DHL recently launched a hub at the Port of Busan, South Korea and is said to save customers up to seven days of transit time. The company invested nearly 500,000 million Euros in the project in an effort to create better relations with customers and partners in the Americas that do business with Japan, South Korea and China. People and businesses can now avoid routing shipments through Hong Kong, making transit times shorter and creating a more carbon efficient, environmentally friendly solution for DHL customers.
The new hub will allow DHL to offer 13 new and affordable Less than Container Load (LCL) services in addition to the 13 services that they already offer. DHL says that the hub will be managed completely in-house so that customers can enjoy shorter transit times, up to a week shorter, and complete visibility of their shipments through one of the busiest trade routes in the world.
Kelvin Leung, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific, said, “Busan’s location between Japan and China makes it an ideal transshipment point for cargo moving to the Americas from North Asia. According to some industry reports, we will see trade between Asia and North America grow almost 5 per cent in 2013 and over 5 per cent in 2014. The launch of DHL’s 8th Global Multinational Gateway in Busan puts us in prime position to take advantage of that growth potential. In addition to the 13 new services that will be introduced with the opening of this facility, we plan to launch another 20 new direct LCL services out of South Korea over the next year.”
SP Song, Country Manager, South Korea, DHL Global Forwarding, added, ” 13 new LCL services we are introducing to the market consolidates shipments from five North Asian origins such as Dalian, Xingang and Qingdao in China, Hakata in Japan, and Busan in South Korea. The consolidated shipments are then delivered to eight countries in the Americas, namely the USA, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, and Argentina. With the new Gateway, DHL not only gives our customers more trading opportunities, we also give them peace of mind over their shipments – we are one of the first logistics players in South Korea to wholly own and operate our LCL services end-to-end, guaranteeing full visibility over these shipments.”
Marc Meier, Global Head, LCL Management, DHL Global Forwarding said, “Analysts project the logistics industry in Asia Pacific to record double-digit growth increases over the next three years. With increasing integration and free trade agreements, DHL understands that customers need service providers to create infrastructure and services that offer single market simplicity, speed and service. DHL’s strategically sited multinational gateways allow us to offer customers fast and flexible access to a network that spans the globe with consolidation services and consignment visibility that are unrivalled.”
Sources:
- “DHL’s New LCL Services Link Asia, Americas Via Busan” Mike King, Special Correspondent August 25, 2012 The Journal of Commerce Online-News Story
- http://www.joc.com/supply-chain-management/dhl%E2%80%99s-new-lcl-services-link-asia-americas-busan
- “DHL Launches 8th Global Multinational Gateway in Busan” August 23, 2012 PRNewswire-United Business Media
- http://en.prnasia.com/story/66864-0.shtml
