The president of Mexico this week officially opened a $35 million DHL Express domestic road huband announced the company is stepping up its investment in Mexico to $160 million in the next five
years.President Felipe Calderon inaugurated the company’s new 24,000 sqm facility at CuautitlánIzcalli, just north of the capital, Mexico City, on Wednesday (September 12) at a ceremony attendedby national and regional political leaders along with senior DHL Express executives.
President Calderon said his government had worked to convert Mexico into a logistics platformfor the Americas, taking advantage of its strategic location between North and South America andwith access to Europe and Asia via the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The president stressed that the Mexican economy was growing despite the global economic crisisand was creating new jobs. “With the solid investment in infrastructure and education, and also theprivate sector investment in logistics companies, such as DHL Express, the right conditions arebeing created in Mexico to make successful investments of a global nature,” he declared.
Antonio Arranz, the head of DHL Express Mexico, told participants at the opening ceremony thatthe new Mexico hub was “the largest and most efficient” in Mexico, and the most modern andsophisticated in Latin America. The hub, covering 24,000 sqm, includes a 7,500 sqm sorting area. Itwill generate 320 new direct jobs and more than 1,000 further indirect jobs, and will extend DHL’sdomestic express services in the country.
“This new hub forms part of an ambitious permanent programme of investments that we areundertaking in Mexico. Originally this was fixed at $125 million but since we have achieved thegrowth rate fixed for DHL Express earlier than planned we have updated this figure to $160 millionworth of investments for the next five years,” he announced.
Arranz told CEP-Research in an interview earlier this year that the fully-automated Mexicoground hub would have capacity to sort up to 10,000 pieces per hour, and have daily capacity forsome 200,000 parcels. The hub is connected with nightly feeder truck services to DHL’sdomestic air hub at Querétaro, some 200km away.
DHL Express Americas CEO Stephan Fenwick said that the investment demonstrated the company’sfaith in Mexico and the importance of trade in the country. He predicted that Mexico would play animportant role in world trade in future.
