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TRUCKING MARKET * China - Logistics is key to inland shift
Shanghai,China -The Financial Times (London,England,UK), by Geoff Dyer -December 10 2007: -- China’s spectacular economic development record has largely been concentrated in two areas – the so-called Pearl River Delta just north of Hong Kong and the immediate hinterland of Shanghai... That process is starting to change, however. Over the past few years, labour costs have started to rise sharply in these coastal areas, threatening the competitiveness of lower-margin operators. Meanwhile, as these regions have prospered, they have become less tolerant of the pollution rapid industrialisation has created... The key will be the quality of logistics available to them in those more inland areas... To encourage such investments, the government has been spending heavily on new road infrastructure in recent years. China has just over 45,000km of highways and the authorities plan to nearly double the total to 85,000km by 2010... Yet companies wishing to move goods around by road quickly face the dilemma that there are no national trucking networks. Instead most of the country is dominated by small trucking operations, often with old and inefficient vehicles, that cover only limited regions. Transportation costs are around 16 per cent of total product costs in China, compared with around 5 per cent in developed economies... (Photo by BigLorryBlog)* China's many trucks at heart of diesel problems - Poor fuel, dirty trucks
Guangzhou,China -Information About China and the Chinese.blogspot, by Keith Bradsher -December 8, 2007: -- ... In nearby Shenzhen, Chan Kin-fun also faces economic realities... The journeys are tough on drivers' health, as they breathe the exhaust of trucks ahead of them... "When a truck driver is not eating rice, he's eating diesel," said Zhang over a dinner of rice and vegetables at a grimy café here as his brakes were repaired... Wearing blue jeans and a dark pullover and chain-smoking cigarettes, like many of the truck drivers here, Zhang was frank about both the problems truckers face and the problems their vehicles create... Overweight trucks damage roads and emit extra pollution. But Zhang said that he frequently exceeded weight limits on his blue five-month-old Chunlan truck... With his pay based on how much cargo he hauls, he estimated that he typically carries two to three times his truck's legal limit... Time on the road is hard on relationships, too. Zhang has a wife and a year-old daughter. But he takes another woman with him on many of his trips as a second "wife," he said, insisting that his legal wife accepted the arrangement... Oil industry experts suggest that China raise diesel prices by at least 20 percent to eliminate subsidies and fuel lines and to foster refinery investment. Zhang, who pays the equivalent of $680 a month on his truck loan, vehemently opposes an increase in diesel prices; he is convinced that he would not be able to pass on the extra cost to the manufacturers who hire him... One response to China's truck-pollution problem would be to ban older trucks. But the government has resisted such a radical step, fearing the costs not just to the economy, but to truckers and members of their extended families, who typically pool their savings to finance a truck... Another obstacle to change may be the lack of public criticism of truck pollution. While environmental groups are rapidly multiplying in China, vehicle pollution has attracted little attention - and much resignation among truckers and residents alike... (Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times: Truck drivers waiting at the edge of Guangzhou for 9 p.m., when they can drive through the city. Because of diesel fumes, large trucks are banned during the day)Labels: trucking markets
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