At the China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE), industry participants pointed to greater cross-border data coordination and China’s push into frontier technologies – including artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics – as critical moves that could build a more resilient global supply network. On the sidelines of the Expo, logistics experts said the global trading system that underpinned the world economy was facing one of its most challenging periods in decades.
“Any day you get out of bed, there are new tariffs or other supply chain disruptions,” said Jasper Eggebeen, Senior Manager at the Holland International Distribution Council, a Dutch logistics association, at the Expo. The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz following this year’s Iran war had upended a key trade corridor, Eggebeen said. Meanwhile, the protracted Russia-Ukraine war had sent ripple effects through Eurasian logistics networks, said Zhou Yuanyuan, Chairwoman of Shanghai Universal Logistics Equipment, a container-making subsidiary of China Cosco Shipping. That conflict had prompted “anxious and panicked” exporters to seek more flexible shipping arrangements as they faced a range of challenges, including rising container leasing and shipping costs, the risk of containers being stranded at destinations, and difficulties securing reinsurance of goods during wartime, Zhou said, adding that “rising costs hurt both exporters and consumers.”
The new reality was prompting businesses to build greater redundancy into their supply chains and diversify ports and shipping routes, Eggebeen said. It was equally important to seek greater visibility over goods moving across borders, he added, with that imperative increasingly turning supply chain data into a strategic asset. Fragmented information remained one of the biggest bottlenecks in modern logistics, Eggebeen said, with manufacturers, shipping firms, customs authorities and ports often operating on separate systems that provided only partial views of supply chain movements, resulting in slower responses to disruptions, higher costs and longer delivery times. The future supply chain should be “fully digital, connected, and data-sharing”, which would make it much more efficient, he added.
Wang Yachun, General Manager at Shanghai Lingang Cross Border Economic Development said his firm was established in the Lingang free-trade Zone (FTZ) to support data sharing among supply chain stakeholders. The company was working with firms across sectors ranging from biomedicine to new energy vehicles to enable the regulation-compliant cross-border data transfers needed to support trade and logistics. He said China’s growing electric vehicle exports had heightened the need for cross-border sharing of vehicle battery data in markets like Europe, where customs authorities required information including details of a battery’s manufacturer, place of production, usage history, maintenance records and carbon footprint to be contained in a “digital battery passport” for customs clearance.
The emphasis on supply chain data coordination reflects a broader shift taking place across global supply chains. After years of focusing on speed and efficiency, businesses reacting to a challenging international environment are increasingly making resilience and risk management priorities. “Walking around here you see all the digital innovation and the automation with the humanoid robots,” Eggebeen said. “It answers the main bottlenecks that we see in the supply chain today.”
This year’s event attracted over 1,200 companies, with more than one-third being foreign businesses from around 85 countries and territories, the South China Morning Post reports.
