DHL launches new hub at Bangkok’s international airport

Global logistics giant DHL launched its 22-million-dollar hub on Monday at Bangkok`s new international airport as part of the company`s strategy to boost its growth in Southeast Asia.

“We consider Thailand as the gateway to Indochina,” Scott Price, CEO of DHL Express for Asia and the Pacific, told a news conference at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, which opened in late September.

DHL`s 12,000 square meter (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,” Price 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 percent per year and express volume expected to grow up to twice that rate, the executive said.

Express operations in Asia account for 15 percent of DHL`s global revenues, which were 26 billion euro (33.4 billion dollars) 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 dollars in the region since 2000.

Price said the September coup that ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and the military-installed government have not affected DHL`s operations in Thailand.

“As long as foreign direct investment continues to be sought after, supported and rewarded then import and export will continue to be a significant part of the Thai economy and we`ll benefit,” Price said.