GOING BACK A FEW DECADES, CHINA WAS BEST KNOWN FOR ITS MANUFACTURING. BUT TODAY, CHINA HAS THE BIGGEST ONLINE SALES MARKET IN THE WORLD, AND IN CHINA’S GATEWAY CITY OF SHANGHAI, E-COMMERCE IS BIG BUSINESS.
Here, the global trend for traditional offline retailers to use online platforms is even more prevalent than other parts of the world.
It’s just one reason Shanghai is an ideal gateway for Goodman’s Chinese developments. As mainland China’s financial hub, Shanghai has a growing population that now exceeds 24 million. But the city isn’t economically important due solely to population. In a country where rising incomes are pushing consumption levels ever higher, residents of Shanghai have a disposable income per capita that is 118.4% higher than the national average.
This combination of factors makes Shanghai increasingly attractive for Goodman. Here, location is becoming vital for last mile delivery, and infill locations mean modern and multi-storey warehousing are important offerings. In Shanghai, our customers are looking for space efficiencies, secure facilities and improved construction quality, as well as the capacity to install the automation needed to service expanding demand.
Goodman’s Qingpu Centre development takes advantage of all of these factors. As our first three-storey distribution facility and first green industrial development in China, the Centre is already setting the new standard for quality of industrial parks across the country.
The development, which has a completion value of US$112.6 million (A$149.0 million), provides more than 110,000 square metres of prime, modern industrial and business space in Western Shanghai, with convenient access to downtown, Hongqiao Airport and Shanghai’s transport interchange.
This premium, strategically located facility achieved 97% occupancy by completion and has attracted companies like JD.com, China’s leading e-commerce company, as customers.
The e-commerce giant, which has a market capitalisation of US$44.2 billion as at 31 December 2015, leased 63,130 sqm at Goodman Qingpu Centre. Halfway through the year, JD.com was Goodman China’s seventh largest customer. Today, it’s our largest, occupying almost 295,000 sqm of warehouse space in six key Chinese cities.
The company was attracted to the strategic location of the Qingpu Centre facility, which allows easy distribution not only to Shanghai, but Suzhou and other key cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and the capacity to continue developing its logistics infrastructure by accessing our network of warehouses in key cities.
In addition to Goodman Qingpu Centre, we have seven other industrial properties in Shanghai. These include Goodman Pudong Airport Logistics Park, an award-winning 200,000 sqm development, comprising three phases of two storey ramp-up warehouse facilities.
