Shenzhen 4PX Express Co., Ltd.
Shenzhen, China Site Visit
July 27, 2015
By
Eric Xiang
Key Personnel:
Mr. Warner Sun, Sales Director
Shenzhen 4PX Express Co., Ltd. (4PX Express) was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in the Shenzhen airport. Its core business is managing express shipments mainly for export cross-border business. It has more than 2,200 employees working in more than 40 branch offices including offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Korea. The Singapore Post is a shareholder.
Its founding business was export express shipments from China Mainland to overseas via the Hong Kong gateway. 4PX Express acts as an agent of DHL Hong Kong and FedEx Hong Kong in China Mainland. Though DHL and FedEx have their own facilities in China Mainland, many customers use DHL and FedEx via Hong Kong as the routing via Hong Kong is the best option for them. All the shipments from China Mainland to Hong Kong should be shipped by bonded cross-border trucks. 4PX Express has experience in air cargo, bonded trucking and customs clearance.
Other than being an agent of DHL Hong Kong and FedEx Hong Kong, 4PX Express has cooperation with Hong Kong Post, China Post, Singapore Post, and Deutsche Post to develop the post shipments like small packages.
4PX Express has a strong network in China, including offices in the cities of East China and North China. As Hong Kong is the main gateway for the cooperation with DHL and FedEx, all the shipments should be transshipped via Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The distance from East China and North China to Shenzhen is longer than the distance from South China, so the volume of shipments from East China and North China is lower than the volume from South China.
4PX Express has good customer base. Oppo, OnePlus, Fiyta and other well-known brands in China are using 4PX Express’ service for selling overseas. The cargo volume from direct customers makes up 80% of its gross revenue. 4PX Express uses local mid-sized logistics companies for express as agent, and these agents bring 20% percent of cargo volume. All the cargo is e-commerce business exported from China Mainland. We can consider this as export cross-border logistics including some business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) shipments.
B2C export cross-border shipments are picked up from the customers’ door (within the city area) and delivered to 4PX Express’ Shenzhen Distribution Center, which is around 6,000 square meters. If the customer is in the downtown area or an out of service area of 4PX Express’, the customer will arrange a third-party like S.F. Express of China Post to deliver the goods to 4PX Express’ Shenzhen DC. 4PX Express will recommend a courier via Hong Kong.
B2B export cross-border shipments are picked up by 4PX Express from the customers’ door and delivered to 4PX Express’ Shenzhen DC and then 4PX Express arranges the flight via DHL or FedEx. As B2B business is growing, 4PX Express has had the opportunity to set up its own warehouses overseas to match customers’ demand. Currently, 4PX Express has its own warehouses in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Korea. Warehouses in Canada, Australia, Singapore, Japan, France and Italy will be open soon. 4PX Express plans to start providing reverse logistics at the end of 2015.
Other than export cross-border logistics, 4PX Express is developing import cross-border logistics as it is popular for the Chinese to buy goods from overseas via the internet. In Dongguan city, 4PX Express is running a bonded warehouse to do import cross-border logistics. Currently, the daily operation reaches 400,000 shipments per day which is a significant record. In order to handle the business smoothly, 4PX Express has a team of 100 for IT system research.
Though 4PX Express does not handle domestic express shipments and is not good at delivery and last mile for export shipments, we can consider that 4PX Express has good start in cross-border Logistics. As e-commerce business has good growth in the coming years, we can imagine that 4PX Express will have a bright future.
Sources: A&A Primary Research, http://www.4px.com/