As part of the company's strategy to boost its growth in Southeast Asia, DHL launched its $22 million hub on Nov. 13 at Bangkok's new international airport.
DHL's 129,000 square feet cargo facility at Suvarnabhumi is five times larger than its former facility at the old Don Muang airport and has the capacity to handle more than 23,000 pieces per hour, the company said.
"The facility puts us in a position for very accelerated growth both in Thailand and in the region," Scott Price, CEO of DHL Express for Asia and the Pacific said, adding the new DHL hub is expected to process more than six million shipments per year.
Asia currently leads the world in the air cargo industry with the inter-Asian air cargo market expanding at a rate of almost 11% per year and express volume expected to grow up to twice that rate, Price said.
Express operations in Asia account for 15% of DHL's global revenues, which were 26 billion euro (US$33.4 billion) in 2005, and the region is expected to grow three to four times faster than the rest of the world, he said.
Bangkok is one of DHL's six hubs in Asia along with Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo and the company has invested more than $1.7 billion in the region since 2000.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
