Amazon has registered to provide ocean freight services

The registration is the latest indication that the world’s largest online retailer plans to expand its logistics business to cut costs for its own retail business and potentially provide third-party logistics services to other industries.

Reportedly Amazon China, the Chinese affiliate, of the e-commerce company has registered with the U. S. Federal Maritime Commission to turn into a licensed ocean freight forwarder.

The business will not operate ships but will subcontract out that work.

Registered in 2004 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as Beijing Century Joyo Courier Service Ltd, the FMC directory lists its trade name as Amazon China, and its status as a registered OTI means it can book container slots for both Chinese manufacturers exporting to the USA, as well as USA retail importers. The retailer has also introduced its own truck trailers and started a program past year that uses a fleet of on-demand drivers to deliver packages.

The move will also give Amazon even more of an edge against the traditional retailer in the U.S.in negotiating lower prices for its goods.

Amazon will be able to offer a competitive advantage over its competitors thanks to its software expertise, meaning it could automate some steps of the shipment process, meaning it could cut labor costs along the way, Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen suggested.

Amazon China submitted its registration request on November 9 a year ago, submitting various documents and posting a bond, the commission said on Thursday. It is the entity’s first registration, the commission said.

On Wednesday, the news of its filing surfaced as Flexport, a freight forwarder for consumer product makers based in San Francisco spotted it.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has accelerated its previously rumored ambitions to run its own global logistics service. “It makes sense for Amazon, for a company so focused on driving down costs”.

While some may think that Amazon has Alibaba in its sights with such a move, Petersen believes it may, if anything, be an answer to Wish, a mobile e-commerce platform that has built much of its fortunes so far on bringing Chinese sellers to customers in the USA and elsewhere.