DHL opens B825m facility
DHL, a leading international express and logistics company, has invested 825 million baht to develop its regional logistics hub at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
According to Scott Price, chief executive for DHL Express Asia-Pacific, the new DHL Express Bangkok facility was located in the customs-free zone of Bangkok’s new airport and covered 12,000 square metres.
It was five times larger than DHL’s former facility at Don Muang International Airport, he added.
Maximum handling capacity had also increased 30% to more than 23,000 shipments per hour (15,000 documents and 8,000 parcels) or six million shipments per year, noted Mr Price.
He expected 65% of shipments at the new facility to be delivered within Asia-Pacific and 20% to be transported between Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The rest would move between the United States and Asia.
“DHL carefully designed the hub to cope with business expansion in Thailand, Indochina and South Asia in the next ten years,” said Mr Price.
Indochinese countries have seen healthy economic growth in the last decade. For example, trade value between Thailand and other countries in Indochina had increased 40% to 190.30 billion baht in 2005 from around 135.93 billion baht in 2004, said Mr Price.
Mr Price expected business growth in the region to continue as a result of infrastructure and logistics development.
He said DHL expected to enjoy a two-digit growth rate in Thailand again this year as the political situation and the stronger baht had not affected its businesses.
DHL would continue to invest in infrastructure improvement in Thailand in order to retain its market share of 50% in the local market, said Mr Price.
“Future investment programmes will be limited to necessity, depending on government policies and economic conditions,” said Mr Price.
The market value of the logistics industry in Asia-Pacific is expected to grow to 47.58 trillion baht in 2020 from 25.62 trillion baht at present.
Asia would continue to lead the global air-freight industry with an average annual growth rate of 10.8% and air-express volume would double in comparison to other kinds of air transport in 2020, said Mr Price.
