DHL Global Forwarding, the freight forwarding division of DHL, will invest $10 million (around Rs 47 crore) for setting up a free trade warehousing zone (FTWZ) at Sriperumbudur, near here. The new zone will become operational from November 2010.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Amadou Diallo, chief executive officer - South Asia Pacific, DHL Global Forwarding, said the facility would be a one-stop-shop for all logistics requirements. The company has similar facilities in Singapore and Jebel Ali — both used by customers for inbound and outbound logistics requirements to take products to nearby regions.
In the first phase, of the 260,000 sft plot area, the built-up area will be 130,000 sft (ground plus seven high rise racking); 25,000 sft open storage facilities and 10,000 sft to provide for special value-added services, said Christoph Remund, CEO, DHL Lemuir Logistics Ltd, a group company. There is a provision to double the capacity in the next couple of years.
“India is an important destination for the company and in the last five years, DHL Forwarding had invested around 300 million Euros in the country,” said Diallo.
In 2009, the company handled 122,000 tonnes of air shipment and 55,000 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) of ocean freight. It has around 15,000 customers in India.
DHL is part of the Deutsche Post DHL. The group generated revenue of over 46 billion Euros in 2009.
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The total logistics market in India earned revenues of $75.19 billion in 2009, representing 6.2 per cent of the country’s GDP. The market is expected to reach $120 billion in 2014, a 9.9 per cent compound anual growth rate between 2009 and 2014, he said.
“We are well positioned to capitalise on this fast growing market and strengthen our market leading position. China and India are the two key markets for us,” he said.