UPS and SF Holding – the parent company of SF Express – have revealed plans to establish a joint venture (JV) and collaborate to develop and provide international delivery services initially from China to the US, with expansion plans for other destinations.
The two express operators say through this agreement they will leverage their complementary networks, service portfolios, technologies and logistics expertise. The JV is subject to regulatory approval.
UPS Asia Pacific president, Ross McCullough says: “UPS is excited to form a joint venture with SF. This joint venture will support products that provide competitive benefits to our Chinese customers who trade or seek to trade internationally,”
“Our combined efforts will result in new logistics products and services to simplify and accelerate B2B and B2C customers’ cross-border trade.”
UPS and SF say the joint services offerings combine the strengths of SF’s extensive Chinese network, encompassing more than 13,000 service points in the world’s largest and fastest growing package delivery market, with UPS’s global integrated network with coverage between more than 220 countries.
Alignment of the partners’ shipping networks will provide customers with greater coverage, additional routing options, increased capacity, and more choice in transit times and service options.
The JV will initially focus on supporting these highly competitive joint service offerings on the China-to-US lane, with planned expansion to markets in the rest of the world.
SF Group vice president, Alan Wong adds: “China is leading the world in terms of e-commerce market size, growth, penetration and mobile business usage. Coupled with a rapidly growing and internet-savvy consumer base, it’s imperative that SF and UPS collaborate to revolutionise the logistics sector.
“Together, we aim to bring greater competitive advantages to our customers in China, to succeed globally.”
UPS and SF says the JV supports creation of competitive synergies for UPS and SF through the combined scope and scale of both companies’ complementary networks.
Both companies will utilise their own assets to enhance operational effectiveness and efficiency while aligning business processes in order to provide seamless customer care for all parties shipping out of China.
