MIT Logistics Center adds China to its global innovation network

The government of Ningbo, China, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL) have partnered to create a global center for supply chain education and research, the MIT Center said today.

The initiative will establish the "Ningbo Supply Chain Innovation Institute China" (NSIIC). The center in China will join the global MIT CTL "Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence" (SCALE) network, which includes centers in Colombia, Spain, Luxembourg, and Malaysia, the Center said in a statement.

The Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, located on the coast of the East China Sea in Zhejiang province, surpassed Shanghai in 2012 to become the largest port in the world in terms of cargo tonnage, moving 744 million metric tons of volume that year for global trade.

"The Government of Ningbo is eager to begin this partnership with MIT," says the Ningbo Mayor Lu Ziyue. "Ningbo is already a global leader in cargo logistics, and the new institute will be at a global vanguard of supply chain innovation and education. The continual flow of supply chain ideas and leaders will enable companies to further expand and diversify the economic growth of our region."

NSIIC joins the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics in Cambridge, Mass.; the Zaragoza Logistics Center in Zaragoza, Spain; the Center for Latin-America Logistics Innovation in Bogota, Colombia, and the Luxembourg Centre for Logistics in Luxembourg City. The NSIIC will be an independent, standalone, degree-granting academic institution established under Chinese law, MIT said.

"China is an essential component of nearly every global supply chain, and nearly one billion tons of goods flow through Ningbo each year. Positioning a research institute at that crossroads of global commerce provides our faculty and students with a unique perspective," said Yossi Sheffi, director of MIT CTL and the SCALE network.

NSIIC will open this fall, and its first master's students will graduate in the fall of 2017. Its master's degree will be modeled after the MIT Supply Chain Management Program, which grants a degree in Master of Engineering in Logistics. There are also plans for a doctoral degree, as well as a portfolio of professional courses for executives, MIT CTL said.