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

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province has over the years grown into a national cross-border e-commerce hub with a significant overseas footprint.

To date, more than 60 businesses from the city have built 205 overseas warehouses spanning 3.12 million square meters in 23 countries and regions around the world. The total area of the overseas warehouses set up by Ningbo accounts for one sixth of the country's total, official statistics show.

Loctek, a Ningbo-based ergonomic solution products manufacturer, has established about 20 warehouses in countries such as the United States and Japan, including some that are open to small and medium-sized enterprises from Ningbo.

Xiang Lehong, president of Locteck, was recently quoted by Ningbo Daily as saying that the publicly shared overseas warehouses can improve delivery efficiency while slashing costs in inventory and logistics for SMEs.

The warehouses established by Ningbo overseas are primarily distributed in Europe and the United States, and more such facilities are expected to be set up in RCEP member states, Central Eastern European countries and African countries, according to Xue Keti, director of the business management department of the Ningbo branch of China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation.

Xiang noted that Ningbo, which is home to the world's third largest container port and more than 10,000 industrial companies above the designated size, has the potential to become the largest cross-border e-commerce hub in China.

The city has shown strong resilience in foreign trade growth despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Its imports and exports hit 750.29 billion yuan ($115.43 billion) in the first seven months of this year, an uptick of 13.3 percent year-on-year and 2.9 percentage points higher than the national average, according to official statistics from Ningbo Customs.