DHL Global Forwarding today announced the launch of a new multimodal service linking Japan toits existing rail solution from China to Europe in its latest expansion of overland freight routes
from Asia to Europe.Using a combination of trucking, sea and rail solutions, the seamless, scheduled service offerscustomers in Japan access to DGF China’s rail freight solution which reduces the delivery time byup to half to between 10 and 21 days compared to solely using ocean freight and reduces costs by upto 85% compared to airfreight. In addition, customers seeking environmentally friendly solutionscan also expect a fall of CO2 emissions of up to 90% compared to airfreight.
Kelvin Leung, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific, said: “We have established a North Asianmultimodal network which connects the North Asian power houses – China and Japan – directly to anydestination in Europe. Our new service linking Japan to our existing China rail network presents atruly innovative solution which offers cost and time benefits to customers across the region.”
DHL said that goods destined for Europe can be picked up from anywhere across Japan by truck.Using 40-foot containers, cargo is then transported to any of four ports across Japan – Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Hakata – for sea freight transportation across the East China Sea toShanghai. This enables goods from just about anywhere in Japan to reach any part of China via DHL’smultimodal sea-rail service. From Europe, the multimodal service is also available via China railand sea to Japan for the import shipment.
Within China, DHL Global Forwarding currently operates two routes. The first runs along thetrans-Siberian North Corridor to tap the bustling production and commercial centres ofShanghai, Suzhou and its surrounding areas. The second, the trans-Kazakh West Corridor railservice, originates from Chengdu, one of the most important distribution centres in Western Chinaand a hub for high tech goods, automotive and other industries.
DHL’s multimodal solutions connect China to Europe by picking up goods from any location inChina, taking them by rail through to Poland and offering last mile delivery by truck or rail toanywhere in Europe.
Only in September, DHL Global Forwarding announced the expansion of the multimodal service byadding Suzhou to the departing points and is now linking Japan via China to Europe. In both Japanand China, the service is available for full-container services, known as DHL Railline, whichenables customers to block out single containers, wagon groups or whole block trains.
“Since our introduction of the first multimodal service in 2011, DHL Global Forwarding has beena pioneer in introducing new routes for multimodal services to Japan to offer customers evengreater flexibility and choice for their logistics needs. We are seeing a big potential of thisinnovative service for our customers in all sectors moving goods between Japan and Europe ,especially in the electronics, automobile and the fashion and apparel industries,” said Mark Slade, President and Representative Director for DHL Global Forwarding Japan.
