Year: 2007

Foreign Capital swarmed into China Logistics

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

Many foreign companies made investments in China’s logistics last year because of the opening up in 2005.

The competition in logistics mainly focuses on cargo transportation and express services. FedEx, the world’s largest express company, offers services to more than 220 Chinese cities. The number will increase by 100 in the following four or five years.

UPS, a leading global provider of specialized transportation and logistics services in the US, operates six direct flights to Beijing and Shanghai and has set up offices in over 20 cities, including Shenzhen, Qingdao, and Xiamen.

TNT, a world leading provider of express delivery services, logistics supply chain solutions and mail services, has had more than 2,000 service networks in China.

Meanwhile, foreign capital also focuses on auto logistics, energy transportation and port logistics.

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DHL chief in Thailand promoted to regional manager

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

DHL has appointed Herbert Vongpusanachai, the country manager of DHL Express Thailand, as DHL Express’s Indochina region manager, the Bangkok Post reports.

The appointment highlights the company’s plan to consolidate its position as the market leader in the Indochina region, according to Yasmin Aladad Khan, senior vice-president of DHL Express Southeast Asia. Mr HVpngpousanachai will be based in Thailand.

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Royal Mail – New mail products reward correct addresses

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has announced a number of new benefits for customers, including discounts for large business mailings using correct addresses.

A new product, Cleanmail Advance, has been launched by Royal Mail as a way to provide a financial incentive to business mailers in ensuring that their mailshots carry the correct addresses.

Through the Cleanmail Advance product, customers will be given easier access to discounts when sending more than 1,000 items with correct addresses that that can be read by machine.

Cleansing databases of old or redundant customer address records, known as ‘dirty data’, is a prime way of reducing wasted mail costs – and reducing unnecessary work for postal service workers.

Another new product is designed to reward businesses that send a minimum of 250 large letter-sized items and ensure they can be easily read by the machines, as part of an initiative by Royal Mail to increase its automation.

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DHL Express (Malaysia) confident of double-digit growth

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

DHL Express expects to continue its double-digit revenue and volume growth in its Malaysian operations this year, outpacing the market.

“The international air express market in Malaysia is growing at a healthy pace because of the shift in the country’s economy from lower value-added manufacturing to more high technology, high-value goods,” DHL Express (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd country manager Sam Leong told Business Times in a written reply.

DHL is the leading express delivery company in Malaysia, with a more than 40 per cent share of the market. It has been registering a growth of 15-20 per cent in revenue in the last few years.

Leong said last year, several factors have contributed to the company ’s growth in Malaysia. There are investments in its infrastructure, product innovation, strong exports as well as its people.

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DHL cuts US losses

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

The usually dark clouds that hovered over express and logistics giant DHL’s US business are now beginning to show the proverbial silver lining. John Mullen, parent Deutsche Post’s top man in the US, told an investors’ conference in New York that DHL can reach profitability in a matter of two to three years – as early as 2008.

Mullen’s prediction is a departure from the past forecast by the group that its loss-making express business in the US would become profitable only after 2009.

Mullen said that the group’s US express business expects to reduce losses in the second half of 2006 by about USUSD150 million to USD200 million over the previous year. In 2005, DHL recorded a loss of USD508 million.

The German group has a “long and tough way” to tread in the fiercely competitive US express business, Mullen acknowledged. On a long-term basis, DHL would like to achieve a margin of three to five percent in the United States – much less than its competitors UPS and FedEx.

DHL suffered from organisation problems as it tried to put together its two US aviation hubs at Wilmington airport in Ohio in 2005 which resulted in the group losing several clients.

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Royal Mail loses British Telecom contract

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has lost the contract to handle mail for BT, Britain’s largest telecommunications business, as bulk mailers continue to switch to the private sector in search of savings and better service.
TNT Post, UK subsidiary of the privatised Dutch mail operator, will take over the collection and sorting of the 170m bills and statements BT sends out each year. It will hand them over to Royal Mail’s 69 sorting centres for final delivery to its 25m customers within two days of pick-up.
The contract, worth GBP90m over three years, is thought to be the largest since the postal market was opened fully to competition at the start of last year.
BT said it was attracted by TNT Post’s greater flexibility in pick-up times, two-day delivery service and tracking systems that would allow it to monitor its mail. It also expected to make cost-savings of up to GBP3m a year.
TNT Post handles mail for other telecoms companies, including T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile, and has large contracts with NPower, Thames Water, Lloyds TSB and BSkyB.
The continuing loss of bulk mail contracts comes as Royal Mail and the government are finalising a deal to allow the state-owned former monopoly to invest GBP2bn in modernisation to fend off the new competitors.
The deal now looks likely to fall short of management’s demand that staff be given 20 per cent of the shares in the business, but will involve substantial incentives to encourage staff to accept large-scale restructuring.

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Beatles stamps to be made available online in New Zealand

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

Several hundred sets of the Beatles stamps that were popular when released in Britain recently will soon be available online in New Zealand.

New Zealand Post’s stamps general manager Ivor Masters said the company had secured an initial supply of the stamps, which include the covers of Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Let it Be.

Mr Masters said the stamps were likely to be as popular here as they have been in Britain.

He said supply was limited, but more would be ordered from Royal Mail if need be.

Royal Mail said the stamps had been particularly popular in the United States, Canada and Japan and predicted they would be its biggest selling issue ever internationally.

The prices ranged from NZD3.40 for a miniature sheet to NZD13.40 for a presentation pack.

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DWP slammed over Royal Mail

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was irresponsible and short- sighted for dropping a GBP12m Royal Mail contract hampering efforts to tackle the firm’s gaping GBP5.6bn pension deficit, a Liberal Democrat MP said.

The DWP, Whitehall’s biggest department, awarded private firm UK Mail with a GBP12m postal contract at a time when the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) is desperately trying to plug the GBP22bn Royal Mail pension scheme’s deficit.

The government-owned former monopoly has struggled to retain business after postal services were fully opened to competition last year. Since then it’s lost more than 10% of the mail-handling market to private firms.

Alistair Carmichael, MP for the Northern Isles and part of the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team, said he had huge problems with public money paying private firms to undermine public services such as Royal Mail.

“It seems irresponsible from the DWP to set this example. Here’s the government department responsible for sorting the pensions crisis and it’s pulling the rug from under a company with a major pensions deficit,” he added.

The Royal Mail pension scheme is the sixth largest in the UK, with 170,000 active members and 279,000 retired or deferred members.

A spokesman for the DWP refused to comment on Carmichael’s accusations, but said: “Royal Mail continues to be a major supplier for the DWP and it’s only a small contract that has been lost.

“Anything to do with its pension scheme is a matter for Royal Mail. It’s about getting better value for money for the taxpayer and our actions have done this.”

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