Author: Archive

Royal Mail, TNT, Deutsche Post, Posten, Finnish Post back EU postal reforms

Posted by | Oct 17, 2006 | |

The chief executives of Deutsche Post AG, Sweden’s Posten AB, Finnish post office Suomen Posti Oyj, TNT NV and the UK’s Royal Mail have said that they believe postal market liberalisation is already working in their countries and that they are ‘ready for full market opening in 2009’.

The chief executives of the five groups, which distribute some 60 pct of postal mail volume in Europe, will attend a dinner in Brussels tonight where EU internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy is expected to speak about the commission’s plan to liberalise postal markets.

Klaus Zumwinkel, chief executive of the Deutsche Post, said ‘Liberalisation that allows healthy competition is the only way forward. We are ready to embrace it’.

The European Commission will announce the next step in its liberalisation of Europe’s postal services tomorrow, with deliveries of letters under 50 grams open to competition by 2009, said EU spokesman Oliver Drewes earlier today.

The commission will debate the proposals before announcing plans to free up the market for letters in Europe, following on from its 2002 directive on parcels and letters over 50 grams.

Currently, historical operators may still hold national monopolies on letters weighing less than 50 grams in Europe.

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UPS Romanian arm eyes 20per cent rise in H2 turnover

Posted by | Oct 17, 2006 | |

Trans Courier Service (TCS), the Romanian agent of U.S. delivery company United Parcel Service (UPS), said on Tuesday it expects its turnover to rise by 20 per cent in the second half of the year, compared to the first six months, because of higher number of orders in November and December.
“This rise is based on the bigger volume of orders that we expect in the second half, having in mind that November and December are peak months in UPS operations,” UPS country manager for Romania, Vasile Cretu, said in a statement.
The authorised UPS service contractor for Romania, Trans Courier Service (TCS) did not provide turnover figures.
TCS reported a 30 per cent year-on-year rise in its first-half net profit. Its turnover rose by 25 per cent on the year in the first half, the company said.

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EU to take next step in postal reform, national monopolies must cease by 2009

Posted by | Oct 17, 2006 | |

The European Commission will announce the next step in its liberalisation of Europe’s postal services tomorrow, with deliveries of letters under 50 grams open to competition by 2009, said Oliver Drewes, spokesman for EU internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy.

The commission will debate the proposals at its weekly meeting tomorrow before announcing plans to free up the market for letters in Europe, following on from its 2002 directive on parcels and letters over 50 grams.

Currently, historical operators may still hold national monopolies on letters weighing less than 50 grams in Europe.

According to a report in Belgian daily La Libre Belgique, which says it has seen the proposals, the UK, the Netherlands, Scandinavian countries and Germany have been the most successful in terms of ending the monopoly of traditional postal services providers and introducing competition.

The Belgian and French post offices are widely expected to be announced as the worst offenders in liberalising markets.

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Halfway point in construction of DHL hub

Posted by | Oct 17, 2006 | |

The halfway point at one of Europe’s biggest construction sites: Construction work on DHL’s European hub begun at the start of 2006 is progressing well and is right on schedule. Klaus Zumwinkel, the Chairman of the Board of Management at Deutsche Post World Net, briefed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German Transportation Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee and Saxony Premier Georg Milbradt on the project’s progress during an on-site visit on Tuesday and celebrated “halftime” with representatives from politics, business, arts, culture and media as well as employees.

“The Leipzig/Halle hub will be a vital element within our company. Along with Hong Kong in Asia und Wilmington in the United States, it will be one of the three most important transfer locations in DHL’s global network,” Zumwinkel said. DHL plans to create 3,500 jobs by 2012. Experience has shown that other companies and service providers will then create an additional 7,000 jobs in the region as the result of such a project. Zumwinkel said: “By opening this important location to our Group and investing around EUR300 million, we are taking an important step to bolster the country’s new states and Germany as a business location.”

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Move on Hanjin suggests big rationalisation in container shipping

Posted by | Oct 17, 2006 | |

The Israeli shipping investor Sammy Ofer has bought a 12% stake in Hanjin, the Korean shipping line. Ofer bought the stake of Norwegian shipping magnate John Frederikson on Thursday, for over USD100m, equivalent to 8% of Hanjin’s equity. Ofer owns the Israeli shipping company ZIM and states that his stake in Hanjin is for “investment purposes”.

This is likely to be true, in the short term at least, as Hanjin is controlled by the Cho family who owns 30% of the company. It is therefore unlikely that Ofer will be able to mount a quick takeover bid.

On top of this Korea is a none-too-friendly place for takeover bids by non-Korean companies. Whilst some took place in the late 1990s, the last few years have experienced a hardening of sentiment against foreign investors.

However, the South Korean government has recently indicated that it would support the rationalisation of the Korean shipping industry, possibly through the takeover by Hanjin of smaller Korean container shipping companies. This is being driven by the consolidation of the container shipping industry, led by Maersk’s take-over of P&O Nedlloyd and Hapag-Lloyd’s purchase of CP Ships in 2005.

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DMA's 2006 'Power of Direct Marketing' Reports

Posted by | Oct 17, 2006 | |

Despite a US economy that shows signs of decline in some key areas, growth is predicted in direct marketing (DM) expenditures, sales, ROI, and employment through 2007, as reported in The Power of Direct Marketing, the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) annual forecast of direct marketing’s economic impact on the US economy, including advertising expenditures and sales. The 2006 edition of the DMA report, which has been ongoing since 1995, was released today.

The USD166.5 billion in DM advertising expenditures marketers are predicted to lay out in 2006 represents a solid 6 percent gain over 2005 spending. According to the report, marketing expenditures this year were part of a strong rebound from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, after these storms postponed expenditures in many economic sectors from late 2005 into the first half of 2006.

The growth rate in DM expenditure through 2007 is expected to moderate further to 5.2 percent, translating to USD175.2 billion in direct marketing spending for 2007, according to DMA’s report.

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Deutsche Post chief backs end to monopolies

Posted by | Oct 17, 2006 | |

The head of Europe’s largest postal group on Tuesday welcomed an ambitious drive to throw open the region’s Euro90bn (USD113bn, GBP61bn) market for postal services to full competition by 2009, but warned that a majority of governments was opposed to the plan.

Klaus Zumwinkel, the chief executive of Deutsche Post, was speaking as the European Commission put the finishing touches on a landmark proposal for postal reform that will be presented in Brussels on Wednesday. The plan is expected to face criticism from France and other countries, which want to water down the draft law and ensure that incumbent mail operators are compensated for the loss of their monopoly. The Commission’s draft law calls for an end to the last postal monopolies by 2009, paving the way for unfettered competition in the large and lucrative market for delivering mail weighing less than 50 grammes.

However, the proposal also gives governments significant scope to oblige postal groups to continue servicing remote and thinly populated areas where it is hard to turn a profit.

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