Is entrepot trade actually a highly profitable industry?

The Ningbo Port is still brightly lit late at night, with huge shipsing tens of thousands of containers. In an office building in Nanjing, Mr. Zhang has just received a confirmation email from a Southeast Asian customer - this is already the third order completed through entrepot trade this week. While most people only focus on import and export trade, entrepot trade is quietly creating amazing commercial value in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Different from traditional import and export trade, the goods in entrepot trade are like participating in an "international relay race": the goods start from Country A, make a short stop at a Chinese port, and finally reach Country B. In this process, the trading companies in Nanjing and Ningbo play a key transshipment role.

• Cost Advantage: Leveraging the throughput scale of Ningbo Port, which ranks among the top three in the world, to reduce unit logistics costs
• Efficiency Improvement: The financial settlement in Nanjing and the port operations in Ningbo form a perfect complement
• Policy Dividend: The customs clearance facilitation measures brought by the integration of the Yangtze River Delta

Once, Ms. Li's team received a transshipment demand for a batch of German precision instruments. The customer required the transfer from Singapore to Vietnam to be completed within 7 days. Through the following operation chain:

• Temporary warehousing in Ningbo Free Trade Zone
• Rapid declaration through Nanjing Electronic Port
• Use of the preferential origin certificate under the Vietnam Free Trade Agreement

To share this piece of the cake, it is necessary to build three major ability systems:

• Global Logistics Network: Establish stable cooperation with at least more than 3 international shipping companies
• Compliance Risk Control System: Familiarize with the practical operation differences of trade terms such as CPT and CIP
• Financial Support Ability: Supporting services such as cross-border settlement and trade financing

The blockchain technology is rewriting the rules of the game. For a batch of Australian red wine transferred through Ningbo Port, the entire process data from warehousing to departure from the port is on the chain, allowing the Malaysian buyer to verify the goods status in real time. This digital trust mechanism has increased the transparency of entrepot trade by 300%. And the "Entrepot Trade Big Data Platform" being piloted in Nanjing further indicates that the industry is about to enter the era of intelligent matching.

Standing at the confluence of the Yangtze River and the East China Sea, we can't help but ask: When the next trillion-dollar trade opportunity comes, is your enterprise ready for this "hidden pass"? Welcome to share your insights on entrepot trade in the comment section, or send a private message to obtain the latest industry white paper.