Nascent logistics market attracts foreign investors
An increasing number of global distribution companies and property funds have shown a strong interest in the mainland's logistics market amid liberalisation of the sector and rapid economic growth.
'More and more foreign companies are encroaching on the transport services battlefield and the industry also attracts third-party investors of warehouse and industrial space,' Vickers Asia-Pacific research manager Karen Choi said.
'A number of our clients also show an interest in the logistics market in China, for own use or for pure investment.'
The interest was encouraged by the mainland's economic growth, which was putting increasing pressure on the country's logistics systems, she said.
Demand for containerised transport by sea continues to burgeon.
Until 2010, the transport and communications sector is expected to continue to outpace the economy, with an average annual growth rate of 10.2 per cent, against 9 per cent for overall gross domestic product growth.
The value of the sector's GDP would rise to US$294.2 billion in nominal terms by 2010, representing 6.1 per cent of the country's growth, the National Statistics Bureau said.
Japan's NewCity Corp had just bought a two-storey logistics facility with a floor area of 250,000 square metres in the Shanghai Pudong Waigaoqiao Logistics Park, Ms Choi said.
United States-based Prologis, a leading provider of distribution facilities and services, has built the ProLogis Park Yantian in Shenzhen, with 288,000 sqmetres of warehousing space to be developed in four phases.
Last month, it bought a 12,000 sqmetre site in the Tianjin Airport Industrial Park to develop a logistics and distribution centre for 232.5 million yuan and forked out 2.32 billion yuan to build the third phase of a logistics park in Shanghai.
