TNT is driving up its share of the Middle East express market with its expanding road network,Martyn Wright, managing director Gulf, told CEP-Research in an interview in Dubai.
TNT Express is growing at about 25% in the UAE alone, and is now number three in the regionbehind DHL Express and Aramex, Wright said. “We have started from a long way back but over the lastfive years we have won market share, mostly from DHL. A viable alternative has now emerged in themarket here.”
The key growth factor has been the creation and expansion of the company’s Middle East RoadNetwork over the last few years, together with the start of day definite deliveries last year. “Theroad network is the backbone of our service, it’s our growth area,” he commented.
After expanding the road network from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states intoJordan, Egypt and Iran last year, TNT is now planning to extend it northwards from Jordan intoLebanon and Syria, Wright said.
“We are also thinking about linking Egypt and Libya,” he added. With the recent extension ofthe European Road Network into Morocco, this would create the potential to link up the two regionalroad networks in North Africa.
But it had not been decided whether to link the two networks via Turkey due to the largenumber of time-consuming border crossings that would be involved and the slow transit times, hepointed out.
In the Middle East, TNT is focusing in particular on the automotive and IT sectors, and hasrecently won a number of contracts with firms such as Mitsubishi, Volvo and Nokia, Rodney Ellis,commercial and marketing manager Gulf, said.
About 60% of TNT’s shipments are intra-regional, while it is benefiting from the fast growthin imports from India and China to the Middle East region. Eastern Europe and the USA are othergrowth markets for inbound shipments.
