DHL inaugurates state-of-the-art Bangkok Hub at Suvarnabhumi Airport

DHL, the world's leading express and logistics company, today inaugurated its new DHL Express Bangkok Hub at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Thailand. The US$22 million (THB 825 million) facility underpins DHL's long-term growth strategy, and is part of DHL's latest investments in Asia Pacific.

To further strengthen its market-leading position and to capture the thriving intra-Asia and international trade, DHL has been focusing on expanding its network infrastructure and capacity building in Asia Pacific. With the new DHL Express Bangkok Hub, DHL will ensure that it is well-placed to fulfil increasing customer needs and improving international trade flows. The Bangkok Hub, together with Hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo as well as gateways in Asia Pacific countries, forms a powerful hub-and-spoke network that channels shipments across Asia Pacific and beyond seamlessly and around the clock.

The new DHL Express Bangkok Hub will serve as a gateway into the Indochina region, including Thailand. Indochina has achieved good economic growth in the past decade. The continuation of this strong economic performance depends on an efficient logistics infrastructure and adequate transportation networks.

Scott Price, Chief Executive Officer, DHL Express - Asia Pacific, said: "The new Bangkok Hub reinforces DHL's commitment to Thailand and the region. It is strategically positioned for us to meet our business growth in Thailand, as well as the neighbouring countries. The new facility also provides our customers with increased speed, reliability and greater capacity, to boost their time-to-market in an increasingly competitive international marketplace."

Mr. Thavatvong Thanasumitra, Chairman of Bangkok Flight Services (BFS), said, "Amidst the increasing trade volumes between Thailand and the region, the new DHL Express Bangkok Hub reflects DHL's strong confidence in the country. We strongly believe that the new DHL facility will jointly grow with us."

The DHL Express Bangkok Hub, measuring a total area of more than 12,000 square meters - about the size of 40 tennis courts - with almost 10,000 square meters of warehouse space, is five times larger than the former facility at Don Muang Airport. Located next to Suvarnabhumi International Airport's cargo apron and runway, it will ensure maximum service efficiency and improve speed in cargo processing. With over 210 employees, the Hub has the capacity to handle over 23,000 pieces hourly, with more than six million shipments per year.

In addition, the new DHL Express Bangkok Hub will house a Quality Control Center (QCC) - the second in Bangkok - which will be operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The DHL QCCs are a network of regional and country quality control centers that proactively monitor all DHL shipments in the air and on the ground round the clock. As part of DHL's continuous service enhancement, a new groundbreaking global shipment management system - Quality Shipment Monitoring System (QSMS) - was introduced in Thailand in early November 2006.

A leap in DHL's customer service-enhancing technology, the QSMS has the unique capability and feature to alert analysts based at Quality Control Centers (QCCs) in the countries when certain operational actions do not happen within a fixed set of timings. This real-time monitoring of individual shipments door-to-door allows better issue management as it enables DHL to identify potential problems, and recommend rectification strategies before the situation is magnified.

To further underscore DHL's commitment to the security of customers' shipments, the new facility has also been certified to the latest security standards, having been awarded TAPA^* Class 'A' safety certification.

The opening of the new DHL Express Bangkok Hub is the latest in a series of infrastructure developments across the DHL Asia Pacific network. Over the past few years, DHL's investments in the region have totalled more than US$1.7 billion, with a focus on the development of dedicated infrastructure, enhancements of existing hubs and gateways, technology, and the continuous expansion of DHL's dedicated air network, to serve customers even better.