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Written by: Yang Yingwei
2021-03-09 13:45
Last update date: 2021-03-09 13:45
As the new crown pneumonia vaccine has been distributed to countries around the world, the extremely demanding "cold chain" (refrigerated and refrigerated supply chain) transportation has become an upstart in the logistics industry.
However, although the gold content of pharmaceutical transportation is high, it still accounts for a small proportion in the overall logistics transportation.
"A kind of finished medicine, from the initial development to the final sale to consumers, 97% of which are shipped by sea, and only 3% are shipped by air. Of these 3%, only about 10% require temperature control." Hong Kong Logistics Gu Bocheng, Chairman of the Association’s Membership Affairs Committee and Chief Executive Officer of Chevalier Meyer, likened products such as "vaccine" to "moon cakes", "Vaccines are also seasonal, similar to moon cakes, which are made once a year. Restaurants can’t just sell them. "moon cake"."
So what is the daily business of a "restaurant"?
Hu Zhenhao, assistant professor of the Department of Supply Chain and Information Management at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, believes that the transportation of fresh food to the mainland market is the prospect of the "sustainable development" of the cold chain industry in Hong Kong.
Hu Zhenhao pointed out that many fruits are imported from the Mainland through Hong Kong. "Good-quality cherries and strawberry pears can be reached by land in Shenzhen within an hour and Guangzhou wholesale market within four hours. If you use a ship, you can reach the wholesale market in Guangzhou within 20 hours. Go to Hainan for bulk cargo within an hour.” He emphasized that fresh food transportation is still growing under the epidemic, and it is expected that the growth rate of fruit imports in the past two years can be as high as 50% to 60%.
Hu Zhenhao believes that the transportation of fresh food in the Mainland is the future of Hong Kong.
From the perspective of market demand, the mainland market is facing rapid demand escalation.
In October last year, the Chinese government put forward the national strategy of "double cycle", emphasizing the development direction of "internal cycle as the main body, domestic and foreign double cycles promote each other".
Under the "dual cycle" framework, "domestic demand" will become a horse-drawn cart driving China's economy, and residents' consumption will upgrade to the general trend.
Residents' increased quality requirements and demand for fresh food, coupled with the popularization of e-commerce, will usher in huge room for development in the food cold chain market.
According to the "2020 China Cold Chain Logistics Industry Development Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "China Cold Chain Industry Report"), China's fresh food e-commerce online retail sales have reached RMB 255.4 billion, and its growth rate has remained at around 30%.
According to the calculation of the Cold Chain Committee of the China Federation of Things, the demand for food cold chain logistics in 2019 was 233 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 23.5% (Figure 3).
From the perspective of market supply, the quality of the mainland's cold chain transportation industry needs to be improved, and the overall situation is still lagging behind that of Hong Kong. Hong Kong's cold chain logistics can penetrate the mainland market with its experience and service quality.
According to the "China Cold Chain Industry Report", the current loss rate of fresh products in developed countries in Europe and the United States is stably controlled below 5%, while the average loss rate in China is more than 10% (Figure 4), "reflecting the development of cold chain logistics in the Mainland It is more extensive, and the industry supervision system and service quality need to be improved." Gu Bocheng said, "If customers trust Shenzhen Airport up to 90%, they will have 99.9% trust in Hong Kong Airport."
In 2018, the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong published "Cold Chain Logistics Among the New Hotspots of China’s Industrial Development". It pointed out that most food in Hong Kong relies on imports. The cold chain logistics industry has a history of more than 40 years. A relatively complete refrigerated and frozen transport chain.” Since Hong Kong’s cold chain logistics industry has such a wealth of experience, it is of course possible to bring cold chain services to the mainland.
Liao Qun, chief economic analyst at China CITIC Bank, once published a blog suggesting that Hong Kong should break the geographical restrictions on service targets and actively integrate into the "inner loop": It extends to those Chinese companies that do not have a registered company in Hong Kong, Chinese residents who do not show up in Hong Kong, and Chinese products that are not re-exported through Hong Kong."
For Hong Kong's cold chain logistics to expand its business scale, it certainly needs talents.
Gu Bocheng bluntly said, "The topic of cold chain is still not mentioned systematically in Hong Kong schools. Hang Seng University is regarded as a "forward-looking benchmark" in the academic world, and traditional universities have no related topics." He pointed out that although cold Chain logistics has a high gold content, but personnel need to take into account many details in the work process, and the demand for manpower quality is also high.
Gu Bocheng continued that Singapore’s training of logistics talents is still ahead of Hong Kong: “Obviously, when interacting with students in Singapore, they already knew something about the cold chain, including the fruit cold chain.” He He also emphasized, "There are few fruit producers in Singapore, but the cold chain transportation of fruits is also very advanced. This is because the local government sees the prospects of the cold chain industry and can develop. Cool Port (a cold warehouse located in the Singapore airport hub) is very early So I started to do it. It was a cold chain for medicines. Later, a terminal (channel) was split to transport fruits and fresh meat. The vertical classification of the cold chain has been very "fine"." As an industry person, he hopes that local schools can More research and teaching on cold chain topics, "to let students know something, wait for us to balance with Singapore."
The mature development of Singapore's cold chain logistics hardware facilities is related to the early planning and strong support of the local government.
The air logistics industry should not be reduced to a "sunset"
It is not difficult to see that in the modern logistics industry represented by cold chain logistics, although Hong Kong has a first-mover advantage in software quality, it is still at a disadvantage in terms of hardware facilities. It is difficult to "compete" with mature Singapore, and it is also facing "competition". "Neighbors" are the "challenges" brought about by the rapid development of Shenzhen.
If the logistics industry is to step on a new level and develop modern logistics of the "Hong Kong brand", then hardware construction is a shortcoming that must be resolved.
The quality of the logistics industry is extremely dependent on the construction of local infrastructure, such as transportation facilities such as airports, high-speed rails, and bridges, or storage facilities such as cold storage and automated warehouses.
The infrastructure construction cycle is long and the project is complex, most of which require government planning and approval.
In fact, the SAR government is very clear that Hong Kong has a lot to do in the development of high value-added modern logistics. It has even foreseen its vision and direction in government documents many times, but it simply "scrabbles" when it is implemented.
Take the new "Budget" published by the Financial Secretary at the end of last month, mentioning the reconstruction of the "Airmail Center" as an example. In fact, this idea can be traced back to the other announcement by Chen Maobo in 2017/18. In the first "Budget", he had clearly pointed out at that time, "In terms of cargo weight, the cargo handled by Hong Kong International Airport accounts for less than 2% of Hong Kong's total cargo volume, but in terms of cargo value, it accounts for import and export trade volume. Nearly 40% of them have made a significant contribution to Hong Kong’s economy." At the same time, he proposed to "discuss plans with Hongkong Post to increase the mail handling capacity and operational arrangements of the Hong Kong International Airport Air Mail Center." 5 billion yuan is reserved for the reconstruction of the airmail center in the “Case”. However, the “reconstruction of the airmail center” has repeatedly appeared in the “Budget” over the years, but it has repeatedly stayed at “5 billion reserved.” And at the stage of "applying for funding from the Legislative Council", this year Chen Maobo announced the reconstruction of the airmail center and set a timetable. It is expected to open at the end of 2027.
It took ten years for the reconstruction of the entire airmail center from the proposal to the expected landing.
According to Wu Yaorong, associate professor of the Department of Supply Chain Management at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, there are several private air freight centers near the airport, and the air mail centers are operated by the government. They mainly handle the diversion of surface mail and small express delivery. They are characterized by large cargo volume and shipment purpose. There is a lot of land and the operation is more complicated.
"Now I see that the government hopes to "increase throughput", but there are two aspects to the improvement. One is to expand the area and increase the space; the other is to add automation to improve the technology." Wu Yaorong said, "For Hong Kong logistics What will help the industry in the long run must be the improvement of technology, but the government has not yet seen clearly proposing this direction." He commented, "This year's "Budget" focuses on some foreseeable development opportunities in the logistics industry. , Such as the increase in air cargo volume. When it comes to long-term development strategies, no financial support can be seen."
Wu Yaorong said, "What will help Hong Kong's logistics industry in the long run must be the improvement of technology, but the government has not yet seen a clear direction in this direction."
If you focus on the "temperature-controlled" cargo and cold chain logistics with the highest gold content, Hong Kong's infrastructure construction is even more "half a beat."
As early as the 2018/19 Budget, the government advocated the development of Hong Kong as a "trade, storage, logistics and distribution center for high-value goods (such as pharmaceuticals)."
But the reality is that as early as 2009, Singapore Airport built Cool Port, a warehouse dedicated to cold storage and temporary storage, which can handle 250,000 tons of cargo every year.
There are no relevant supporting facilities in Hong Kong Airport, and refrigerated goods need to be returned to the city of Hong Kong or stored in the warehouses of three logistics companies.
Although the government asked Cainiao (a logistics provider under Alibaba) to take the lead in building a high-end logistics center through a tender in 2018, it will not be completed until 2023.
On the other hand, in addition to handling transshipment goods, it was mentioned above that Hong Kong can export cold chain service management experience to the mainland market. The key to exporting services is talents in the industry.
"Hong Kong still lacks talents for modern logistics." Wu Yaorong pointed out that the transformation and upgrading of Hong Kong's logistics industry has fallen behind others and should be rushed to catch up. "The "fourth generation" and "fifth generation" logistics industry actually involves some professional services and information technology. Knowledge, such as the use of automation and data analysis to enhance the value of logistics.” He said bluntly that universities are already preparing to nurture students in this area, but “the market’s industrial upgrading is still insufficient.” It is hard to say that the society has manpower demand; and the government has demand for logistics talents. Support is limited, and there are insufficient incentives for young people to engage in modern logistics.
The Financial Secretary Chen Maobo proposed in this year's "Budget" to rebuild the airmail center. The plan can be traced back to five years at the earliest.
(Photo by Zhang Haowei)
In 2014, the government established the "Marine and Air Transport Talent Training Fund", but the amount was only 100 million yuan, and another 200 million yuan was injected in 2019.
In the 2020/2021 Budget, the government stated that the talent training program has benefited about 8,400 students and current professionals in the maritime and aviation industries in the past five years; that is, in the past five years, the average number of talents applying for the training program has only received About 12,000 yuan in funding.
Compared with Shenzhen, the "neighbor", as long as university graduates settle down, they can receive at least RMB 15,000 in rent and living allowances from the government. This shows how small the Hong Kong government is for talents.
Wu Yaorong finally said, "Ten years ago, if the government said that it wanted to engage in the maritime industry, I would very much agree that Hong Kong could still return to its leading position. But now, seeing mainland cities such as Shenzhen’s several terminals are doing well. It is also very supportive in terms of policy. It is very difficult for Hong Kong to return to the number one position at this stage.” In the past ten years, because of the government’s neglect and passiveness, Hong Kong’s first-mover advantage of maritime logistics has already missed the globalization.” "Big cake", and in the face of the huge mainland market and the possibility of high value-added, the government should attach importance to the promising air transport industry, be more proactive in infrastructure construction, and provide more preferential measures in talent training. Shouldn't" look at the air transport industry and go the old way of the maritime industry.
Trade and logistics are the four pillars of Hong Kong's economy. In recent years, Hong Kong's logistics industry has faced enormous challenges.
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The above is excerpted from the 255th issue of "Hong Kong 01" Weekly Report (March 8, 2021) "Looking at the Cold Chain from Vaccines: Prospects for the Government to Untie the Academic Circles". If you want to read the full text, please
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