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Scooters Rule as E-Commerce Grows in China (The Wall Street Journal)
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- Pollution Is Costing Chinas Economy Over $100 Billion A Year (businessinsider.com)
Scooters Rule as E-Commerce Grows in China (The Wall Street Journal)By PAUL MOZUR March 4, 2013 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323644904578269460030807102.html BEIJING—David Li possesses a can-do work ethic and a willingness to zip around Beijing's harrowing traffic on an electric scooter. That makes him highly valuable to a multibillion-dollar Chinese electronic-commerce industry struggling with how to deliver goods to demanding customers. In 2011 Mr. Li left behind a wife, infant son and a job teaching middle-school math in the eastern city of Handan to became a courier for Chinese Internet retailer Beijing Jingdong Century Trading Co., which runs the 360buy.com shopping site. Delivery companies say couriers who work the most profitable office buildings in large cities—where order flow is high and delivery is quick and easy—can earn more than $950 a month, well above the $200 to $650 brought in by factory workers. "It's hard, but I'm ambitious," Mr. Li says of the separation from his family. Early last year, after only five months on the job, he was promoted to manager of a distribution center that has 20 deliverymen. E-commerce has exploded here in recent years as increasingly affluent consumers have learned to love online deals. China's total online sales are expected to eclipse those of the U.S. in coming years, rising to $356.1 billion in 2016 from $169.4 billion last year, according to Forrester Research. U.S. online retail sales are forecast to reach $327 billion from $226 billion over the same period. That leaves Internet retailers and logistics companies attempting to build from scratch a complex distribution system to send goods purchased online to the distant corners of China. Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has said "terrible" logistics are slowing the growth of Internet retailing in China. Alibaba, which runs the Taobao and Tmall shopping sites, plans to join with banks, delivery companies and industry players to invest 100 billion yuan, or roughly $15 billion, to strengthen China's logistics industry over the next decade, a person familiar with the matter said. Recent incidents underscore the challenge the industry faces. China last year stripped 116 delivery companies of their permits following customer complaints, with postal authorities citing lost mail, "barbaric sorting" and other offenses. A parcel containing wind-resistant matches started a fire in October on a China Southern Airlines Co. 600029.SH -3.18% plane after it landed. State media reported that two other forbidden goods shipped by separate delivery companies also were found on the airliner. And in November, authorities seized empty artillery shells that a delivery company was attempting to ship on a civil aircraft, according to the Hefei Airport police and official media. China ranked 26th in the World Bank ranking of logistics infrastructure last year, five notches below South Korea and just above Turkey. Singapore led the list, and the U.S. was No. 9. Logistics experts say China lacks warehouses with the sophistication to service its large flow of goods and say many Chinese cities are loath to sell land to delivery or e-commerce companies for warehouses since such operations don't generate as much tax revenue as, say, shopping malls or office buildings. At a warehouse run by delivery firm Zhongtong Express on the eastern outskirts of Beijing, workers recently handled packages by hand—sometimes tossing them in piles. Employees were bundled against the cold as freezing gusts blew through open loading docks and doors. Manager Yu Meina says fast growth has outstripped the capacity of the facility. The company plans to move to a bigger location soon, she says. Retaining workers is a challenge. "There's not enough graduates here, and they're hard to attract," Ms. Yu says. Many of the jobs are complicated, involving coordination of the ebb and flow of packages into northern China, she says, but "not many educated people want to do this sort of work." Companies are ramping up spending to compensate. Jingdong Century, where Mr. Li was promoted recently from courier, has been expanding its delivery system since 2009. It employs about 10,000 couriers and 5,000 warehouse employees but doesn't disclose its spending. Chief Executive Liu Qiangdong has complained of China's "terrible logistics management." Much of the industry expansion comes at the end of the line, with the scooters, motorcycles and motorized carts that clog the roads of major Chinese cities daily. Xu Rongliang, a 30-year-old from the costal city of Hangzhou, made a little more than $160 a month when he came to Beijing in 2009 to ride an electric scooter as a courier. He since has switched companies four times, eventually becoming a customer-service representative for a distribution center outside of Beijing and substantially increasing his pay. "I've invested energy and time, and I've been rewarded," he says. "That's a very happy situation." More than 100 of his friends from the eastern province of Zhejiang—where many of China's largest delivery companies sprouted to be near Alibaba—now work as couriers in Beijing. While many have been promoted, some still face the rain and the snow on China's roads. "Most people think the job is harsh," he says. "It's true, it is." Write to Paul Mozur at paul.mozur@dowjones.com Online Pollution Is Costing China's Economy Over $100 Billion A Year (businessinsider.com)Meena Thiruvengadam, The Financialist http://www.businessinsider.com/cost-of-china-smog-2013-3 China may be the world’s economic beacon of hope, but its pollution problems are hurting the bottom line. While China is a leading manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels, it also is home to seven of the world’s 10 most polluted cities, according to a study from the Asian Development Bank and Beijing’s Tsinghua University. The coal, freight trucks and factories underpinning China’s economic success in recent years are also hurting its environment. Last year, China consumed as much coal as the rest of the world combined, noted Jennifer Turner, director of the China Environment Forum & Global Sustainability and Resilience Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. The Cost of Smog Various studies have estimated the economic impact of China’s pollution, and several sources suggest that illness, premature death and lost productivity could be costing the country upwards of $100 billion a year. The World Bank estimated that illnesses and premature deaths linked to China’s pollution cost it about $100 billion – the equivalent of 3 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product – in 2009 alone. A separate study by Greenpeace and Peking University estimates particulate pollution cost four major cities more than $1 billion and caused more than 8,000 premature deaths last year. “China’s economy has skyrocketed, but at a price. Power plants, factories and heavy industries are all belching out black, dirty air, at the cost of our health and our environment,” Greenpeace said. Data suggests the country’s pollution and related costs may not ease anytime soon. Coal remains a dominant source of power for the country, and citizens are snapping up automobiles at a frenzied pace. Chinese residents bought nearly 20 million automobiles last year, making it the world’s largest auto consumer. SUV sales alone in China are expected to triple in the next decade, according to the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Long-Term Costs A study released last year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimates labor and health care costs related to China’s pollution cost the economy $112 billion in 2005 — five times as much as in 1975. Rapid urbanization, booming population growth and rising incomes, which increase the value of lost productivity, all contribute to the problem. But the MIT study aimed to quantify the long-term price of pollution, as well as the immediate costs. The results suggest “that conventional, static methods that neglect the cumulative impact of pollution-caused welfare damage or other market distortions substantially underestimate pollution’s health costs, particularly in fast-growing economies like China,” Kyung-Min Nam, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement released last year in conjunction with the study. The researchers found that China emits more mercury, carbon dioxide and other pollutants than any other country in the world. Even before its latest boom, China in the 1980s had pollution levels 10 to 16 times higher than guidelines provided by the World Health Organization, the MIT study said. Hurting the China Brand Environmental issues are one reason some companies have a harder time getting workers to relocate to China. “You actually have to pay people more to go live in China, partly because of the pollution issues,” Turner, of the Woodrow Wilson Center, said. In fact, more Chinese workers also are choosing to telecommute in order to avoid having to step outside, Turner said. Some are reluctant to let children play outside, and the Financial Times has reported that schools in Beijing are building pollution domes to cover outdoor play areas. Turner expects continued problems could ultimately temper investors’ interest. “You have some international companies thinking, ‘We have to get out of Dodge and produce our products safely,’” she said. “You can run, but you can’t hide from this kind of smog.” Directory: 2013 2013 -> Annual InStructional unit plan 2013 -> The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine 2013 -> #1 a lifesafer of virginia inc 2013 -> Name(s): your name here team or Group #(if applicable): Professor’s name 2013 -> Alcott Local School Council (lcs) Meeting Minutes 2013 -> Table Of Contents introduction 2 2013 -> Supplemental demographic information 2013 -> 【Education&Working Experience】 Download 404.14 Kb. Share with your friends:
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