67% year-on-year in 2018, totaling RMB56.12 billion (US$ 8.1 billion).
Because China is Spain’s largest economic partner in Asia, “the new partnership with Kerry Logistics presents a unique opportunity for Correos to capture the outbound e-commerce parcel deliveries from China,” Juan Manuel Serrano Quintana, President of the Board of Directors of Correos, said in a press release.
William Ma, Group Managing Director of Kerry Logistics, added that “the JV combines the diverse capabilities of its two partners, each complementing the other to refine the process of e-commerce parcels handling and deliveries. As China’s cross-border e-commerce exports grow, we are determined to prepare ourselves for seizing emerging opportunities.”
The news continues Kerry Logistics’ growth as the company also entered another JV earlier this year, with e-commerce IT company E-Services Group (ESG) to develop a fulfillment service that allows e-tailer forwarders to organize shipments on a centralized platform.