keynote feature


As the world’s two most commercially powerful nations – the US and China – increasingly see their economies yoked together, the sky over the Pacific is becoming more and more congested with freighter aircraft. And this is not a one-way trade either, as China’s emerging middle class adopts a new lifestyle that is constantly seeking out Western brands. Sam Chambers in Dalian reports


air freight connections over the Pacific


T 12 AIR LOGISTICS CHINA


rade between China and the US continues to soar. According to Chinese Customs, the volume of Sino-US commercial activity in 2010 showed a US$385.34 billion increase on the previous year, up by nearly 30 percent.


Importantly in this equation, in 2010 China’s imports


leapt 31.7 percent to reach $102.04 billion, according to statistics from China’s Ministry of Commerce, as American firms invested a total of $65.22 billion in more than 59,000 projects under way in China. A survey by the Chinese American


Chamber of Commerce showed that 71 percent of the US-funded ventures made profits in 2010 and 46 percent of them gained a higher profit ratio in China than they did in any other country. Currently, China is the second-largest trade partner and the top growing export market of the US. The Sino-US air cargo industry has been


greatly liberalised since an aviation agreement was signed between the two


countries in 2007; the deal gradually gives US air cargo carriers virtually unlimited access to China and vice versa by the end of this year. “The agreement is a huge step forward,” said an


official from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). “With the agreement, carriers like FedEx and UPS will have boundless flexibility in the China market after 2011, and it also heats up the competition in


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