The difference between border warehouses and overseas warehouses is that overseas warehouses are located at overseas destinations, while border warehouses are located in neighboring countries of commodity importing countries (regions). At the same time, for border warehouses, the location of warehouses can be divided into relative border warehouses and absolute border warehouses. Relative border warehouses are warehouses located in countries (regions) that are not adjacent to but close to the commodity importing countries (regions), while absolute border warehouses are warehouses located in countries (regions) adjacent to the commodity importing countries (regions). At present, China’s border warehouses mainly refer to border warehouses near Russia, which mainly serve Russia and Russian-speaking regions; a small part is also built in Xinjiang, mainly serving the Middle East and Central Asia.
Border warehouses have many functions. First of all, border warehouses have a very obvious effect on improving logistics timeliness. Taking the Russian border warehouse as an example, it can be delivered to the Russian-speaking region in 15 to 20 days. Secondly, compared with overseas warehouses, the safety of goods in border warehouses is more guaranteed, which can avoid the risk of overseas goods storage and the cumbersome customs clearance process involved in using overseas warehouses for bulk goods. Thirdly, for overseas warehouses, the cost advantage of border warehouses is also obvious, because border warehouses are built in the country, and the domestic cost is more advantageous than that of Russia and other countries. Finally, because the border warehouse is closer to the destination country (region), the international freight is cheaper, and the international logistics of the border warehouse can be connected to land transportation. Compared with air transportation, land transportation has lower costs and fewer restrictions on the goods transported. As long as the goods are not expressly prohibited by the relevant country (region), they can basically be transported.