China needs to speed up the way its supply chain is being standardized if the efficiency of logistics is to be improved and costs reduced, said the head of a leading US logistics company.

Slowing economic growth in China makes efficiency more necessary than ever, said Peter Mackie, group president of Chep Pallets, a logistics solutions company specializing in the management of standardized unit-load equipment.

"Logistics in China is very fragmented," Mackie said. "So you have a very large number of single operators who operate with pallets and trucks of very different shapes and sizes.