LX Pantos CEO Lee Yong-ho (left) and Sinotrans Chair Zhang Yi pose for a photo after signing a contract to establish a joint venture at Sinotrans headquarters in Beijing, China, on Thursday. (LX Pantos)

Korean logistics company LX Pantos on Thursday signed an agreement with China’s largest logistics firm Sinotrans to form a joint venture aimed at capturing surging demand for sea-air multimodal transport of Chinese e-commerce cargo.

The new company, FutureLinks, will be 60 percent owned by LX Pantos and 40 percent by Sinotrans.

The venture will build a transshipment network centered on the Incheon-Weihai route, a key logistics corridor between Korea and China, and offer end-to-end services to major consumer markets including the United States and Europe.

Under the model, cargo collected from across China will be moved by sea to Korean ports before being air-shipped worldwide via Incheon Airport.

Incheon is emerging as a hub for Chinese cargo, thanks to its proximity to China and flight connections to more than 190 cities across the globe.

Combined transport volume at the airport reached 118,000 tons in 2024, up roughly 20 percent from a year earlier, according to Incheon International Airport Corporation.

LX Pantos said the joint venture aims to bolster its competitiveness as a logistics hub at a time when China's domestic air-freight infrastructure is struggling to keep up with soaring e-commerce demand.

“This collaboration marks a new growth model for securing a lead in the Northeast Asia transshipment market and the culmination of a long-standing strategic partnership between our two companies,” said LX Pantos CEO Lee Yong-ho.

“The surge in e-commerce cargo flows from China is expected to further strengthen the competitiveness of Korea’s logistics industry.”