1、 CONTENTS 1. Introduction . ii 2. The present situation of international freight forwarding industry in china . 1 2.1. Rapid development of International Freight Forwarding Industry . 2 2.2. Problems in international freight forwarding industry . 3 2.2.1. Intense and out-of-order Competition between
2、 forwarders . 3 2.2.1.1. Lack of supervision . 3 2.2.1.2. Price war and commercial bribe . 4 2.2.2. A primary stage of development . 5 2.2.2.1. Medium-and-small sized company is predominant. . 5 2.2.2.2. Lack of trained personnel . 6 2.2.2.3. Lack of core competitiveness . 7 3. Prospects-Great poten
3、tial for growth in future . 7 3.1. Large-scale . 8 3.2. Specialization . 8 4. Conclusion . 9 Works citied . 10 Current situation and Prospects of International Freight Forwarding Industry in China Abstract: Chinas international freight forwarding industry has a close relationship with China foreign
4、trade. This paper looks back at the quick development of international freight forwarding industry in China and points out some exiting problems, and indicates that this industry is sill at its primary stage of development. In 2020s, China will become the largest economy, overtaking the U.S. and Chi
5、nas foreign trade has a growth prospect. Chinese intl forwarders will develop into large-scale, networking and specialized forwarders; Chinas international freight forwarding industry still has a bright prospect. Key words: international freight forwarding industry, quick development, exiting proble
6、ms, future prospect iii 中国国际货运代理行业现状与展望 摘要 : 中 国货运代理业同中国经济和外贸紧密联系，本论文回顾中国国际货运代理业的迅速发展并指出一些存在的问题，认为中国国际货运代理业仍然处在其初级发展阶段。在美国金融危机和欧洲债务危机双重影响下，中国国际货运代理业出现增速放缓，然而，本世纪二十年代中国将超越美国成为全球第一大经济体及中国外贸的增长前景，中国国际货代公司将向规模化、网络化和专业化方向发展，中国国际货运代理业仍然前景光明。 关键词：国际货运代理业，迅速发展，存在问题，前景 1 1. Introduction An international frei
7、ght forwarder, or forwarder for short, is an agent for the exporter in moving cargo to an overseas destination. The core business of an international freight forwarder is to move a shippers consignment to the consignee in another country or area within the stipulated time, in perfect order and at th
8、e most competitive price. While the freight forwarder doesnt actually move the freight itself, it acts as an intermediary between the client and various transportation services. International freight forwarding industry belongs to service industry, it services foreign trade. The forwarders services
9、enable the export to concentrate on the task he is best at, i.e. the manufacture and sale of his product. As a part of international business, international freight forwarding industry plays an important role in the development of international trade. There are mainly four parts in this thesis. Intr
10、oduction is laid out in part one, including the importance of international freight forwarding industry, the organization of this thesis. Part two is about the present situation of international freight forwarding industry in China, pointing out two main problems and its primary development. Part th
11、ree presents the prospect of this industry, great potential for growth in future. Finally, conclusion is provided in the part four, which consist of the finding of the study, limitation of the study and considerations on the further research. 2. The present situation of international freight forward
12、ing industry in china Federation of International Freight Forwarders Association (FIATA) is the worlds international freight forwarding industry organization; it was set up at a meeting held in Vienna on May 31st, 1926. China International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFA) a national agent organ
13、ization of international freight forwarding industry in China, it 2 was founded in Beijing on September 6th, 2000. CIFA, as a non-governmental organization, takes part in international trade and transportation affairs and carries out international commercial intercourses, and attends all kinds of re
14、lated international meetings. CIFA joined FIATA as a state member in 2001. In China, international freight forwarding mainly consists of ocean freight forwarding and air freight forwarding, of which, the former accounts for about 70% of the overall international freight forwarding market. At present
15、, capacity surplus in shipping industry is still serious, coupled with the slow recovery in demand for cargo volume, the growth rate of international ocean freight forwarding market scale in 2012 will fall to a single digit. The international air freight forwarding market occupies a small of 15%, ac
16、companied by large fluctuations. The global financial crisis leads directly the reduction of total volume of China import and export trade. The slumping trend of trade has impacted a lot on Chinese international freight forwarding industry. Under this circumstance, most china forwarders are facing p
17、roblems like decline in business, decline in profit, financial stain, increased risks, disordered market and even business failure. 2.1. Rapid development of International Freight Forwarding Industry International freight forwarding industry started late in China. Before 1988, there are only two sta
18、te-owned freight forwarding companies, namely China National Foreign Trade transportation (Group) Corporation (abbr. Sinotrans) and China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (abbr. COSCO). With the encouragement and support of Chinese government in 1988, it developed fast. At the end of 1993 the number o
19、f freight forwarding companies ratified by Ministry of Commerce is 510; at the end of 1999 it reached 1600. 1990s is freight forwarding companies golden time, factories and foreign trade companies begged them to ship goods for them, Money is made easily. After China entering the WTO in2001, with the
20、 rapid development of Chinese foreign trade, 3 Chinese domestic freight forwarding companies also developed rapidly. By the end of 2003, there are 4384 international freight forwarding companies in China; by the end of 2011, there are more than 27,000 companies. Since 11 December 2005, the mainland
21、government has allowed the access of wholly foreign-owned forwarders to the industry as part of Chinas WTO accession terms. So foreign peer companies also joined the market to compete, competition has been increasing tense, sellers market gradually developed into buyers market. From 1998 to 2011, Ch
22、inas international forwarding industry witnessed an average annual growth rate of more than 10% in market scale. However, increasing labor cost, RMB appreciation, descending demand produced by economic recession in the U.S. and Europe, increasing cargo transportation capacity, plus high fuel prices,
23、 international freight forwarding market in 2012 showed contraction. 2.2. Problems in international freight forwarding industry At present, though Chinas international freight forwarding industry develops fast, there exit some problems. Firstly, the competitions between forwarders are fierce and out
24、 of order; Secondly,1 Chinas international freight forwarding industry is still at its primary stage of development. 2.2.1. Intense and out-of-order Competition between forwarders Intense and out-of-order competition shows in two respects. On one hand, supervision from government is insufficient. On
25、 the other hand, price war is prevailing in freight forwarding market. 2.2.1.1. Lack of supervision There are only one stipulation promulgated by Ministry of Commerce, namely Detailed Implementing Rules for the Stipulations of the P.R.C Concerning the 1. 郭俣 . 我国国际货运代理业市场竞争环境分析 . 现代商贸工业 , 2010 (9). 4
26、 Administration of the International Freight Forwarding Industry, but its constraint force is limited. Chinese government should formulate more binding laws to safeguard the international freight forwarding market order, should strengthen supervision and administration over the international freight
27、 forwarding industry and promote the healthy development of Chinas international freight forwarding industry.2 In addition, the government cant effectively execute its power of examination and approval. For example, if you want to register an air freight forwarding company in Shenzhen, Chinese gover
28、nment stipulates the minimum registered capital is RMB 3 million, but in fact, you dont need to have that money, all you have to do is to pay about RMB 20 thousand to some companies that specialize in registering companies for other companies, and those companies can get a business license from gove
29、rnment. Government should regulate the forwarding market by strictly implementing its rules and stipulations. 2.2.1.2. Price war and commercial bribe Because it is very easy to get the access into international freight forwarding industry; so many small-sized forwarders have emerged. These small fre
30、ight forwarding companies usually have one little room, one desk, one computer, one telephone and one or two people. Their operation cost is quite low, in order to grab customers, those small companies employ price war as a weapon to compete with each other. Price war disturbs regular market competi
31、tion order and undermines the healthy development of international freight forwarding industry. Especially after the United Sates financial crisis and European debt crisis, Chinese foreign trade growth slowed sharply, weak export and import aggravate this situation. Prices war has been a frequent oc
32、currence because of vicious competition. 2 梅赞宾 中国国际货运代理业发展研究报告 .中国物资出版社 ， 2010. P89 5 Fierce competition also prompts many companies to bribe the person who is in charge of import-export affairs in client companies. Commercial bribe is a typical unfair competition which can disturb the market compet
33、ition order badly. Some companies quote clients very seductive low price, when they get the order from their clients, they make up a variety of excuses to overcharge the clients. If the clients want to take back goods, they have to pay some money. Those freight forwarding companies make money by che
34、ating their clients. Some small freight forwarding companies dont cheat their clients; they cheat their peer freight forwarding companies, which mainly do business with smaller freight forwarding companies. Those fraudulent companies use fake business licenses and identification cards to establish b
35、usiness relationship with other freight forwarding companies. At first they pay freight in time, after a period of time, they pay monthly. They collect freight from clients in cash, when they collect as much as hundreds of thousand yuan, they dont pay the supplier, and instead they close their compa
36、nies and disappear. 2.2.2. A primary stage of development Objectively, international freight forwarding industry in China is still at a primary stage. Firstly, small- and medium- sized forwarders are predominant in freight forwarding market. 2.2.2.1. Medium-and-small sized company is predominant. Cu
37、rrently, the biggest freight forwarding company is Sinotrans. By the end of 2011, Sinotrans has 26343 staff and the total assets are up to 27 billion yuan, its service network is all over the China and overseas main cities. But Sinotrans is an exception. Top 50 biggest companies market share is less
38、 than 15%.The scale of most forwarders is small. In more than 20, 000 international freight forwarding companies, small- and medium- sized forwarders account for over 90%. Many small companies have less than 5 employees, their turnover and market share are small. Staffs have been leaving established
39、 companies to start up their own enterprises with little knowledge and limited 6 finance. This is leading to a proliferation of companies that call themselves “freight forwarders”, but they are unable to provide a satisfactory service and this leads to a bad reputation of all freight forwarders. 2.2
40、.2.2. Lack of trained personnel Trained personnel are insufficient. International freight forwarding industry is an emerging industry. Only very few universities and colleges run curriculums concerned. A handful of undergraduates are in short supply. Most of the graduates choose large-scale stated-o
41、wned freight forwarding companies. Private small-and medium-sized forwarders are difficult to recruit professional undergraduates. Those forwarders generally have to employ employees new to the profession and provide limited informal on-the-job training; those learners often make mistakes and cause
42、unnecessary losses. As general universities, the teaching of logistics department should be positioned to train a large number of practical professional personnel who master solid basic theory in the respect of international freight forwarding industry, are familiar with related laws and regulations
43、, and possess basic operational capacity to meet the work of modern commerce.3 Frequent employee turnover in freight forwarding industry is another serious problem; many forwarders are reluctant to train their unprofessional staff because they will face the risk of the employees job-hopping. All fre
44、ight forwarders should be trained in the skills of their profession. All the companies in freight forwarding industry should invest in train and skill development, they can attract and retain talents to grow by providing career prospects with flexible incentives and equity participation possibilitie
45、s. The government should set up examination on international freight forwarding, anyone passes the examination can get a certificate, only those who have a certificate can get a job in this industry. 3 姚大伟 . 我国国际货运代理企业的发展问题初探 . 中国商贸 , 2010 (16) 7 2.2.2.3. Lack of core competitiveness Most of Chinese
46、 freight forwarding companies lack core competitiveness. Competitive freight forwarding industry should enable traders to consider the use of more favorable terms of trade, because trade terms reflect the degree of risk attached to the trading. In 2012 only one Chinese company Sinotrans entered the list of world top 50 biggest international freight forwarders in annual
