Hitachi Transport has set up a logistics joint venture with a local company in Shanghai, the biggest industrial and commercial center in China.
Under a 15-year agreement between the Japanese firm and Dahang International Ferry Co, a local logistics joint venture between Shanghai Airlines and C.T. Enterprises Shipping Co, the venture has a registered capital of US$2.46 million.
The Japanese firm will own an unspecified number of shares of the expanded joint venture while Shanghai Airlines will have 55 percent.
Shanghai Airlines has 24 passenger and cargo planes operating on about 120 air routes, involving about 50 major Chinese cities and some overseas cities.
With about 180 offices internationally and part of the multinational Hitachi, Hitachi Transport first entered Shanghai in April 2000.
A growing number of overseas companies have invested in China's logistics sector as the country gradually opens up its tertiary sector to foreign capital.
Daifuku, Japan's leading supplier of logistics equipment, set up a solely-funded company in Shanghai in May 2002, the first of its kind established by the Japanese firm in China.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2002)
