In April of this year, China made arrangements for the planning and construction of the "six networks" of water network, new power grid, computing power network, new generation communication network, urban underground pipeline network, and logistics network. According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the investment scale in the "Six Networks" and related key areas alone has exceeded 7 trillion yuan this year, and a modern infrastructure network supporting high-quality development is accelerating.
In this comprehensive and collaborative infrastructure network, the logistics network serves as a supporting system for efficient circulation of goods and resources. It is not only a key link to smooth the national economic cycle, but also the core foundation for reducing costs and increasing efficiency in the real economy. Its construction quality directly determines the overall efficiency and development vitality of the economic cycle.
Li Chao, Deputy Director and spokesperson of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, pointed out that the logistics network is a cross regional comprehensive service system that integrates hub nodes, backbone channels, equipment vehicles, rules and standards, and information data organically. From tropical fresh fruits on the dining tables of northern people, to affordable seafood in inland markets, to global goods signed for by mountainous residents, the convenient circulation that is within reach in daily life is all supported by the strong logistics network.
The core goal of promoting the construction of the logistics network is to optimize the allocation of logistics resources throughout society, fully unleash the scale effect of the network, continuously reduce logistics operating costs, and empower the real economy to reduce its burden. To achieve this goal, hardware infrastructure is a solid foundation, mode innovation is the core focus, and digital upgrading is an important engine.
Building infrastructure into a network is the foundation for unleashing the efficiency of logistics networks. By the end of 2025, the completion rate of the main framework of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network with 6 axes, 7 corridors, and 8 channels will reach 91%, and it is expected to exceed 95% by the end of the 15th Five Year Plan. The current operating mileage of railways in China is about 165000 kilometers, the mileage of highways has reached 199000 kilometers, and there are over 22000 berths for port production; The "Four Horizontals and Five Verticals" domestic logistics corridor is accelerating its formation, with 229 national logistics hubs deployed nationwide, 181 of which have been put into operation, 105 national backbone cold chain logistics bases accelerating interconnection, and over 2700 logistics parks above designated size. The overall layout of hub nodes has been basically completed.
Hardware networking is just the first step. To truly leverage network effects and achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement, multimodal transportation is the core focus. The comparative advantages of coordinating multiple transportation modes for iron, water, and air in multiple regions of our country are explored, and the "one order to the end" collaborative model is explored. Efforts are made to solve the industry pain points of poor connection and promote different transportation modes to shift from "fighting independently" to "working together".
In Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, the "one unit system" of intermodal transportation has rewritten the old pattern of inland logistics. In the past, goods shipped via the Yangtze River required multiple exchanges of documents and containers. Now, relying on the "one commission, one order to the end, one container direct delivery, and one settlement" model, the entire process from Xi'an International Port Station to Taicang Port via Wuhan Yangluo Port has been improved by 30% and the cost per container has been reduced by 25%.
Ankang, located in the Qinba Mountain area of Shaanxi Province, was once constrained by high export logistics costs, which hindered industrial development. After the local linkage opened up a public rail sea intermodal transportation line, the cost of exporting containers per container decreased from 12000 yuan to 5000 yuan, putting mountainous enterprises and coastal cities on the same track.
In Yiwu, Zhejiang, the export of small commodities achieves "one declaration, one inspection, and one release". After inspection at the land port, they can be directly loaded onto ships at Ningbo Zhoushan Port. The products of "World Supermarket" are directly connected to the global market from the doorstep.
If multimodal transport has bridged the physical connection breakpoints between different modes of transportation, digital freight platforms are reshaping the road freight ecosystem and injecting a digital intelligence core into the logistics network.
A large equipment manufacturing enterprise in the Yangtze River Delta has been facing pain points such as slow inter provincial supply chain scheduling, severe fluctuations in long-distance freight rates, and uncontrollable in transit status for many years. The inefficient transportation process seriously restricts the release of high-precision and cutting-edge production capacity. After connecting to the digital transportation network of Fuyou Truck Platform, the platform uses AI algorithm models to intelligently analyze and calculate weather, road conditions, and the distribution of transportation capacity across the entire network, transforming the traditional "lagging car search" into "real-time dynamic scheduling". Nowadays, the response time for cross provincial temporary shunting of the enterprise has been compressed to within 30 minutes, and the on-time performance rate of component trunk transportation has remained stable at over 98.5%, achieving efficient flow of physical logistics driven by data flow.
The person in charge of Fuyou Truck stated that the modern logistics network does not exist in isolation. It is deeply integrated and resonates with the computing power network in the "six networks". The core logic is to "exchange computing power for efficiency", accurately eliminate the implicit "empty driving" and "waiting" losses in traditional road freight transportation, reshape the massive and scattered transportation resources into a digital backbone network with global scheduling capabilities, and make digital freight transportation a new type of infrastructure that supports the high-quality development of the real economy and promotes the cost reduction and efficiency improvement of logistics in the whole society.
Hu Han, Deputy Chief Economist of China Logistics Information Center, stated that in the next five years, logistics infrastructure will bid farewell to the traditional construction mode of extensive and scattered, single function, and shift towards a modern comprehensive infrastructure system of data exchange and organizational coordination. With the fundamental orientation of serving the real economy, it will achieve the coordinated allocation of logistics resources throughout the entire chain, on a large scale, and with high efficiency.
Clear policy guidance and broad market space attract major logistics enterprises to increase infrastructure construction with unprecedented efforts. In May of this year alone, several leading logistics companies have intensively laid out core hubs for air logistics and multimodal transport, with a series of key projects landing one after another.
Looking ahead to the future, the construction of China's logistics network will shift comprehensively from "scale expansion" to "quality and efficiency improvement". Li Chao stated that the National Development and Reform Commission, in conjunction with relevant departments, will issue and implement the "15th Five Year Plan" for the field of modern logistics, coordinate financial support for stock improvement and incremental construction, promote the networking of facility systems, weave dense urban-rural end networks, accelerate the digital and green upgrading, and promote the systematic transformation of animal flow networks from "existing" to "good" and from "connected" to "smooth". The goal is to basically build a logistics network by 2030 that closely coordinates hubs with industries and consumption, connects channels and networks internally and externally, has green and intelligent facilities and equipment, and has full domain interoperability of rules and information, better serving the high-quality development of the real economy.