Maritime





Monday November 16, 2009

DHL offers new service

By SHARIDAN M. ALI


SINGAPORE: DHL, a leading logistics company, is investing RM10mil in road transport solutions linking Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand by January.

DHL Global Forwarding South Asia Pacific chief executive officer Amadou Diallo said the investment was basically for trucks, system and workforce.

“The road transport solutions are currently on pilot run and we will start the bi-weekly regular service by January.

"The road transport solutions are currently on pilot run and we will start the bi-weekly regular service by January" - CEO AMADOU DIALLO

“This is a standard service that we will offer for all LCL (less than a container load) shipments,” he told reporters at the DHL media tour last week.

Diallo said the road transport solutions would mainly involve shipments of goods between Singapore, Penang and Bangkok.

He said the new service was prompted by the situation when Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok had some problems last year.

“Also, in this challenging economic climate, road transport is 30% cheaper than via air.

“And certain airlines and shipping companies are reducing capacity, thus transportation via road is a great alternative,” he said.

He noted that that prior to this, DHL only offered road transport logistics linking Singapore and Penang.

On the outlook for DHL’s forwarding business in Malaysia, DHL Global Forwarding South East Asia chief executive officer Sam Ang said although the global economy was recovering, exporters and importers were still cautiously optimistic.

“People are ordering in small quantities and they do not want to be caught in high inventory situation as the current increase in trade sustainability is still not clear.

“The recovery in trade may be attributed to the year-end peak season which is not sustainable,” he said, adding that DHL started to see an improvement in trade two months ago, particularly in Johor.

Diallo said at the height of the global economic downturn early this year, DHL’s facility in Penang experienced about 30% drop in cargo volume due to the high dependency on the US and Europe markets.

“Going forward, DHL will try to logistically support diversifying Malaysian trade to emerging economies such as the Middle East and Africa as the prospects are bright.

“For example, the Middle East is a huge market for Malaysia’s halal products,” he said.

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