Singapore-headquartered SATS Ltd, a provider of air cargo handling services and Asia’s pre-eminent provider of food solutions, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SF Group, a leading express delivery and logistics service provider in China and globally, to expand their strategic collaboration and supply chain optimisation into a global footprint.
The partnership agreement between the market leaders was formally signed at SF Group’s headquarters in Shenzhen by Zhang Ji, vice president of SF Group, and Bob Chi, CEO of Gateway Services Asia-Pacific at SATS. Chi will also jointly lead the steering committee overseeing regional or country-level working groups conducting the strategic projects under this agreement.
SATS and SF Group will combine their respective areas of expertise and service offerings as well as those of their affiliate companies, including Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), a member of the SATS Group, and SF Airlines, the Chinese cargo airline owned by SF Group.
The partners will initially look at expanding the successful collaboration of the existing hub operations in Singapore and eCommerce handling in Liege, Belgium to other global hubs. These include the hub operations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and exploring Proof of Concepts (PoCs) for eCommerce handling in Beijing and at New York’s JFK International Airport. The partners will also identify and build other network solutions or specialised services from more than 200 locations where SATS is present with SF Group’s extensive demand channels, which is currently the world’s fourth largest integrated logistic provider and is based in China.
“We are honored that SF Group has chosen to partner with SATS to identify new network expansion opportunities and service improvements globally,” said Chi. “Our organizations can learn a lot from each other as we embrace our collaboration and go beyond the traditional customer-vendor relationship. This is a mutually beneficial partnership where both parties are leveraging on each other’s strengths to improve the supply chain and create value for our respective stakeholders. We are confident of building on the successes that we have today to expand into a multi-station global network collaboration.”
Zhang Ji said: “As China's largest and the world's fourth largest integrated logistics service provider, SF Group is actively promoting its overseas growth strategy. The collaboration with SATS Group, which is one of the world's largest aviation ground service providers, with continuous growth of its worldwide network in the field of aviation logistics, will enhance the competitiveness of both parties and achieve a win-win situation.”
Growth opportunities for the SATS and SF Group collaboration will be enhanced by the continued expansion of the global eCommerce market forecast to grow by 8.8% in 2024 to USD 6.3 trillion, and to USD 7.9 trillion by 2027.
