Logistics is "on the move"! Accumulation of stabilizing factors and smooth flow of goods highlight the vigorous vitality of China's economy

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing announced the logistics operation data for 2023 on February 7. In 2023, my country's economy recovered amid fluctuations, stabilizing factors continued to accumulate, the logistics operation environment continued to improve, the industry recovered overall, the market demand scale recovered faster, and the total social logistics volume for the whole year exceeded 35.2 trillion yuan.

In 2023, the total social logistics volume in China was 35.24 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%, and the growth rate was 1.8 percentage points higher than that in 2022. In terms of quarters, the first, second, third and fourth quarters increased by 3.9%, 5.4%, 4.7% and 5.4% respectively, showing a recovery trend of low in the front, medium and high in the back, and the overall recovery trend for the whole year was positive.

From the perspective of demand structure, in 2023, the total logistics volume of agricultural products was 5.3 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%, maintaining a good development trend. The demand for industrial product logistics has steadily recovered. In 2023, the total industrial product logistics volume will be 312.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%, an increase of 1 percentage point over the previous year.

The demand for people's livelihood logistics has been stable and improving. In 2023, the total logistics volume of units and residents' goods will be 13.0 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.2%, an increase of 4.8 percentage points over the previous year. The recovery strength of catering, retail and other fields has been significantly improved. The total catering logistics volume and the total department store retail logistics volume have both turned from decline to increase, increasing by 20% and 8.8% year-on-year respectively. The total convenience store retail logistics volume increased by 7.5%, an increase of 3.8 percentage points over the previous year.

In 2023, the total import logistics volume will be 18.0 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.0%, and the import logistics volume will maintain a rapid recovery trend. The import logistics volume of energy products such as crude oil, natural gas, and coal will be 1.16 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 27.2%, and the import logistics volume of metal ores such as iron and aluminum will be 1.46 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 7.6%.

The logistics infrastructure network is becoming more complete and shortcomings are constantly being strengthened

In 2023, the construction of logistics infrastructure will be steadily promoted, and the annual investment in logistics-related fixed assets will increase by more than 10% year-on-year, and logistics infrastructure in professional fields such as cold chain logistics will maintain stable growth.

In 2023, the annual investment in logistics-related fixed assets such as transportation, warehousing and postal services will increase by more than 10% year-on-year, and the logistics infrastructure guarantee system will be further improved. In 2023, 30 new national logistics hubs will be built, and a total of 125 logistics hub systems covering the whole country with rich types will be formed, providing strong support for the development of industrial logistics aggregation. More than 1,000 county-level delivery and distribution centers and 303,000 village-level delivery and logistics comprehensive service stations will be built. The rural logistics network will become increasingly sound, and the shortcomings will be gradually strengthened.

In the "2023 Global Logistics Performance Index Report" released by the World Bank, my country's comprehensive ranking of logistics performance rose from 26th in 2018 to 20th, maintaining a steady upward trend. Among them, the scores of logistics infrastructure and international freight time efficiency are relatively high, reaching the international advanced level. The infrastructure score ranking exceeds that of developed economies such as the United States and France, and the hardware environment construction has achieved good results.

Experts said that it is also necessary to see that there is still a certain gap compared with the world's advanced logistics countries in terms of international logistics customs clearance management and freight tracking capabilities, which is the focus of improving my country's international logistics performance in the future.

Unit logistics costs are stable and declining, and operating efficiency is improved

From the perspective of logistics costs, with the help of factors such as the introduction of a number of cost-reduction measures, unit logistics costs will be stable and declining in 2023, and logistics operating efficiency will continue to improve.

In 2023, the total social logistics cost was 18.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%. The ratio of total social logistics cost to GDP was 14.4%, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from the previous year, which means that the logistics cost per unit of GDP is decreasing.

In 2023, the average transportation distance decreased overall, and long-distance transportation gradually shifted to railway and water transportation. The average transportation distance of road transportation was 183 kilometers, a year-on-year decrease of 1.7%.

Logistics companies actively promoted the establishment of a collaborative and symbiotic industrial ecology, helped information sharing, optimized resource allocation, and achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement for enterprises.

In 2023, the country introduced a number of specific measures to improve the quality, efficiency and cost reduction of logistics. The long-term mechanism of differentiated highway toll collection has been continuously optimized and improved, the preferential policy of urban land use tax for land used for bulk commodity storage facilities has continued to be implemented, the cost of land used for storage and logistics of raw materials and primary products has steadily decreased, and the system guarantee for reducing logistics costs and increasing efficiency has been further improved.