Azkar Overseas has officially opened its logistics facility in the city of Shanghai. Manned by expert personnel, speaking Chinese, Spanish, English and Russian, Azkar is operating closer to its customers not only in China but across Southeast Asia, offering value added services at origin (labelling, checking and preparation of orders) and assisting in the consolidation of loads out of ports.
Read MoreOhio legislators have called on DHL’s German-owned parent company to hold talks and discuss terms with ABX Air and ASTAR Air Cargo on the airlines’ proposals to remain DHL’s air carriers in the United States.
The June 16 letter, signed by both of Ohio’s U.S. senators plus eight Ohio members of Congress, presses Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN) in the final paragraph to give “genuine consideration” to proposals from current carriers ABX and ASTAR.
DPWN announced in late May it plans to contract with United Parcel Service (UPS) as the lone air carrier to transport DHL packages in North America. If the plan is carried out, it’s expected to directly cause the loss of at least 7,000 jobs at the Wilmington Air Park where ABX and ASTAR are based.
The focus of the letter to Jurgen Weber, Chairman of the Deutsche Post Supervisory Board, centers on what the legislators apparently view as a lack of interest or effort by DPWN to enter into the bargaining process with DHL’s existing air carriers.
Similarly, the letter’s first paragraph says, “… we ask that you allow incumbent carriers to present alternative proposals to DPWN before making a final decision.”
The letter concludes that the lawmakers would welcome an opportunity to help facilitate presentations of ABX’s and ASTAR’s proposals.
Referenced in the Ohio lawmakers’ letter is a possible direct loss of more than 8,000 jobs. The same sentence says there could be “an additional 30,000 downstream jobs” indirectly lost in southern Ohio.
The letter was released by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office.
Spanish express carrier MRW has opened another four franchises in Spain. The new outlets are in Barcelona, Badajoz (Extremadura), Segorbe (Valencia) and Villajoyosa (Alicante).
MRW has 810 franchises in Andorra, Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal.
The opening of Azkar Overseas new facilities, the subsidiary of Transportes Azkar, S.A., has been today in China specifically in Shanghai city. The act has been present, among others, Executive Vice President and CEO of Azkar, Jose Antonio Orozco, as well as the Mayor of Lugo, Jose Lopez Orozco, and Vice Chairman of the County Council, Lara Mendez, both were in a trade mission in China.
Azkar moves to another bigger facilities that it will be managed by a group of expert professionals fluent in Chinese, Spanish, Russian and English.
Azkar has the capacity to coordinate directly the providers with the suppliers of its customers in Asia, with China as the main point of origin, but without ruling out other countries of the Asia Southeast Region. The Company also offers high-performance logistics services for storage, order preparation (including kitting, assembly, mounting, etc), mercahandise control and distribution, as part of the integral service.
In this manner, AZKAR offers its customers a powerful international network for the management of imports and exports of goods, from any origin or destination in the world outside Europe, through Azkar Overseas, as in Europe traffic through Azkar Bisa International, or at the Iberian Peninsula and islands. The company has 73 facilities in Spain and Portugal, more than 500,000 m2 built on more than 1 million m2 of land, 5,000 employees and a fleet of 2,400 trucks.
Read MoreTNT said rising fuel prices and the slowing U.S. economy aren’t hurting its express-delivery division. ‘TNT is coping well with the uncertainty in the economy,’ Marie-Christine Lombard, head of the Hoofddorp, Netherlands-based company’s TNT Express unit, said today at a press briefing in Liege, Belgium. There is ‘so far no impact.’
Jet fuel prices in northwest Europe have risen 42 percent this year, Bloomberg data show. TNT’s Memphis, Tennessee-based competitor FedEx Corp., the second-largest U.S. package-shipping company, posted its first quarterly loss in 11 years yesterday and projected earnings that fall short of analysts’ estimates as fuel costs rise and the country’s slowing economy curbs demand.
TNT is transporting as much as possible by road rather than air, helping to hold back costs as prices for diesel fuel rise more slowly than for jet kerosene. The company’s U.S. business makes up only 2 percent to 3 percent of total express-delivery volumes. TNT isn’t planning to expand its operations within the world’s largest economy, Lombard said today. ‘We’re not a big player intra-U.S.A. and we don’t plan to be one,’ she said.
TNT, which operates a fleet of aircraft for its express-delivery network, is considering forming a partnership with cargo airlines to use their freight space on some routes, Lombard said. Such an alliance would probably be a ‘commercial’ agreement and not involve a capital investment, she added.
Bonn-based competitor Deutsche Post AG’s DHL express-delivery unit and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s second-biggest airline, set up the AeroLogic cargo joint venture this year. The business will fly freight and express mail from Germany to Asia and the U.S. starting in 2009, stepping up competition with TNT as well as U.S. rivals United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx.
TNT will invest in new aircraft in the event that there is sufficient shipment volume that requires additional capacity, according to Lombard.
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