The Belt and Road Initiative: Intelligent Warehouses Make Cross-border E-commerce Logistics More Convenient
Date：2024-03-13
Recently, our reporter came to the small town of Slubice in western Poland, close to the German border.The population of this small town is less than 20,000, but it is one of the important ports of land transportation in Europe.
In the industrial zone on the eastern outskirts of the city, the smart warehouse of MBB Logistics is a busy scene: a dozen workers, assisted by intelligent robots, quickly label and pack express parcels, which are then sent directly to the logistics truck carriage on a conveyor belt. Within 24 hours, they will be delivered to consumers in Poland and Germany; within 48 hours, consumers in other European Union countries will also receive their goods. With business soaring as merchants need to replenish stocks before the Lunar New Year holiday, everything is running smoothly.
Logistics efficiency has been comprehensively improved
MBB Logistics Company was established in 2010, mainly providing logistics initial and final services for Amazon, eBay, and Poland’s largest e-commerce platform Allegro, etc.
The journalist entered the intelligent warehouse of MBB Logistics Company, where across an area of approximately 10,000 square meters, the tall and dense shelves were filled with a variety of goods that were breathtaking. Between the shelves, dozens of warehouse robots traveled back and forth along pre-planned routes, retrieving items from the shelves and delivering them to the packaging stations. The workers unpacked, scanned, and applied labels to the items in a single motion, then placed them into delivery boxes.
The intelligent warehouse, which went into operation in 2019, was the only one among China’s overseas warehouses at the time to use high-end logistics robots. The intelligent warehouse offers a safer, faster, and more efficient mode of operation, comprehensively enhancing logistics efficiency," said Gao Song, the founder of the company. He introduced that the robot driving software and warehouse management system of the intelligent warehouse were all independently developed by the Chinese team. Previously, workers had to walk 15 to 20 kilometers in the warehouse each day, and could only sort about 170 items of goods per hour. Now, the robots can sort 700 items of goods per hour.
Including the intelligent warehouse, MBB Logistics Company currently has a total of 8 overseas warehouses in Słubice and the surrounding area, with a combined area of 160,000 square meters. Each warehouse is like a miniature version of the “Yiwu Market”: electronic products, mechanical parts, home appliances, hardware, and all sorts of general merchandise, all under one roof. They come from nearly 300 Chinese e-commerce partners and connect thousands of Chinese manufacturing enterprises.
Gao Song said that with the improvement of Chinese e-commerce service levels, the volume of goods arrived before this year’s Spring Festival has significantly increased. “In the past, every year before the Spring Festival, we averaged receiving 5 standard containers per day from domestic sources, but this year the average daily receipt has exceeded 7 standard containers.”
Add vitality to the local economy.
Benefiting from its superior geographical location, the Słubice Industrial Park has gathered dozens of logistics and transportation companies, but our company’s contribution to the local economy is definitely among the top," said Dorota Kowalska, the Human Resources Director of MBB Logistics Company, with pride.
Kowalska introduced that the company currently employs over 350 people, half of whom are locals and the other half from the surrounding area. The company paid over 12 million złoty (approximately 3 million US dollars) in various taxes to the local government in 2023 alone.
After 14 years of development, MBB Logistics Company, based in Poland and serving the European market, has provided various solutions for Chinese cross-border e-commerce and European local e-commerce companies. In addition, the company also offers supplementary value-added services such as local tax, legal, and labor consulting.
Heatping City, adjacent to Słubice, is an important station for the China-Europe freight train in Poland. In 2022, MBB Logistics Company built two new warehouses there, with a total building area of about 60,000 square meters.
Mayor Sławomir Dukis of Heatping City, in an interview with our reporter, expressed his warm welcome for MBB Logistics Company’s establishment in the city. He said, "The intelligent warehouse of MBB Logistics Company has brought modern warehousing management concepts to Poland. It has set a precedent for the intelligent transformation of warehousing services in Poland and Europe. Furthermore, by providing professional and standardized logistics services for e-commerce platforms in China and Poland, MBB Logistics Company has added vitality to the economic development of Heatping City.
Working together towards a brighter future.
At the start of the new year in 2024, MBB Logistics Company increased its employees’ wages. “All the staff are highly motivated!” Kowalska exclaimed with joy.
“MBB Logistics Company not only increases employees’ incomes and promotes the local economy but also hasn’t forgotten to take on social responsibilities,” Kowalska told the reporter. She has been in charge of the company’s social responsibility activities for many years, including the company’s regular charitable sponsorships of the Słubice Cultural Center. In the summer of 2022, the director of the center, Przemysław Karg, spoke at the opening ceremony of the Słubice Cultural Festival and expressed profound gratitude to MBB Logistics Company for its sponsorship, which has allowed the annual cultural festival to grow in scale and influence.
Kowalska has worked at MBB Logistics Company for over 3 years and previously worked for another Chinese company for nearly 7 years. Through her work, she has formed deep friendships with many Chinese colleagues and has a strong affinity for China.
“Our family celebrates the Spring Festival every year!” Kowalska said, “During the Spring Festival, our whole family not only gets together to make dumplings and have the reunion dinner but also pastes Spring Festival couplets on the door.”
“As the Spring Festival approaches, let’s join hands to move towards an even better future!” Kowalska expressed.
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