What Makes Hengshui the "Pinduoduo" in the Foreign Trade World?

Have you ever thought about how a city without a seacoast or a border can become a "transfer station" for foreign trade enterprises? In Hengshui, Hebei, a transshipment trade market with an annual throughput exceeding 10 billion yuan is quietly rising. Here, without the hustle and bustle of container terminals, it uses its unique location advantages and flexible business models to enable "Made in China" to reach the global market at a lower cost.

Hengshui is located in the hinterland of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, and within a 300-kilometer radius, it covers six major ports. Mr. Zhang's textile factory once suffered from the high freight rates of Qingdao Port. It was not until he discovered "less-than-container load transshipment" through the Hengshui market that the logistics cost dropped by 20%. "Here is like the 'Pinduoduo' in foreign trade," he described the agglomeration effect of Hengshui in this way.

• Location Advantage: Five railway trunk lines intersect, and goods can reach major national ports within 48 hours
• Cost Depression: The warehousing price is only 1/3 of that in coastal cities
• Policy Dividend: The cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone is linked with the bonded logistics center

Entering the Hengshui International Land Port, Ms. Li's shelves are full of automotive parts bound for Central Asia. "These parts produced in Zhejiang are inspected and labeled in Hengshui and exported through the China-Europe Railway Express, which is two weeks faster than direct sea transportation." Three major characteristic transshipment categories have been formed in the local area:

• Mechanical and electrical products (accounting for 45% of the transshipment volume)
• Textile raw materials (30%)
• Food additives (15%)

The intelligent customs declaration system of Zhongshitong has tripled the transshipment efficiency. "In the past, the paper document flow took 3 days, and now with 'one-click declaration', customs clearance can be completed in 2 hours." This technical empowerment is attracting more enterprises to set up their distribution centers in Hengshui. But challenges also exist—how to deal with the price war in the Southeast Asian entrepôt market? How to increase the proportion of high-value-added goods?

When you place an order for an imported product on an e-commerce platform, it may be on its way to the whole country through Hengshui. The future of this market may lie in the mode innovation of "transshipment + value-added services". Do you have a good opinion on the development of entrepôt trade in inland cities? Welcome to share your observations in the comment area.