On Dec 4th, Holliday Inn Pudong, we had an interview with Mr. Brad Jeffreys, vice president of GATI company, and Mr. Nie Guangxiong, vice general manger of CRE company.
After some formalities, Mr. Jeffreys began by giving a brief introduction of his company.
"Compared with other multi national enterprises belonging to the logistics industry in China, the advantage of GATI is that it is the most powerful logistics company in its homeland India, with a network that covers 594 out of a total of 602 districts. GATI began in 1989 as a cargo management company, and has now grown into an organization with 6400 professionals and a turn over of 4610 million Rupees (8.5 billion Yuan approx.). GATI is supported by seamless multi-modal connectivity covering air, road, ocean and rail, and also supported by Mechantronic warehousing providing 1 million square feet of storage space across India."
Mr. Jeffreys said that their company had advantages over other companies, and that they targeted clients who had demands in the Indian market. He also said that their business in China had been going from strength to strength since the Shanghai branch was founded in 2005. Although GATI has met many challenges in the Chinese logistics market, Mr. Jeffreys believes that challenges mean opportunities. "Where there is a challenge there is an opportunity." He also indicated that GATI would expand their business in the years to coming.
CRE (short for China Railway Express Co., Ltd.) is originally a well-known state-owned company in China, and now it is a strategic partner of GATI. CRE is a transportation company affiliated with the People's Republic of China's Ministry of Railways, which was incorporated by combining China Railway Parcel Express Co., Ltd. and the former China Railway Express Co., Ltd. After gaining approval from the State Administration of Industry and Commerce on January 6th 2006, the company-registered capital was established to be 1.946 billion Yuan. CRE has 21 shareholders, with the China Railway Construct Investment Company owing 52.6% of the shares.
Mr. Nie Guangxiong, vice general manager of CRE, told us the reason that CRE Chose GATI as their strategic partner.
"State-owned companies in China have been in reform in recent years. As a state-owned company, CRE's business and strategy are also in transformation. Before cooperating with GATI, CRE had business in more than 200 countries and regions. However, when we started to expand our business on the overseas market, we met with strong competitors such as DHL. Therefore, CRE needed to construct partnerships with reputable companies."
Meanwhile, accompanying the growth of bilateral trade and cooperation between China and India, the logistic demands for these two nations rose at the same time. Motivated by the need of Lenovo, which was a client of CRE and had business in India, CRE decided to find a strategic partner in Indian. GATI is no doubt the best choice for CRE, and these two companies have a lot in common.
Entering into a cooperation agreement earlier this year, these two companies launched a "Deferred" airfreight product. The networked strengths of these two companies will ensure that shipments from China to India are only 2 days slower than express airfreight and at very competitive rates. Seamless multi-modal connectivity will allow shipments to be picked up from Shanghai and reach India via Shenzhen and Hong Kong two days after Collection. For example, for a Monday pick-up, the shipment will arrive in India on Wednesday night.
Mr. Jeffreys said both GATI and CRE were committed to their partnership, and he believed that the cooperation between these two companies would benefit their customers and promote bilateral trade between China and India.
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