DHL Express has opened its new Tsing Yi Service Center, a HK$78 million (US$10.1 million) facility on the third floor of the Goodman Interlink building in Hong Kong.
“The opening of the new Tsing Yi Service Center follows double-digit growth in our international shipments over the past year, and underscores our confidence in the Hong Kong market,” said Herbert Vongpusanachai, senior vice president and managing director of DHL Express Hong Kong and Macau. “With a steady growth in our Hong Kong business contributed by the strong e-commerce sector, this facility is set to cement our market leadership with its enhanced handling capacity.”
The 12,777-square-metre facility is double the size of the previous facility located in the same building and is capable of handling 380 tonnes of shipments per day, the strongest out of all DHL service centres worldwide.
“We’ve been looking for a site since 2014,” said Vongpusanachai. “Hong Kong hasn’t been the easiest place in which to look for a new warehouse. There are very few fully equipped warehouses that have the size and scale that we needed based on our requirements.”
Features include a high-speed automated reweigh and dimensioning machine capable of processing 2,200 pieces per hour, a 3D dimensioning and reweigh machine for unconveyable shipments that need volumetric measuring, a singulator which rearranges shipments so they travel down the conveyor belt one by one, and 122 CCTVs providing 24-hour monitoring.
“It’s got all the technologies that we wanted,” said Vongpusanachai. “We want to be able to scan the shipments automatically when they come in, we want to sort them so that they go to the correct belt automatically, and we want to be able to build our own aircraft ULDs that we can bring straight to the airport.”
One other “secret weapon,” according to Vongpusanachai, is the Clear-In-The-Air system, which allows all customs clearance information to be sent to the destination and handled while the plane is still in the air, cutting down transit times.
Even though economic and trade conditions around the region have been disappointing, Vongpusanachai said that he wasn’t too concerned.
“We’ve seen a bit of an economic slowdown over the past few quarters, but with the uptick in last quarter’s numbers and with our medium- to long-term look at the economy, we’re confident that we’ll actually see moderate growth in the near term,” he said. “There’s also still a lot of potential in the growth of certain sectors. The government has also increased its forecast for next year in terms of air trade.”
The major driver of growth for DHL Express in recent times has been e-commerce, which was the predominant motivation for an upgraded facility.
“We’ve seen a lot of customers moving away from big breakbulk to smaller shipments directly to the workplace or residence,” said Vongpusanachai. “That has been an emerging trend. This facility will allow us to increase our capacity and become more efficient in handling these types of shipments. Our focus as an express company is on time-definite international shipments.”
The new Tsing Yi centre, which had its soft opening in July 2016, adds to DHL Express Hong Kong’s two other service centres in Cheung Sha Wan and Tsuen Wan.
“These are some of the largest facilities that we have across the whole network, since Hong Kong is a high-capacity, high-volume exporter,” said Vongpusanachai. “We are always looking for new places. There is a plan but it’s a longer-term plan. Sometimes facilities might not be available yet, but we’re always looking ahead to see where we can expand.”
The third-runway project at Hong Kong International Airport, which is scheduled to be completed by 2023, will give DHL Express the possibility of increasing capacity by operating more flights, allowing the DHL Central Asia hub to expand.
“That’s something that we’re looking forward to,” Vongpusanachai said. “We’re very excited about the project and how we can participate in the growth of Hong Kong’s economy.”
By Jeffrey Lee
Asia Cargo News | Hong Kong