TH Mason Logistics Ltd.
Shenzhen, China Site Visit
January, 2014
By
Eric Xiang

Key Personnel:
Mr. Simon Li, Deputy General Manager

TH Mason Logistics Ltd. started business in Shenzhen in 2002 and rebranded in 2005. TH Mason Logistics has branch offices in Guangzhou and Hong Kong and a total of 100 employees. Its founding business was air freight forwarding which is the company’s primary focus still today.

TH Mason Logistics has a Class A license for air freight and signed contracts with airlines directly in Shenzhen and Guangzhou since 2009. Emirates and UPS are its main partners in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The export cargo volume from Shenzhen is around 100 tons per month and from Hong Kong it’s around 1,000 tons per month.

TH Mason Logistics has IATA (International Air Transport Association) certificates and uses IATA CASS (Cargo Account Settlement Systems) for account settlement with China Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.

For customs clearance at the Shenzhen airport, TH Mason Logistics uses a customs broker as an agent. For Hong Kong shipments, TH Mason Logistics usually uses trucking companies that cross the Shenzhen/Hong Kong border and they provide the customs clearance. For urgent shipments, the trucking company will do customs clearance as courier shipments from Shenzhen to Hong Kong.

TH Mason Logistics is licensed to handle hazardous goods and can arrange hazardous goods transport via Hong Kong. This has helped TH Mason in expanding customer relationships.

Its customers are both small logistics companies and direct customers. Each contribute 50% to its gross revenue. In Shenzhen, TH Mason Logistics has good customer base. Neptunus, a pharmaceutical manufacturer and the largest company in Shenzhen, and Keerqing, a major electronic cigarette manufacturer, are customers. According to Deputy General Manager, Mr. Simon Li, TH Mason has more than 100 long-term customers.

Same as other local freight forwarders, TH Mason Logistics uses agents overseas. Twenty percent of the business is under FOB (free on board) terms, meaning the overseas agents contribute 20% to gross revenue.

Although ocean freight is not TH Mason’s focus, it can handle ocean freight shipments. Mr. Simon Li has a lot of experience in ocean freight management, but turned his focus on air freight after joining TH Mason.

As a Shenzhen-based company, TH Mason Logistics has large cargo volume in Hong Kong and good experience in the South China market. It may be a good option to merge with a Hong Kong-based company. Mr. Simon Li said there were talks previously about merging with a Hong Kong logistics company, but his boss does not want to lose control. Mr. Simon Li, the deputy general manager, and his boss, the owner of the company, were classmates.

Sources: A&A Primary Research, http://www.thmason.com/