China’s Logistics Bog Down Despite Road-Building Spree

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i>Editor’s Note: The writer recently spent time in eastern China. This is the second in a series of reports looking at that nation’s trucking, truck manufacturing and logistics in-dustries.

BEIJING — China is a First World manufacturing powerhouse trapped within a Third World transportation and distribution system.

While this land of 1.3 billion people is already the top hard-goods producer on the planet, China is currently spending as much as 25% of its gross domestic product on transportation services, while companies in the United States spend about 10%.

China’s economic policy is governed by a large and strict bureaucracy dominated by the Communist party, but it was only recently that the government recognized the impor-tance of developing the logistics industry. Until the past few years, it appeared that government planners believed that simply providing a first-rate highway network would rec-tify the slow and expensive movement of goods.

For the full story, see the November 27 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.