China Logistics Group has been established, with smart logistics and intelligent supply chain development emerging as key strategic priorities.

12 month 6 On [date], with the approval of the State Council, China Logistics Group Co., Ltd. was officially established.

The newly established China Logistics Group comprises the former China Railway Materials Group, along with the logistics divisions of China Chengtong Holding Group—namely, China National Materials Storage and Transportation Group, Huamao International Logistics Co., Ltd., China Logistics Co., Ltd., and China Packaging Co., Ltd. 4 It is formed through the integration of enterprises.

At the inaugural meeting of China Logistics Group, Hao Peng, Director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, stated that China Logistics Group will strive to become a world-class modern logistics enterprise, vigorously developing specialized logistics, smart logistics, green logistics, emergency logistics, and shared logistics.

Li Hongfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Logistics Group, stated that, “China Logistics Group has emerged in response to the times, addressing the urgent need to build a modern circulation system and support the establishment of a new development paradigm. It is also essential for driving cost reduction, quality improvement, and efficiency gains in the logistics sector, ensuring the autonomy, controllability, and security of industrial and supply chains. Moreover, it is critical for accelerating the optimization of state‑owned capital allocation and structural adjustment, and for guiding state‑owned capital toward key industries and strategic areas.”

Professional integration to build logistics. “National Team”

2021 This year marks the decisive year for the three-year action plan on state-owned enterprise reform. At this critical juncture, China Railway Materials and the logistics division of China Chengtong have undertaken specialized integration, which not only underscores the continued advancement of SOE reform but also highlights the importance of building a modern logistics system and strengthening supply chains.

Currently, China’s logistics industry faces challenges at the enterprise level. Shortcomings such as fragmented, small‑scale operations and low logistics efficiency underscore the need to build a modern logistics system, which serves as a key lever for fostering a new development paradigm. Accordingly, it is imperative to advance the professional integration of logistics operations among central enterprises, establish a national logistics powerhouse, and work to optimize the layout of warehousing networks and further refine the modern logistics system.

It is foreseeable that China Logistics Group will focus on driving high-quality development in its logistics segment, striving to play a pivotal role in advancing the modern circulation system and fostering the growth of internationally competitive modern logistics enterprises.

Liu Xingguo, a researcher at the China Enterprise Confederation, stated in a media interview that, from both domestic and international perspectives, the establishment of the China Logistics Group will help consolidate logistics resources and optimize resource allocation, thereby enhancing the asset quality and resource utilization efficiency of the newly formed enterprise. At the same time, the specialized integration of the logistics divisions within central state-owned enterprises will contribute to raising the industry’s level of concentration, standardizing and streamlining the development order of the logistics sector, fostering technological advancement, and supporting the entire industry in achieving higher quality and greater efficiency.

According to relevant statistics, the consolidated warehousing footprint totals nearly 10 million square meters, encompassing both open-air storage yards and enclosed warehouses, with resources spanning across China and the globe. This scale advantage will place the company at the forefront worldwide.

Moreover, the establishment of China Logistics Group will further enhance its organizational capabilities. Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute, believes that the new entity has created a national-level comprehensive logistics powerhouse and will focus on optimizing its warehousing network and refining the modern logistics system. The specialized restructuring of state-owned enterprises in the logistics sector will help streamline the warehousing and logistics networks for bulk commodities, establishing end-to-end systems that address a key gap in China’s modern logistics industry.

Future development will focus on digital supply chains.

As China’s digital economy continues to grow, supply chain services and digital transformation are likely to become key strategic priorities for Chinese logistics groups, laying the groundwork for building modern logistics enterprises with fully integrated industrial chains and robust overall capabilities.

At the inaugural meeting of China Logistics Group, Li Hongfeng stated that, “China Logistics Group will steadfastly pursue digital excellence, aggregate innovation resources, advance the digitalization of industries and the industrialization of digital technologies, jointly build and share a logistics big-data platform, develop new technologies, new business forms, and new models in the circulation sector, and thereby drive industrial transformation and upgrading.”

In Liu Xingguo’s view, China Logistics Group will play a dual role in advancing the digitalization of logistics: on the one hand, specialized consolidation will seamlessly integrate previously fragmented logistics operations into the new group, creating more opportunities for the deep application of digital technologies across the sector; on the other, by optimizing resource allocation through this specialized integration, the group can coordinate and deploy previously dispersed resources more effectively. This, in turn, will strengthen the newly formed group’s capacity to adopt and advance digital technologies, thereby better facilitating the seamless integration of digital solutions with logistics operations.

It is worth noting that, in this regard, Zhongchu Zhiyun, the network freight platform under China Storage Corporation, was among the first nationwide… “ 5A “Tier‑level network freight platform enterprise,” is actively building a digital supply chain ecosystem. Zhongchu Zhiyun leverages technologies such as blockchain, cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence to construct its core “Zhiyun” network freight platform, which comprises a logistics capacity‑trading system and a digital logistics management system. On this foundation, it has progressively developed and established the “ZhiLian” integrated supply chain service platform and the “ZhiXin” digital credit service platform, thereby forming a digital logistics and supply chain ecosystem encompassing four major pillars: logistics services, data services, financial services, and technology services. At present, Zhongchu Zhiyun is pursuing diversified, interconnected ecosystem development; its platform now covers all provincial‑level administrative regions across China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan), spanning the entire country. 455 a city, with 32000 A transportation route.

Providing greater room for the development of online freight transportation.

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China explicitly placed logistics infrastructure on an equal footing with major infrastructure such as railways, highways, waterways, aviation, and power grids, thereby elevating the status of logistics facilities and underscoring the growing importance of the logistics sector in safeguarding national economic development and people’s livelihoods.

In this context, in conjunction with With the development of “New Infrastructure,” China Logistics Group will be able to leverage its state‑owned capital status to invest in logistics infrastructure, equipment, and platforms, while collaborating with high‑tech industries… ERP 、 MES 、 SCM Once the system interfaces are fully integrated, a digital logistics operations foundation will be established, enabling unified scheduling of all logistics resources across the manufacturing supply chain—both upstream and downstream.

At the same time, there are overlaps among the integrated business segments; if effective collaboration can be achieved and existing resources leveraged, the combined effect will exceed the sum of its parts. It is worth noting that the establishment of China Logistics Group will have a significant impact on the development of these integrated business areas. As mentioned earlier, supply chain services and digital transformation will be the key directions for the integrated growth of relevant enterprises. In this context, network freight—leveraging advanced information technologies—possesses inherent advantages in building digital and intelligent supply chains, and China Logistics Group will, in its future development, provide even greater room for the expansion of the network freight sector.

In this regard, Sinotrans Zhiyun clearly enjoys a distinct first-mover advantage. Leveraging the strategic resources of Sinotrans Corporation, it has amassed extensive experience and achieved proven success in building digital and intelligent supply chains, thereby providing robust support for China Logistics Group as it strives to establish a modern logistics system.

Faced with entirely new development trends, online freight platforms are also confronting fresh demands, requiring further advancements in technological innovation, the enrichment of platform functionalities, and the refinement of both online and offline services to meet the evolving needs of the industry. As an emerging business model, online freight, with its distinctive advantages in integrating supply-chain data, enhancing transportation efficiency, and reducing logistics costs, is poised to deliver even greater value in the new era of logistics.