The comprehensive bonded area has a variety of “export-oriented” functions. The bonded logistics center/logistics park has four major functions: international transit, distribution, procurement and re-export trade. It carries out activities such as bonded warehousing, simple circulation processing, packaging and value-added services. Bonded logistics is mainly divided into production logistics and circulation logistics. Production logistics is import and export processing, and circulation logistics is import and export stocking and finished product sales area. The bonded area can be used as a temporary buffer zone “within the country but outside the customs”. Even if the procedures for import or re-export trade are not complete, you can enter the area in advance to store the goods and then operate the subsequent process. In the two-way overseas warehouse model, the seller returns high-profit goods and valuable goods to the domestic bonded warehouse to arrange for repair and resale, thereby reducing the loss of returned goods. Integrate import and export, send goods to the world from one warehouse, and truly achieve global buying and selling.
The most common function of the bonded area is processing trade, that is, the goods are substantially processed and produced, and after the finished products are produced, they are sent overseas or cleared for import according to the finished product (finished product tax number). National-level export processing zones have separate customs codes. They are comprehensive bonded zones that integrate bonded processing, logistics, research and development, testing, and maintenance. They are open areas with the best policies, the most active mechanisms, and the fastest customs clearance.
There are three types of bonded goods for processing trade: one is imported materials for re-export after processing into finished products for Canada trade (processing with supplied materials); the second is imported goods for foreign goods consignment business, foreign product maintenance business, foreign exchange duty-free goods, and bonded means of production market; the third is transit trade goods, foreign merchants’ consigned goods, and fuel, material linings, and spare parts required for international ships. All goods entering and leaving the supervision area are registered and managed by the bonded warehouse system.
The logistics system of bonded production stores and transports raw materials, semi-finished products, finished products, and parts within the factory, focusing on the JIT (Just In Time) connection between logistics and real-time production. Processing trade requires the implementation of material number-level management, merging relationships, and account book filing, and the management of the bill of materials (BOM). The inventory at the production line in the zone is low, and the delivery of materials from the warehouse to the production line requires high efficiency and frequency of distribution. Most of the final products produced by enterprises in the zone are directly exported. For products that are exported and then sold domestically, if the parts are imported in batches, they enter the bonded area according to different tax numbers A/B/C, and are assembled into finished product D in the warehouse, they must be cleared and imported according to the tax number D.
Bonded logistics without substantial processing, such as finished products of consumer products entering the comprehensive bonded area, are only quarantined but not inspected, and the model is flexible. Bonded warehouses are closer to the market than overseas warehouses for imports. No value-added tax and consumption tax are levied on goods transactions between enterprises in the zone. Sales in and out of the zone are declared according to the relevant channels of import, and tax is levied according to the actual status of the goods. They can be whole-in and divided-out, or divided-in and whole-out, and circulate in multiple directions, providing storage, sorting, distribution and other services for commodity circulation, focusing on connecting traders and consumers, involving multiple ways of exiting the zone such as export, domestic sales, wholesale, and retail. The cross-border bonded stocking 1210 business has revitalized the warehousing of local bonded parks in multiple pilot cities. The cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in 37 large and medium-sized cities are spread across the country. In cities such as Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, and Chongqing, there are e-commerce bonded warehouses of 100,000 square meters, which are mainly for the import of cross-border e-commerce consumer goods, ranking among the top bonded import cities in the country. With the comprehensive bonded areas fully applying the cross-border bonded import policy, the scarcity and policy-leading advantages of various cities during the pilot period will be leveled.
Usually, the management of bonded warehouses provides e-commerce warehousing and distribution services such as cargo photography, inventory, labeling and packaging, sorting, product combination, placing promotional leaflets, reinforcing packaging, grading and sorting, weighing and packaging.
For bonded warehouses of bulk materials, investment banks can master the rhythm of shipments through warehousing and conduct arbitrage, such as physical delivery of metal futures, pledge, deferred delivery, overnight warehouse rental and other operations. The delivery of foreign trade cargo rights is mainly carried out in port bonded areas such as docks and airports, and foreign trade credit guarantees are solved through offline intermediaries. The delivery, settlement and exchange settlement problems encountered by cross-border B2B e-commerce can be solved by building a “settlement warehouse” trading system by utilizing the characteristics of the bonded area. After the purchaser pays, the warehouse staff of the bonded warehouse will move the supplier’s inventory to the buyer’s inventory, and use the bank payment information as the basis for the delivery of the goods in the bonded area, making the bonded warehouse a supervisory role in the import and export supply chain.