According to www.manilatimes.net, a DP World Global Trade Observatory survey of 292 supply chain and logistics executives in China found that 58% plan to increase suppliers and diversify sourcing in 2026, while 50% cite deploying artificial intelligence as their top growth driver over the next one to three years.
Strategic Shift Toward Resilience and Agility
The survey — conducted in November 2025 — reveals Chinese companies are moving decisively beyond cost and scale as primary competitive levers. Instead, they are embedding resilience into core operations through multi-layered strategies: expanding supplier networks, increasing regional route options, building inventory buffers, and enhancing flexibility to respond to shifting trade policies and demand patterns. Near-shoring operations were planned by 38% of respondents, friend-shoring by 36%, and inventory increases by 32%.
These moves are not purely defensive. Key drivers cited include sustainability and ESG compliance requirements, new technologies enabling operational change, regulatory incentives in local markets, responses to tariffs, and opportunities tied to new market entry. The emphasis reflects a maturing approach to global trade — one where adaptability is treated as a measurable capability rather than an abstract aspiration.
AI and Digitalisation Drive Growth Priorities
Technology dominates the growth agenda. When asked about the strongest drivers for business growth over the coming one to three years, respondents ranked initiatives in this order: deploying AI (50%), broader digitalisation (44%), growing demand from new markets and consumers (43%), and participation in new value chains (34%). This prioritisation aligns with national policy direction set at China’s “Two Sessions”, where “New Quality Productive Forces” — anchored in AI and advanced technologies — were formally designated as central to the country’s next phase of economic development.
DP World, which handles approximately 10% of global containerised trade, reports consistent demand across sectors in China — including e-commerce, automotive, fashion and luxury, food and beverage, healthcare, and technology — for integrated solutions that bridge physical infrastructure and digital systems. Its China operations combine global network reach with local expertise in freight forwarding, contract logistics, warehousing, customs support, ports and terminals, and technology-enabled supply-chain visibility.
Operational Integration as Competitive Advantage
Glen Hilton, CEO and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, DP World, emphasized that scale alone no longer defines trade advantage:
“China’s next trade advantage will come from resilience and adaptability, not just scale. Chinese companies are already diversifying suppliers, entering new corridors and investing in digital systems and AI. But that ambition creates most value when companies can see their cargo, switch between routes, clear borders, manage documentation and fulfil reliably across markets. What customers increasingly need is not a disconnected set of providers. They need an operating partner that can connect the physical and digital layers of trade — ports, terminals, freight forwarding, customs, warehousing, systems and last-mile execution.” — Glen Hilton, CEO and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, DP World
This vision underpins DP World’s service model in the region: reducing hand-offs between providers, improving real-time control, and enabling reliable cross-border execution. In Asia Pacific, the company employs over 12,000 people across 22 geographies and operates 16 ports and terminals — all integrated with end-to-end logistics and technology offerings.
Source: manilatimes.net
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
