Sino-Ocean International Group Ltd.
Shenzhen, China Site Visit
January, 2016
By
Eric Xiang

Key Personnel:
Mr. Mu Xiaoping, General Manager
Mr. Michael Chen, Oversea Manager

Shenzhen Sino-Ocean International Transportation Ltd. (Sino-Ocean) is an ocean freight forwarder, founded in 1993, and headquartered in Shenzhen with branch offices in Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Foshan and Ningbo. The company has over 300 employees. Sino-Ocean ranks as a Top 10 ocean freight forwarder in Shenzhen.

Sino-Ocean has an NVOCC (Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier) license for ocean freight forwarding and a Class A license for air freight. Sino-Ocean has contracts with the main ocean carriers including OOCL, Hyundai, Hanjin, APL, Evergreen, Maersk, COSCO, MSC and China Shipping. However, Hanjin is its main partner. Usually, all NVOCCs contacted with ocean carriers can book space from the carriers in South China. In order to manage the booking process efficiently, some of the carriers will use key NVOCC players as booking agents.

Other than FCL (Full Container Load), Sino-Ocean also provides LCL (Less than Container Load) service to its customers. Since Sino-Ocean does not have its own LCL consolidation service, it uses LCL specialists as partners. In turn, the LCL partners book containers through Sino-Ocean so they benefit each other.

For air freight, Sino-Ocean uses agents in North China. In South China, including its Shenzhen office, Sino-Ocean uses the Hong Kong gateway for exports. Most of the shipments are transshipped via the Hong Kong airport. Sino-Ocean has a subsidiary in Hong Kong and is contracted with Emirates Airlines. The cargo volume is around 30 tons per month. The Emirates flights cover most destinations worldwide. The shipments are handled by cross-border trucks from South China to Hong Kong, which is very popular in the South China market.

Sino-Ocean’s main lanes are from China to the Far East, South East Asia, Europe, South America and Australia. Without its own offices overseas, Sino-Ocean uses agents overseas to handle the operation and customer service at the destination. The overseas agents also bring business to Sino-Ocean. Over 60% of the cargo volume has FOB (Free on Board) terms.

Sino-Ocean has good market share and customer base. Midea and Gree, two well-known appliance brands in South China, use Sino-Ocean for both FOB and CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) shipments. In addition, Sino-Ocean is ready to grow its cross-border e-commerce business in both ocean and air freight.

Sources: A&A Primary Research, https://www.sinooceangroup.com/