DHL is expanding its activities in Latin America with new regional and local products andservices. The moves are designed to reinforce its strong presence in the region’s key markets.
The international express market leader said it has extended its enhanced Import Expressservice, offering one-stop handling of documents, parcels and larger items through DHL, to theregion. Samuel Cuñado, head of marketing and communications for DHL Express Latin America, saidthat the new service offered a fast solution for importers, cutting out the “indifference” ofofficial bodies and intermediary traders. A new feature is a centre of expertise staffed by DHLexperts with extensive customs and import know-how.
DHL said it aims to capture a higher share of the growing market for imports to Latin America.These imports totalled $500 billion in value in 2005, and are forecast to increase by 10.6% thisyear. The USA is the main exporter to Latin America with a 40% share in 2004, followed by Europe(23%) and China (4.5%).
In Argentina, DHL has this month launched a new domestic express product under the name “Nacional Express” following successful tests with selected clients including Kodak and Halliburton.This new door-to-door delivery service for urgent documents and parcels is targeted at the B2Bmarket and covers 150 towns and cities across Argentina. The main product features are reliabletransit times and centralised electronic administration. Customers can use the DHL EasyShipsoftware, which can be integrated into client systems, to manage their shipments.
In Mexico, DHL is extending its network under a €7.5 million investment programme. The companyhas increased handling capacity for documents and parcels by 45% by upgrading its main OperationsCentre in Mexico City through more efficient space utilisation. The hub operates seven days a week,24 hours a day and has advanced infrastructure such as automatic sorting, network monitoringcenters, 3,000 sqm for temporary storage; 100% trained personnel, as well as radio frequency andGPS systems.
Luis Eraña, Vice President of Operations for DHL Mexico, said: “The remodeling of the hub inMexico not only meets the need to increase our capacity to load and unload units, but also means atotal improvement of our current transport network to have the best and most sophisticatedOperations Center in the industry, which finally means savings in operations costs, improvements inlabour times and providing a better services to our clients”. DHL currently handles about 65,000packages a day in Mexico.
