Automotive Logistics China was held for the sixth time from April 20 to 22 2009 at the Intercontinental Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Key senior automotive logistics executives gathered to debate the key issues facing the Chinese logistics arena, exploring solutions to overcome the obstacles often found within the industry, with an emphasis on promoting networking and collaboration.

Many delegates have testified that they found the Automotive Logistics China conference beneficial, interesting and enjoyable.

We are still confirming dates and venues for next year and will make a decision soon after carefully evaluating the feedback from this year's conference.

In the meantime, if you would like us to keep you updated about our conferences, please click here.

The leading automotive logistics conference in China

LSPs chase the Chinese dream

This week's Automotive Logistics China conference in Shanghai left little doubt that China is the true land of opportunity for the automotive industry and its suppliers during the global recession. Carmakers and tier ones such as FAW Group, Dongfeng, Geely and Magna called for expanded logistics services including milkruns and railway transport. But the logistics sector remains fractured into small players, often owned by domestic OEMs and, partly as a result, is perceived as sluggish and inefficient. Few global LSPs, meanwhile, have yet to penetrate the Chinese automotive market in a substantial way.

Spurred by government incentives, Chinese domestic car sales grew around 3% in the first quarter, reaching a record 2.68m sales and 2.57m in production, outpacing the US as the world's largest new car market. And the demand for logistics services remains steady - a survey at the conference revealed that 55% of respondents said that the current market is prompting increased levels of logistics and supply chain outsourcing, quite a different message to the news that emerged last month at the Automotive Logistics Europe conference, where OEMs appeared to be bringing more services in-house and cutting contracts.

But while the market is buoyant compared to Europe or the US, the automotive logistics industry has still been severely impacted in China by the financial crisis. Firstly, car sales growth is modest by Chinese standards. And according to government official Wei Yong, Division Chief for Transport and Logistics at the National Development and Reform Commission, the growth in the logistics sector declined by 30% this year, with 60% of logistics companies experiencing a contraction. Port throughput is significantly down, following the drop in exports. Richard Ma, from the Port of Tianjin, told Automotive Logistics that car volumes were down around 50% at that port to 30,000 units through the first two months of the year.

The Chinese government incentive programmes have helped, however. Sales tax has been halved for smaller cars - raising sales more than 20% in this segment. The government has also unveiled a plan to help the logistics industry with infrastructure developments, special logistics zones and multimodal transport. But Mr Wei offered few details and little about the timing of the strategy (read more).

Read full Conference Report

Are you part of the automotive logistics industry? If you are, you are entitled to a FREE Subscription to Automotive Logistics magazine - the leading source of information for senior executives worldwide.