According to an investigation by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), there are three advantages of the logistics market of Hong Kong and China.
This logistics market will benefit from the following factors, synthesized the company Cosmos Group Holdings, based on research from the same source:
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area Development
The development of the Greater Bay Area allows the integration of transportation networks in the region, including air cargo, ground transportation, and warehousing services.
Not only Hong Kong, but also the mainland’s four neighboring airports have seen rapid growth in terms of air cargo logistics.
Now service providers can work together more closely to seize opportunities and build a platform for strategic cooperation for air transport.
In particular, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HKZMB), a large-scale cross-border infrastructure linking the three locations, is expected to improve connections between cities and streamline travel between them.
More importantly, Cosmos Group expects cargo movement between Hong Kong and the western Pearl River Delta to improve.
E-commerce and logistics market opportunities
E-commerce represents competitive pressure for traditional retailers, but it has also created enormous opportunities for air cargo.
Consumers demand speed and reliability and air cargo services would have a significant advantage.
According to the Airports Council International, the 8% expansion in total cargo handled at all airports in the world and the 10% growth in international cargo in 2017 were primarily driven by e-commerce.
However, online retail accounts for less than 10% of total retail sales worldwide, indicating that there is still great potential for e-commerce as a future growth engine for the air cargo industry.
Air cargo is also likely to be bolstered by the improvement in Asia’s overall manufacturing capacity and the continued shift to Asia from the production of high-value goods.
Goods such as telecommunications equipment and electronic devices and parts are always transported by air as the life cycles of products are shortened.
Technology trends
New technologies play an increasingly important role for the logistics market to improve its operational efficiency.
It is expected that the adoption of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) technology, which allows users to gain automatic access to information, as well as identify, collect and store data directly on a computer system , become more prevalent as radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors and Bluetooth technology are rolled out across the industry.
Robotics will also be a major logistics technology trend in the near future.
Amazon acquired Kiva Systems in 2012 and it is now known as Amazon Robotics.
This will result in increased use of robots in logistics and warehousing operations, such as parking and collection.
Additionally, the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) will foster the adoption of mobile apps among logistics service providers that can be used for tracking and customer service interactions.
