Shanghai will launch a shipping and internet industrial base in Lujiazui in the hope of improving the resource allocation capacity of the shipping market. The announcement comes from Guo Zhiying, deputy director of Lujiazui Financial City Management Bureau, at the fourth International Forum on Shipping and Internet held in Lujiazui on May 18.

Lujiazui's launch of the base is due to the area's significant role in Shanghai's construction of an international shipping center. Currently, Lujiazui is home to more than 900 shipping service companies and seven of the country's shipping insurance operating centers.

The base aims to promote the combination of shipping and internet to transform the traditional shipping industry.

A truck broker pilot program combining shipping and internet was launched by the Ministry of Transport in March.

A truck broker is a third party logistics service provider who signs a contract with the shipper and then entrusts the task of delivery to a carrier. Truck brokers use an internet-based logistics information platform to integrate and dispatch vehicles and freight sources. This helps to lower costs and improve the efficiency of the logistics industry.

The China COSCO Shipping Group, located in Lujiazui, is one of the companies piloting the truck broker program. Its subsidiary Eshipping Global Supply Chain Management (Shenzhen) Co, expressed the intention of moving into the Lujiazui shipping and internet industrial base. Tang Hongbin, deputy general manager of Eshipping, considers the combination of logistics and information proliferation to be the future of the logistics industry.

The International Forum on Shipping and Internet is aimed at bringing together industry leaders and experts to discuss the ways of strengthening the integration of shipping and the internet. During the forum, many attendees shared insightful opinions and positions.

Liu Qianwen, senior vice president of Beijing-based Elane Inc, hopes to take advantage of big data technology to improve the efficiency and functioning of the shipping market.

Fang Baoli, chairman of Nanjing Changjiang Shipping Service E-commerce Co, pointed out that developing smart shipping requires cooperation with cutting-edge new technologies.