DHL sees Asia business stabilising

Taiwan - DHL's Asia business began stabilising in March and anticipates the negative impact of the global downturn to ease soon.

Stephen Fenwick, senior VP of operations for DHL Asia Pacific told Reuters in an interview that after witnessing volumes decline in August and September 2008, the company has seen its business "bottoming out" over the last six weeks.

"We're hoping it's not just a dead cat bounce...we hope [to] see a bottoming out [in the rest of 2009]. South Asia is less affected by the downturn, [while] China and South Korea seem to be doing better," said Fenwick.

However, the company's sales in Asia were flat in Q109 when compared to a year earlier, Fernwick said.

Last week, DHL launched a new operational centre in Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport.

At the inauguration ceremony, Chiu Cheng- hsiung vice premier of Taiwan said that the new logistics centre is expected to facilitate transnational cooperation in express delivery services between Taiwan and the rest of the world, ultimately benefitting Taiwan's export sector.

Taiwan, as an export-oriented country because of its small domestic market, relies on cooperation with international companies like DHL to efficiently deliver goods globally, said Chiu.

The new centre spans 13,515 sqm and is capable of handling 11,000 pieces of cargo per hour, three times the previous capacity of 3,600 pieces per hour. The facility is also expected to handle approximately 10 million pieces of cargo annually, three times more than at the previous facility, said Fenwick.

Jerry Hsu, president of DHL Greater China, said that the company has great confidence in the Taiwanese market, therefore investing an additional NT$210 million (US$6.2 million) for the construction of the new facility aimed at providing Taiwanese enterprises with complete solutions for goods transportation to the global market via the DHL network.