Dalian sees growth in logistics sector

The city of Dalian, in Northeast China, has become a cargo center with connections across China and overseas, as well as a logistics distribution center and has plans to cast its logistics nets far and wide to connect the globe.

All of this development is thanks to an air-sea-land freight system established by the Northeast Asia International Logistics Center and some adjustments to the economy and an upgrade of industrial structure.

And, its airports and ports have become the two pivots of shipping and logistics development. In the past five years, Dalian has opened flights to Paris, France and Frankfurt, Germany, and has cross-Straits direct flights to Taiwan, as well as 35 domestic routes. It now has 36 international routes and 112 domestic routes to 95 cities in China and abroad. With its more than 1,100 flights each week, it is clearly in possession of an airline network.

The Dalian Airport passenger load increases by a million annually on average and it handled 10 million peiople, in 2010. This year is expected to see that growing to 13.2 million, an increase of 10 percent year-on-year. It the biggest airport in Northeast China and the Bohai area, handling a third of the total handled by the three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang.

The number of foreign passengers the airport processes is expected to reach 1.5 million, putting it just behined the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

In 2012, the city's modern logistics added value output is expected to reach about 74 billion yuan, up 22.5 percent from 2011. The city now has more than 3,500 logistics companies, 132 of which have annual revenues above 10 million yuan, and seven with revenues above 1 billion.

Because of its place in the Northeast, the city's bonded zone is expected to get 14.5 billion yuan from logistics, a year-on-year increase of 27 percent, and profits of 1.7 billion, up 19 percent. The zone's operations, environment, management, and business scale put it in a leading position in China.