In April this year, China made deployments for the planning and construction of the “six networks”: water networks, new-type power grids, computing power networks, next-generation communication networks, urban underground pipeline networks, and logistics networks. According to estimates by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the investment scale for just the “six networks” and related key areas this year exceeds 7 trillion yuan. A modern infrastructure network supporting high-quality development is being rapidly woven.
Within this infrastructure network covering the entire territory and operating in coordinated synergy, the logistics network, as a supporting system for the efficient circulation of goods and resources, serves both as a key link smoothing the national economic cycle and the core foundation for reducing costs and increasing efficiency in the real economy. The quality of its construction directly determines the overall efficiency and development vitality of the economic cycle.
Li Chao, Deputy Director of the Policy Research Office and Spokesperson of the NDRC, pointed out that the logistics network is a cross-regional comprehensive service system integrating hub nodes, backbone corridors, equipment and vehicles, rules and standards, and information data. From tropical fresh fruits on the tables of northern residents, to affordable seafood in inland markets, to global commodities signed for by people in mountainous areas, the readily accessible circulation convenience in daily life is all strongly supported by the logistics network.
The core goal of systematically advancing the construction of the logistics network is to optimize the allocation of social logistics resources, fully unleash the network’s scale effect, continuously reduce logistics operating costs, and reduce burdens and empower the real economy. To achieve this goal, hardware infrastructure serves as a solid foundation, model innovation is the core lever, and digital upgrading is an important engine.
Infrastructure forming a network is the foundation for releasing the efficiency of the logistics network. By the end of 2025, the completion rate of the main framework of the “6 Axes, 7 Corridors, 8 Channels” national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network reached 91%, and it is expected to exceed 95% by the end of the “15th Five-Year Plan” period. Currently, the national railway operating mileage is approximately 165,000 kilometers, expressway mileage reaches 199,000 kilometers, and the number of production berths in ports exceeds 22,000. The “four horizontal and five vertical” domestic logistics corridors are accelerating their formation. Nationwide, 229 national logistics hubs have been planned, with 181 already in operation; 105 national backbone cold chain logistics bases are accelerating interconnection; there are over 2,700 logistics parks above designated size; and the overall layout of hub nodes has been basically completed.
Hardware forming a network is only the first step. To truly realize the network effect and achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase, multimodal transport is the core lever. Many regions in China coordinate the comparative advantages of railway, waterway, highway, and air transport, explore the “one document throughout” collaborative model, strive to solve the industry pain point of poor connection, and promote the shift of different transport modes from “fighting separately” to “coordinated efforts.”
In Xi’an, Shaanxi, the “single document system” for railway-water intermodal transport has rewritten the old pattern of inland logistics. In the past, goods exported via the Yangtze River required multiple document changes and container transfers. Now, relying on the “one-time entrustment, one document throughout, one container direct delivery, one-time settlement” model, from Xi’an International Port Station via Wuhan Yangluo Port directly to Taicang Port, the overall transit time has improved by 30%, and the cost per container has decreased by 25%.
Ankang, Shaanxi, located in the Qinba mountainous area, once had its industrial development constrained by high export logistics costs. After the local area coordinated the opening of a road-rail-sea intermodal route, the cost per export container dropped from 12,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan, putting mountain enterprises on the same starting line as coastal cities.
In Yiwu, Zhejiang, the export of small commodities achieves “one-time declaration, one-time inspection, one-time release.” After inspection at the land port, goods can be directly shipped at Ningbo Zhoushan Port, allowing commodities from the “world’s supermarket” to reach the global market directly from their doorstep.
If multimodal transport bridges the physical connection gaps between different transport modes, digital freight platforms are reshaping the highway freight ecosystem and injecting a digital and intelligent core into the logistics network.
A large equipment manufacturing enterprise in the Yangtze River Delta region long faced pain points such as slow cross-provincial supply chain scheduling, drastic fluctuations in long-distance freight rates, and uncontrollable in-transit status. The inefficient transportation link severely constrained the release of high-precision production capacity. After connecting to the digital transport capacity network of the Fuyou Trucking platform, the platform uses AI algorithm models to intelligently analyze and calculate weather, road conditions, and the distribution of transport capacity across the entire network, transforming traditional “lagging truck sourcing” into “real-time dynamic scheduling.” Now, the enterprise’s response time for cross-provincial temporary truck dispatch has been compressed to within 30 minutes, and the on-time performance rate for trunk line transportation of parts remains stable above 98.5%, achieving efficient circulation of physical logistics driven by data flow.
A relevant person in charge of Fuyou Trucking stated that the modern logistics network does not exist in isolation. It deeply integrates and resonates with the computing power network among the “six networks.” The core logic is “exchanging computing power for efficiency,” precisely eliminating the hidden “empty driving” and “waiting” losses in traditional highway freight, reshaping massive and scattered transport capacity resources into a digital backbone network with global scheduling capabilities, making digital freight a new type of infrastructure supporting the high-quality development of the real economy and promoting cost reduction and efficiency increase in social logistics.
Hu Han, Deputy Chief Economist of the China Logistics Information Center, stated that in the next five years, logistics infrastructure will move away from the traditional extensive, scattered, and single-function construction model, shifting towards a modern comprehensive infrastructure system with data interoperability and organizational synergy. With the fundamental orientation of serving the real economy, it will achieve whole-chain, large-scale, and high-efficiency coordinated allocation of logistics resources.
Clear policy guidance and vast market space are attracting major leading logistics enterprises to increase infrastructure construction investment with unprecedented intensity. In just May of this year, several leading logistics enterprises intensively deployed core hubs for air logistics and multimodal transport, with a batch of key projects landing successively.
Looking ahead, the construction of China’s logistics network will comprehensively shift from “scale expansion” to “quality and efficiency improvement.” Li Chao stated that the NDRC will, together with relevant departments, issue and implement the special plan for the modern logistics field during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, coordinate funds to support the improvement of existing stock and the construction of new increments, promote the formation of facility systems into networks, weave dense urban and rural terminal networks, accelerate digital, intelligent, and green upgrades, and drive the systematic transformation of the logistics network from “having” to “being good,” and from “connected” to “smooth.” “The goal is to basically build a logistics network by 2030 where hubs are closely coordinated with industries and consumption, corridors and networks are connected internally and externally, facilities and equipment are green and intelligent, and rules and information are interconnected across the board, better serving the high-quality development of the real economy.”
