International logistics providers Kuehne and Nagel has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Chinese online giant Alibaba to offer global logistics services to its customers.

In a statement issued las week, Kuehne and Nagel said: “Since more than a year, Alibaba.com’s paid members in China have been able to instantly obtain quotations, book pickup and destination delivery services for airfreight consignments via Kuehne and Nagel’s digital solution KN FreightNet on Alibaba.com. The e-commerce relationship has already been extended to include less-than-container-load (LCL) solutions as well.

“Now, the strategic partnership will draw closer cooperation between the e-commerce giant and Kuehne and Nagel with intent to expand the scope of logistics services on offer in the near future to cover the various modes of transportation (air, sea, rail, overland) and contract logistics outside China.”

The Chinese market has been hard to ignore in recent times and major logistics players are fighting over one another to access the market. However, it is notoriously difficult to crack, as has been seen in forays by Western retailers in recent years and even if Kuehne and Nagel manage to get their foot in the door there is no great guarantee of success. Amazon appears to have managed it through its freight forwarding business (as have some retailers in China) but it is as much a matter of luck as careful judgement…

 
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