Shipping company's growth reveals a thriving US to China trade

The US-China economic relationship continues to thrive, and Jianying Cindy Ye has statistical proof from her shipping business.

Using her personal savings in 2002, Ye began the American New Line Express Corp, or ANL, specializing in air-freight delivery from North America to China. From a New York base, ANL now provides service from the continental US states to just about all locations in China.

In 2015 ANL shipped more than 96,000 packages to China and last year it was more than 320,000 to the mainland. Guangdong province was the top destination in 2017 followed by Fujian province and Shanghai.

ANL is releasing its shipping statistics because "we want to show the buying power from China and also show a measure of the demand for US goods from China," Ye said in an interview on March 23.

"I hope the tariffs will not become a factor as the two countries need each other. I hope a business like mine can continue to touch everyone's personal life," she said.

Ye got the idea for ANL because US shipping giants UPS (United Parcel Service) and FedEx focused on commercial or business-to-business shipping. "I saw a need for more personal shipping, especially for small businesses and individuals," said Ye.

ANL just transports packages from the US to China. Dave Lee, the COO and CFO of ANL, said the company is designed for individuals and businesses in smaller and rural parts of the US.

"They don't have access to a large transportation infrastructure like they would if they lived in New York or San Francisco," Lee said. Businesses in rural areas of the US can ship their goods through a third party like ANL to a small town in Anhui province as easy as sending it to Beijing, he added.

Ye said the majority of its customers in the US are Chinese so an increasing number of students seeking an education in the US and immigrants moving to America are good for her business.

"Our busiest time of the year is the New Year celebration," said Ye. "The Chinese culture calls for strong family ties so people have to ship gifts back to China."

Lee said ANL's best growth prospects will come from increases in business to consumer shipping. "In the past, most of our business was from c to c (consumer to consumer)," he said.