Spotlight on JAS Korea

Korea is at the heart of Northeast Asia, one of the world’s top three economic regions and a global market leader in IT products, automobiles, chemicals, steel, and shipbuilding.

As of 2014, the Northeast Asian population of 1.5 billion accounted for 21% of the global population and generated 21% of global GDP. Located between China and Japan, the world’s second and third-largest economies, respectively, Korea is within a 3-hour flight of 147 cities with a population of more than 1 million. With a strong and diverse purchasing power of more than 50 million consumers, Korea is an ideal test bed for global markets and a laboratory in which to explore future markets.

  
JAS Korea was established in 1987 as a company specializing in freight forwarding and is the Korean branch of the JAS Forwarding Worldwide Network. At its initial establishment, JAS Korea dealt exclusively with air freights, which were made in and imported from Italy. They were mostly fashion items such as clothes, bags, and fabrics. Then, it extended its business field into the seaborne trade as well as airborne trade and began including USA and China. The products it handled have been expanded to automobile parts, machinery, and industrial materials. While Italy still covers the majority of the imports by air freight, the import volume from China by ocean freight has increased. The amount of USA imports and exports also increased because of the expansion of the JAS networks within the USA. The core of forwarding is traded volume. As Korea developed into the 8th largest import and export nation in 2014, JAS Korea has grown steadily based on its global logistics network. In the past, 70% of sales were from airborne trade only, but currently the volume of sales by air and ocean are very close in percentage.

---

JAS Korea built a logistics center in the Free Trade Zone of Incheon International Airport. The logistics center that was opened consists of two stories above ground as storage and four stories above ground as an office, totaling six stories. Its total ground area is 3,401 square meters (around 36,610 sq. ft.). Based on this, JAS Korea plans to strengthen its forwarding and 3PL complex logistics services. On the 1st floor of the logistics center at the Incheon International Airport, forwarding products are dealt with as a bonded warehouse and on the 2nd floor, 3PL products are stored. The 2nd floor was designed to be eight meters high with three level racks (mezzanine racks) to store as much inventory as possible.


Currently, the 3PL contract is complete with a sportswear enterprise handling various sportswear and accessories, and a famous fashion enterprise handling materials and parts for high fashion shops.


By using the complex logistics center, the customer can decrease transfer costs as well as time, because products which come from Incheon International Airport go through a clearance process on the first floor of the logistics center and are moved directly to the second floor for inventory storage.

---

Recently, business has been diversified with the provision of services such as 3PL (3rd Party Logistics), and BWT (the Bonded Warehouse Transaction). Previously, 3PL for JAS Korea began as a warehouse rented in Osan, South of Seoul in 2007, providing services exclusively for fashion brand enterprises in Italy. At that time, JAS Korea was focused on expanding its business, as competition in the forwarding market was intensifying. Customers asked for a one-stop distribution from customs clearance to distribution and therefore, it served as a winning situation for both JAS Korea and the customers to invest in this office and warehouse complex. Since JAS Korea provides a logistics service for the entire process of shipping from the country of origin to the consumers, it relates to a reduction in costs. Combined provisions of forwarding and 3PL prove to be very advantageous.


Competitiveness in service quality improvements is closely contested in the forwarding business. The strength of JAS Korea is in the education of its employees and the enhancement of their abilities to provide proper service for customers. JAS Korea provides specialized services for customers by reinforcing the business ability of its employees. By having employees with extensive knowledge of the forwarding business, JAS Korea can quickly and accurately cope with any request from customers. JAS Korea has an intensified education program for employees, as they actively send employees to outside education institutes and run various programs such as the regular invitation of guest lecturers. The information system which is adjusted to the specific characteristics of each customer is also a strong point of JAS Korea.


JAS Korea can now provide more information to our customers than ever before with the global roll out of Cargowise One, which is now able to deliver consistent information to our customers through the valuable tools available on our new platform. By doing this, JAS Korea can cope with whatever customers ask instantly and have a system with which customers can track and trace their shipments. Additionally, it makes it possible to improve productivity through the KPI index management.


Furthermore, JAS Korea has earned qualifications for the industry such as the IATA, the FIATA, the ISO9001 and the AEO.


The management and staff members of JAS Korea are dedicated to our worldwide trading partners, through the delivery of perfect service aimed to strengthen our trading partners’ quality, performance, and profitability. With more than 60 employees who are well experienced and educated in all aspects of forwarding and logistics and with flexibility to meet all of the requirements and challenges of the industry.
​
​​

---