Research on Urban Logistics Infrastructure in China: An Empirical Study

Urban logistic infirastructure (ULI) is an important area of urban competition capability. The connotation of urban logistic capability (ULC) is analyzed in this paper. Compared with the extensive research on ULC in developed world, empirical work is still rare in developing world. In this paper four categories ULI of China are firstly overviewed, then a new evaluation index system for ULC evaluation is set up which contains factors that reflect the market supply and demand, economic development and transportation accessibility. Thirdly, an empirical study is carried out based on K-Means cluster analysis to classify ULC into 3 clusters for 30 cities in China. Fourthly, after comparing different ULC of 30 cities in China, this paper focuses on that different logistics infrastructure including Hub, Central Distribution Center & Cross Docking Center, Regional Distribution Center & Distribution Center should be build reasonably. Finally, we draw some good conclusions for improving ULC and make suggestions for future study.