An overseas warehouse set up by Loctek, an ergonomic solution products manufacturer based in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/Ningbo Evening News]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province is leading the nation in the establishment of overseas warehouses to bolster the growth of cross-border e-commerce.

As of the end of 2020, more than 60 businesses from the city had built more than 200 overseas warehouses spanning more than 2 million square meters in 20 countries and regions worldwide.

The number of warehouses and their total area accounted for about 11.1 percent and 16.7 percent of the country's total respectively.

Loctek, an ergonomic solution products manufacturer based in Ningbo, has established 20 warehouses in countries such as the United States and Japan, offering nearly 200 small and medium-sized enterprises with one-stop services including overseas warehousing, logistics, patent, legal affairs, after-sales and marketing.

As of the end of last year, Aosom E-commerce Ink has set up 20 warehouses in the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The company's net profits rose 12.8-times year-on-year to 284 million yuan ($43.7 million) in 2020.

Due to the emergence of overseas warehouses, Ningbo's foreign trade has entered the fast development track.

Professor Huang Qifan, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, has predicted that 50 percent of China's import and export trade will be completed through cross-border e-commerce by 2035.

Incomplete statistics show that Ningbo is now home to more than 7,300 cross-border e-commerce sellers. More than half of the 20,000-plus enterprises engaged in imports and exports from the city have been tapping into opportunities online.

The inaugural China (Ningbo) Cross-Border E-commerce Expo, which opened in Ningbo on May 18, gathered more than 106 groups of sellers from 46 cities across the country.

In June last year, the city inaugurated a cross-border e-commerce alliance to help local manufacturing enterprises better tap into overseas markets.

As of March this year, the alliance had served more than 7,500 small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises. Last year, the alliance helped the city export 24 billion yuan worth of goods.