DHL Global Forwarding, Freight has announced a new multimodal service solution with an ocean and road freight connection between Europe and Asia, Northern Africa and the Middle East.
A new transit hub located at the Greek port of Piraeus "offers a unique geographical position for shorter end-to-end lead times for ocean freight shipments from the Far East to Europe and vice versa," DHL says.
"Customers benefit from shorter transit times, day-definite full-truckload and daily less-than-truckload departures, and distribution from Piraeus within two to five days to key markets in Europe via DHL Freight’s network.
"Further advantages include customs clearance and end-to-end transparency over shipments. The new service saves over nine days of transit time compared to traditional ocean freight destinations such as Hamburg or Rotterdam," it adds.
“This new multimodal solution via Piraeus allows us to provide our customers with faster lead times between Europe and megacities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore, along the maritime route of the ancient Silk Road,” says Kostis Soukoulis, Country Manager Greece, DHL Global Forwarding, Freight.
Greece is currently in the process of privatising the Piraeus Port Authority as part of the latest bail-out deal with its creditors. One of the leading candidates is Chinese group, COSCO, which already controls the port's Container Terminal.
Shipments from Piraeus depart on a daily basis and are picked-up at DHL's gateways in Munich or Milan within 72 hours and 48 hours respectively. The delivery of consignments from Asia to all major European markets takes now on average between 22-26 days instead of 31-35 days, the company underlines.
The new service could also offer solutions for customers targeting markets in Central and Eastern Europe given Greece’s proximity to the region. DHL is also looking to further expand its multimodal service offering from Piraeus to rail and air freight transport modes in the future.
Earlier this month, DHL Global Forwarding added Taiwan into its North Asia multimodal network.
"The sea link between Taiwan and mainland China offers customers the full-container load door-to-door service, DHL Railline and will connect the leading Taichung port to Shanghai with a rail link to Warsaw via Suzhou, which also serves as a base for over 10,000 Taiwan-funded export-oriented enterprises. DHL now offers three multimodal rail services between mainland China and Europe," the company said.
