Sinotrans and LX Pantos Sign Agreement to Establish Joint Venture
Recently, Sinotrans Limited (referred to as Sinotrans) and South Korea’s largest freight forwarder, LX Pantos, signed an agreement in Beijing to establish a joint venture, FutureLinks. LX Pantos will hold a 60% stake in the new company, while Sinotrans will hold 40%.
Sinotrans Chairman Zhang Yi and LX Pantos CEO Lee Yong-ho witnessed the signing ceremony on-site.
According to the introduction, by establishing the joint venture, both parties plan to build a stable transshipment network centered on the Incheon-Weihai route, providing comprehensive logistics services covering major consumer markets such as the United States and Europe. The specific cooperation method involves transporting goods from various regions in China to South Korea by sea, and then airlifting them globally via Incheon International Airport.
LX Pantos explained that as China’s domestic air logistics capacity struggles to meet the surging demand from e-commerce, the strategic position of Incheon as a major transshipment hub has rapidly increased. Leveraging its geographical proximity to China and its flight network connecting to 192 global destinations, Incheon International Airport provides a highly competitive foundation for sea-air multimodal transport business.
LX Pantos emphasized that both parties aim to focus on the growing demand for multimodal transport and build FutureLinks into a leading multimodal logistics service provider in Northeast Asia.
Statistics show that in 2024, Incheon International Airport handled 118,000 tons of multimodal transport cargo, a year-on-year increase of approximately 20%.
Sinotrans Chairman Zhang Yi (right) and LX Pantos CEO Lee Yong-ho
Sinotrans Chairman Zhang Yi stated: “LX Pantos is a leading logistics company in South Korea with strong air cargo capabilities and an extensive global network. We will jointly create new synergies in the China-South Korea multimodal transport market.”
LX Pantos CEO Lee Yong-ho said: “This cooperation marks a new development model aimed at capturing the transshipment market in the Northeast Asia region and is also the result of long-term strategic cooperation between the two parties. At the same time, with the continuous increase in China’s e-commerce cargo volume, it is expected to further enhance the competitiveness of South Korea’s logistics industry.”
According to the 2025 Top 50 Global Ocean and Air Freight Forwarders list released by Transport Topics, in 2024, Sinotrans ranked first among global ocean freight forwarders with an ocean freight volume of 4.872 million TEUs, while LX Pantos ranked eighth with an annual volume of 1.569 million TEUs. In terms of air freight, Sinotrans ranked fifth among global air freight forwarders with a volume of 1.028 million tons, while LX Pantos ranked thirty-fifth with a volume of 119,000 tons.
