Chinese Internet firms help keep vital trade moving

China's Internet giants are leveraging relief funds and logistics facilities to support cross-border medical supply and commercial product delivery.

Alibaba's logistics affiliate Cainiao said it had leveraged its delivery network to help ship 73 million units of medical supplies to China and 36 million units to 116 countries and regions as of the end of last week.

According to Bu Hua, head of European operations at Cainiao Network, nearly half of air cargo transportation relies on passenger airlines, which have significantly cut capacity amid the coronavirus pandemic and the situation will likely continue into the near future.

"It's essential to help local manufacturers ship goods to overseas customers under these difficulty circumstances and we've seen some merchants' orders already picking up, which is an encouraging sign," he added.

Many Chinese exporters are concerned that intercontinental logistics interruptions might hamper delivery to overseas customers and fear that policies at their destination countries will change under short notice in light of the COVID crisis. 

Alibaba's export site AliExpress said vendors can get compensation if cargo is detained due to the pandemic and it will add 200 charter flights in March and April to ensure export as a part of the e-commerce group's pandemic relief efforts.

Vice President of Commercial Steven Verhasselt at Belgium's Liege Airport said that exports to China in February through Liege added 30 percent while imports from China were up 40 percent from March 15 to April 7 as European online retail demand has picked up.

Liege is one of Cainiao's overseas hubs to ship merchandise from China to Europe, thanks to its rail connections to other European nations.

Tencent announced the establishment of a US$100 million Global Anti-Pandemic Fund in late March and up till now 7.7 million units of medical supplies, such as personal protective equipment and other essential products sourced by the fund, have been delivered to 15 nations.

It's working with one of its major shareholders, Naspers in South Africa, to procure more than 500 million yuan (US$70 million) worth of protective suits and medical supplies for health-care workers in the country.

Several shipments of medical supplies have already reached their destinations, or are currently en route.

It's also joined an initiative with major technology platforms including Facebook and Microsoft to invite developers to a global hackathon to focus on local or global software solutions.