Business & Real Estate
Dallas Grows as Hub for China's Goods
Under
the radar of the general public, Chinese companies are quietly discovering
Dallas as a major crossroads to send their goods to American cities.
Without much fanfare the People’s Republic of China opened its first
business development office in Dallas this May. Then in June
Air China Cargo
announced that it would begin flying three weekly flights between Beijing
and DFW International Airport, adding a total of 38 cargo flights from Asia
to DFW weekly and $10.5 million in local revenue.
Around the same time, two large Chinese manufacturers signed leases on
distribution facilities in Dallas: Goldenvale Inc. of Zhejiang Province,
which manufactures scooters and dirt bikes, and Parsun Incorporated from
Suzhou, which makes portable generators. Together both companies could
employ 100 new workers.
China is the Dallas area’s number one trading partner with $13.6 billion in
trade in 2005, according the city’s
Office of Economic Development. That
figure is expected to rise dramatically with southern Dallas County poised
to become one of the largest inland ports in the country, driven by the need
to distribute Asian-made consumer goods to the East Coast.
“Chinese companies not only want to supply their growing consumer base, but
they want to make their products competitive in world markets,” said Dallas
City Councilmember
Ron Natinsky, who participated in two trips by city
officials to China in the past year to pitch Dallas as a North American
transportation hub. “They want to come here and build their own facilities,
and we’re in the right spot for them.”
From Prairie to Port
Southern Dallas County is the only place in the United States where five
highway interstates converge. As such, city officials from Dallas and its
smaller neighboring cities want to make this area an
inland port.
Progress toward this goal is moving at warp speed. Agreements have been
signed with Mexican and Houston seaports to ship more goods to Dallas County
for distribution. The backlogged Port of
Long Beach in
California, the nation’s second busiest seaport, sends about 60 percent of
its unopened containers to Dallas by rail.
“Southern Dallas County is on the verge of reinvention, the likes of which
have never been seen before,” The Dallas Morning News trumpeted. It is not
exaggerating. South of Loop 12, prairies are giving way to thousands of
acres of new warehouses. Along I-45, mile-long container trains stand double
stacked at the 360-acre
Union Pacific Dallas Intermodal Terminal, only two years old and already
at capacity. Nearby Burlington Northern Santa Fe is building a facility that
will be two times larger.
Seventy percent of the goods that come to Dallas travel onward to heavily
populated East Coast markets. According to Natinsky, Chinese companies save
money by shipping their goods south from California to Dallas than by
northern routes. Goods that begin in Seattle or Vancouver ports must travel
longer distances across several western mountain chains.
The economic benefits to Dallas are huge. The local economy will make $430
per container. One Chinese ship holds 8,000 containers, and at least 200
ships from China a day dock in U.S. ports. For Dallas coffers, that amounts
to $3.4 million per Chinese ship.
Selling Dallas
The
City’s International Business Team has employed a four-tier marketing
strategy to lure Chinese businesses to Dallas. Natinsky said it is all about
building relationships on multiple levels that include visiting with Chinese
officials from national, provincial, and local governments and with
representatives of the companies.
“The West Coast historically has been where Asian companies first open U.S.
offices,” Natinsky said. “Our goal is to be the logistics hub for these new
Asian ventures. We want them to consider Dallas for their warehouse or sales
offices, to use local logistics companies, or to manufacture and assemble
their goods in our foreign trade zones.”
To sell Dallas as a place to do business, Natinsky and the other members of
the city’s International Business Team emphasize its central location in the
United States, direct flights to almost anywhere in the world from DFW
International Airport, a relatively low cost of living, and weather that is
similar to many Chinese cities.
In April one of China’s largest central government-sponsored development
areas, Tianjin Economic Technology
Development Area (TEDA), opened its first U.S. office in Dallas.
Tianjin is
China’s third-largest city. Dallas city officials courted this important
industrial city for some time, visiting it and twice this year receiving a
delegation from Tianjin in return. In April representatives from 25 Tianjin
companies visited Dallas, where they toured Texas Instruments and met with
civic and business leaders. In addition, the Morgan Lewis Law Firm
co-sponsored a seminar with the city to discuss Chinese intellectual
property laws and business opportunities. This September the International
Business Team will make its third trip to China to visit more cities,
including
Shanghai,
Nanjing,
Wenzhou,
Qingdao,
Zhenjiang, and
Taipei. .
Support nonstop flights from dallas to beijing
American Airlines is vying for a coveted
air route between the U.S. and China. American has filed an application with
the U.S. Department of Transportation to operate daily nonstop flights
between its hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Beijing. If
successful, American would begin daily flights to China’s capital March 25,
2007.
Besides American, Continental, Northwest and United airlines have all filed
for permission to operate a new route to China, but these routes would
originate from Detroit, Washington, D.C. or Newark. The American route would
be the first gateway to China from the Southern U.S.
Nonstop flights between Dallas and China are vital to the Dallas economy.
American says that this new route would generate as much as $200 million for
the North Texas economy. You can help American win this prize. Support the
Dallas/Fort Worth-based airline by signing its
online petition to the U.S.
Department of Transportation.
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