. Driven by the industry-wide digital transformation and the fourth industrial revolution , the industrial Internet is accelerating the reshaping and transformation of the industrial chains and internal value chains of various vertical industries. Supply chain digitalization has become the best entrance to the development of industrial Internet.
With the support of cutting-edge digital technologies such as artificial intelligence , big data, Internet of Things, cloud computing , logistics transparency will reach unprecedented depth and breadth. Through investment in product and data applications, we will further optimize the online digital system covering the entire industrial chain to achieve cost reduction, efficiency improvement and healthy development in the logistics and transportation links.
digital transformation is unstoppable and is subverting every link in the traditional field of international shipping. Global shipping giants such as Maersk , Dafei, COSCO Shipping, Evergreen , Shanghai SIPG , China Merchants Group , etc. are embracing digitalization.
As an important hub for international trade , the domestic container port transportation industry has huge market space. After the digital transformation of the supply chain, the future development space of the domestic port container transportation market is even more immeasurable.
can even be imagined that in the near future, important new technologies such as unmanned driving and fuel cell are also very likely to be commercially implemented in semi-closed scenarios such as container port land transportation. This field is full of opportunities and challenges.
In the past two years, although the global epidemic has brought about many uncertainties and caused significant fluctuations in the fields of international trade and shipping, under these unfavorable conditions, my country's port logistics throughput has maintained a continuous growth trend. As of June 24, my country's key monitored ports have completed cargo throughput of 5.56 billion tons and container throughput of 124 million TEUs this year, an increase of 0.9% and 2.3% year-on-year respectively.
In the future, as the economic environment of various countries gradually recovers, the industry's transformation and upgrading and emerging development models emerge, it is expected that the national port cargo throughput will maintain a rapid growth trend again, and the port container transportation industry will continue to release huge potential energy.
htmlOn August 9, Boxun Technology, which focuses on port container logistics land transportation business, announced a new round of financing. 36Kr also took this opportunity to conduct in-depth exchanges in the second week of Boxun's announcement of financing and the cross-border logistics and warehousing track. Zhou Fangzhi, an investor who has invested in innovative companies in the logistics field such as Boxun Technology, Platypus, and Huanshi Logistics.
The following is the interview transcript (excerpted)
36Kr: What are the main areas of attention? Changes in the past two years?
Zhou Fangzhi: has been mainly looking at international logistics and warehousing in recent years, including supply chain, etc. Recently, we will pay attention to new energy, including lithium batteries and hydrogen energy . Because on the one hand, relevant policies have gradually begun to be released in the past two years, and on the other hand, logistics has a better development prospect with the help of new energy. Recently, I have paid attention to new energy not only because it is an extension of the areas I have focused on before, but on the other hand, the new energy itself is also full of opportunities in the future.
36Kr: How high is the proportion of tracks like container land transportation compared to the macro logistics track?
Zhou Fangzhi: From port logistics to port container road transportation market, its scale is in a volume of 100 billion. However, when you fully understand the situation of the entire market, you will find that if some companies can do well enough in some key links, they can actually reach the entire international logistics supply chain. The international logistics market is a trillion-level plate. As a startup company, it is difficult to directly cut into such a large and scattered market from the beginning. Because the founder of Boxx's previous entrepreneurship was from a freight forwarding and was a relatively important node in the industrial chain, he saw such an entry point: to cut from a key link in port logistics. In the future, whether it is a box or other company, the ultimate goal is the entire supply chain.
36Kr: Multinational shipping companies such as Maersk abroad are also undergoing digital transformation. For domestic startups, if they want to go overseas to enter a larger market, what problems will they encounter?
Zhou Fangzhi: First of all, everyone knows that the international logistics market has a very large scale. From the perspective of the global market, Maersk, as an overseas shipping company and is mainly a ship owner, has a market share of more than ten percent, and is a giant company. However, if it enters a new market from a third-party perspective, it will also be difficult because it will face competition from players outside the field where he is good at. Moreover, this market is large enough that some startups can better reduce costs and increase efficiency for the industry, and still have great potential to gain a certain share. Whether it is a third-party service company or an industry company like Maersk, it is actually not contradictory to compete in this market.
36Kr: Focusing on the current domestic container land transportation track, for several of them, from an investment perspective, what kind of logic will be used to analyze these competitors?
Zhou Fangzhi: The core investment logic of is relatively similar to "track + people". Not only in the logistics field, but also in this logic for my investment in other projects. First of all, the track has potential and is favored by everyone. China's international logistics, whether it is infrastructure or software, is relatively backward in the global perspective. With the improvement of overall IT capabilities, the entrepreneurial environment is getting better and better, so this track is clearly improving. Later on, we look at people. The top two are in the track box letter and platypus. Both companies have their own characteristics, but one thing in common is that the two founders have teams with dimensionality reduction and strikes against traditional companies in this track, so the core is that things are human-made.
36Kr: Classic cases of investment in recent years, and are there some regrets?
Zhou Fangzhi: locks in the logistics market we are talking about today. Whether from the model or the background of the founder himself, they are actually very distinctive, which is in line with the portrait of an excellent company; Platypus is also a classic case. These two companies have turned this track from an original unknown situation and the market is not paying much attention to, and have now made it a track where many financial investment institutions and many foreign-funded strategic investors are paying attention to. Another classic case is Huanshi Logistics. These three companies may eventually have some business overlap between each other, but from a competitive perspective, this market is large enough and it also has a high enough barrier. So in this market, as long as you find a team that is excellent enough and has enough potential, several companies will be possible at the same time. Speaking of regrets, many of the projects I have seen have developed very well in the subsequent development. I don’t think it’s a missed one. I can only say that they are not very suitable for them in some time points in the past, so although I have seen a lot in recent years, it is impossible to invest in them all. But I will always maintain good contact with entrepreneurs. Perhaps at a more suitable time point in the future, we still have the opportunity to cooperate successfully.
36Kr: What is the threshold for the container land transportation market? Future competition situation?
Zhou Fangzhi: The concept of container logistics has existed for a long time and has been operating steadily. The threshold is that international logistics is related to the docking of overseas companies and ocean routes, and also includes customs clearance actions for entering and exiting customs. Therefore, it does not just send goods from point A to point B like trunk logistics, and it is basically operated in China, so its operational complexity is much higher than that of traditional trunk logistics.
Under this basic background, the team's experience includes understanding of the industry, as well as the accumulation of connections and resources in the industry. So it is basically not feasible to just use the Internet to remove intermediate nodes to operate international logistics. We can see that in the past decade, some companies have wanted to try to do this, but they have not done it. Adhere to your philosophy and do things on a barrier-free track. The longer you do it, the higher the barriers will be.
36Kr: In the past ten years, mobile Internet and cloud computing have had a great impact on different industries. In the next ten years, artificial intelligence may have a greater impact. For example, in the field of commercial vehicles, specific scenarios such as trunk logistics and ports may be implemented on a large scale. Will it have a great impact on artificial logistics methods?
Zhou Fangzhi: The main costs of logistics are the first one and the driver, and the second one is fuel. If drivers can be replaced by autonomous driving, it will have a huge change in logistics costs. However, companies that have the ability to use autonomous driving or have the resources to call autonomous driving technology and equipment must have a certain scale. So this track may have further Matthew effect in the future. Traditional small teams may have only a few cars or a dozen cars. They do not have the ability to use autonomous driving equipment or technology and will eventually lose competitiveness. At present, the change speed of autonomous driving is not yet mature, because these small teams will also use some guest relationships, including some more efficient ways of manpower. However, after the popularity of autonomous driving in the future, these companies will be further optimized quickly. This is also why capital is optimistic about the fact that some large-scale companies can be launched in this field and invest in them.
36Kr: Who can become the main body of autonomous driving operation services in the future? Can closed scenarios still operate independently?
Zhou Fangzhi: personal judgment is a more practical model in the future, and the specific operation will be provided by the purchaser of autonomous driving vehicles or the user of autonomous driving technology. Because a reasonable operator is a company that masters the scenario, and the most important thing about autonomous driving is AI and the data itself, companies that master scenario data are more likely to become companies that operate vehicles. Now the box letter is connected with new energy trucks and autonomous driving technology companies. The first step in the future may be to conduct some trials of autonomous driving in specific scenarios. Currently, companies focusing on port logistics are more suitable for attempting autonomous driving, because the scenarios are relatively fixed and the transportation distance is relatively short.
36Kr: When the new energy and trunk logistics market are combined, how to judge which method has a better chance of breakthrough? For example, power batteries, fuel cells, or hydrogen direct combustion, etc., if you consider comprehensively, which method is more reasonable?
Zhou Fangzhi: still needs to be divided into specific scenarios, such as short-distance fixed scenarios. Using lithium batteries with the support of charging or battery swap infrastructure may be more advantageous, while using hybrid or hydrogen energy may be more advantageous in the long-distance. I am still observing that companies that do battery technology are also booming. The performance of lithium batteries is updated and iterated quickly, and it is beginning to show a trend that companies are beginning to strengthen in specific directions and specific scenarios. At the same time, the country also needs to make some efforts in road infrastructure.
36Kr: Where is the ceiling of the container land transportation market, and what efforts should startups make to reach a higher position?
Zhou Fangzhi: container land transportation itself has a scale of 100 billion, so it can be seen that in a sub-track of this volume, if it can cut to a market share of 10% or 20%, it is also a very considerable number from the revenue side. At present, whether it is box letters or platypus, they still have great development potential in the areas where they are good at, and there is still a lot of room for penetration. Further, if international logistics is cut in the future, the space will be even greater.
36Kr: To increase your market share, you mainly need to upgrade at what points such as customer acquisition, technology optimization, and business model?
Zhou Fangzhi: ToB company acquires customers, it is not particularly difficult to get customers in the port logistics market, because these customers are actually relatively rational, and there are overseas buyers behind them to serve, so they will definitely give priority to the most stable and highest service quality suppliers, so they don’t need to spend too much money to win over these customers.
When the future volume reaches 10 times or 20 times, technical scheduling optimization is very important, and infrastructure optimization is also very important. For example, Boxun is now committed to simplifying the workflow of drivers as much as possible through infrastructure upgrades and improving intelligent scheduling efficiency. This process will be a challenge and will be tiring in the early stage, but after finally building the infrastructure, you will have the ability to operate and dispatch on a large scale and high-concurrency basis.
36Kr: In the past two years, the epidemic will have some impact on this market, and there have been relatively large fluctuations in other aspects, including international trade. At the same time, China is also facing industrial transfer and capacity output. Will these have a greater impact on China's container transportation market in the longer term?
Zhou Fangzhi: is a good opportunity in the long run. First of all, the overall capacity was insufficient due to the impact of the epidemic last year and the previous year, and it will cause relatively large fluctuations in the entire international logistics, and has different impacts on enterprises in different links. For example, some large freight forwarders and ship owners benefit from the overall price increase. This is a short-term thing, and in the long run it will have a certain impact on the revenue stability of these companies. The opportunity lies in the volatility of these demands now forces everyone to improve some infrastructure so that they can deal with this volatility in the future. So in the short term, it may be a bonus for some companies and a fluctuation for some companies. But in the long run, it is an opportunity for Chinese logistics companies. This opportunity is to upgrade the logistics method, which originally mainly focuses on labor execution as its core capabilities, into an intelligent logistics supply system through technology and intelligence.
36Kr: Is there still a chance for new players to enter this field?
Zhou Fangzhi: There must be . International logistics itself is a track with a long history, but behind technology will lead to many nodes that can be optimized and improved. Therefore, there will definitely be suitable founders and teams to optimize on various nodes to create disruptive business models and opportunities.
36Kr: What is the difference between the operating model of ports in developed overseas and domestically? Is there any place to learn from?
Zhou Fangzhi: There are big differences between and there are many things to learn from. Because China is a trade surplus country, it exports a lot of products overseas every year, while many Western countries mainly import, and different trade forms lead to differences in market conditions. The supervision of logistics in different countries is different. Western countries have more mature market supervision. Their working hours restrictions on drivers and different vehicle supervision will lead to the company's operating methods very differently. What can be learned from
, whether it is European railway facilities or American sea-to-rail transfer facilities, have gradually developed over the past few decades or even hundreds of years. This also allows us to see the importance of logistics infrastructure, which is something that domestic logistics companies can learn from and is also a relatively certain path to success. Companies with more resources and ability will eventually gain the benefits brought by infrastructure for a relatively long time.
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