Yuantong Group will invest 12.2 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) to build a logistics hub at Jiaxing Airport in Zhejiang province to build an intermodal and trade distribution centre.
In the first phase, Yuantong will construct a logistics hub covering 600,000 square metres with an investment of 7.3 billion yuan covering air cargo hubs, maintenance areas, express delivery global operations centres, smart logistics park and supporting office areas.
The project is scheduled to start in 2018 and will be put into use in 2021 when it will become the global operation base, innovation R&D centre and settlement centre of YTO Express and YTO Airlines.
According to project planning and traffic volume calculations, YTO will operate 50 cargo aircraft in Jiaxing by 2030 handling 1.1 million tonnes of cargo, and handle 2.4 million tonnes a year by 2050.
Yuantong Group chairman, Yu Tong says: “Yuantong will be the global aviation logistics hub and super-intermodal centre in Jiaxing. The development of ‘One Belt and One Road’, the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and the construction of the Dawan District of Zhejiang Province, and the realisation of China’s express logistics industry ‘transport global’ to the global “play a positive role.”
The group says it chose Jiaxing because more than 40 per cent of domestic and international express delivery is concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Within a three hour flight time, Jiaxing Airport can cover the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Belt.
Yuantong also says Jiaxing has the advantage of taking the spillover of Shanghai and Hangzhou airports, the ports of Jiaxing Port, Yangshan Port, Ningbo Port and inland waterways.
It also has rail links on the Huminhang Railway and road links on the Jiasu Expressway and Shanghai-Kunming Expressway.
