Photo: CCTV news

An industry research report said that China is shifting from being the “world’s factory” to becoming a “global supply chain hub,” as supply chains worldwide restructure amid changes in the economic landscape, rising trade protectionism in the world, and intensifying technological transformation, state broadcaster CCTV News reported on Tuesday.

The China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing (CFLP) released a report of China supply chain development from 2024 to 2025 on Tuesday. It notes that, in recent years, China has made significant strides in modern logistics and advanced manufacturing. 

A total of 80 national-level advanced manufacturing clusters are now scattered across China, including high-end equipment making and new energy production chain, with high-end equipment clusters accounting for 36.25 percent, the CFLP report said.

Meanwhile, China’s supply chain digital transformation is accelerating, with emerging technologies rapidly empowering the transitioning. CFLP data show that the overall penetration rate of artificial intelligence in logistics supply chains has surpassed 37 percent, with AI penetration rate highest in a wide range of transport-optimization scenarios at 78.18 percent.

Peng Xinliang, secretary-general of the CFLP Public Procurement Branch, said “AI+Supply Chain” has become a major industrial transformation trend. AI is becoming deeply integrated into many supply chain scenarios, including new products R&D, logistics, procurement management, and supplier management, with many logistics enterprises investing heavily in AI uses, he said. 

The CFLP report also noted that Chinese enterprises are currently moving from “product exports” and “capacity exports” toward a new stage of “industrial and supply chain exports,” with different manufacturing clusters cooperating starting to build overseas ecosystems. 

Photo: CCTV news

 
In 2024, the cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 2.63 trillion yuan ($368.87 billion), up 10.8 percent year-on-year. Chinese companies have built more than 2,500 overseas warehouses with a combined floor space of more than 30 million square meters, according to the report. 

Global Times