Guangzhou Airport Bonded Logistics Centre to rival HK

GUANGZHOU Airport Bonded Logistics Park, the first airport bonded logistics park in Guangdong, has started operation and will challenge Hong Kong at only 20 per cent of the cost and four hours` transit compared to a day in Hong Kong, Xinhua reported.
Invested by China Southern Airlines, the facility is located inside the customs supervised area at the north of the Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, next to the Huadu Avenue at the north and the airport cargo handling area at the south, covering 300,000 square metres with warehousing area of 110,000 square metres.
With the new facility, exporters in Guangzhou and regions around no longer need to ship their exports to Hong Kong when they need to have them re-imported. Re-importing via the Guangzhou Airport Bonded Logistics Centre costs only two to four hours` time and CNY800 (US$117.9) to CNY1,500 compared to one day and HK$7,000 to HK$9,000 (US$901- US$1,158) in Hong Kong. The logistics centre definitely poses a big threat to Hong Kong and will very likely diverse Pearl River Delta cargo that used to use Hong Kong, said Xinhua.
But experts from Hong Kong air cargo industry said shippers` decision to use either Guangzhou or Hong Kong depends on a number of factors including service quality, service experience, network coverage and supporting financial services. Third-party logistics service quality will be crucial to the future development of the two cities` cargo industry, said the report.