South China: New sales office in Zhongshan

Since the beginning of April 2023, a. hartrodt has also been present with a sales office in Zhongshan in the Chinese province of Guangdong. "We want to develop more local controlled business in the western region of the Pearl River Delta," says Leo Xu, Sales & Pricing Manager South China at a. hartrodt Shenzhen Logistics. At the new location in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), the freight forwarder employs three sales people and one sales support person. The team focuses on the megacities of Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Jiangmen, where many exporters of household products are located, according to Leo Xu. Operations are handled by the Shenzhen and Guangzhou offices.

Greater Bay Area includes eleven megacities

Leo Xu is fascinated by the GBA simply because of its sheer size, with some 87 million people in eleven cities: "The area is more than four times the size of the New York, San Francisco and Tokyo bays combined." In addition to white goods, he cites high-tech/electronics, food & beverage, chemicals or equipment manufacturing as the industrial focus. The area has three of the world's ten largest container ports – Shenzhen, Guangzhou-Nansha and Hong Kong.

Consolidation with weekly direct flights

The sales team in Zhongshan is among ten new sales employees at a. hartrodt in South China. "We mainly want to boost export business with our Golden Eagle air freight product and expand business relationships with manufacturers in the GBA," explains Leo Xu. Through the Guangzhou hub, a. hartrodt consolidates export air cargo for weekly direct flights to Frankfurt as the European Gateway. Import consolidations ex Frankfurt directly to South China are also expected to grow. According to Leo Xu, factories in the GBA require high-quality equipment, and there is also a huge demand for European food and beverages.

Leo Xu views the GBA as China's most dynamic and strategically important growth area in the future as well. However, two customs territories and three currencies pose a challenge. With 54 employees in South China plus 49 in Hong Kong, a. hartrodt is well positioned.