DHL Global Forwarding has added South Korea to its Asia-Europe multimodal network.

According to DHL, new ferry services now link the ports of Incheon and Busan to a range of major Chinese ports including Shanghai, Taicang and Lianyungang. South Korean shipments will then be transported by truck to major inland hubs such as Chengdu, Hefei, Suzhou and Xi’an for subsequent transport to Europe on DHL’s rail services.

Korean businesses will also gain access to DHL’s Flexigateway service, which selects the optimal rail route for shipments based on available capacity and route speed at any given time, and provides clearly defined transit times at the most efficient operating cost.

“With South Korean exports to Europe this year growing at their fastest pace since 2011, the country’s major industries have greater need for flexible, scalable freight services than ever before,” said Charles Kaufmann [right], CEO of North Asia, managing director of Japan and head of value-added services in Asia Pacific at DHL Global Forwarding. “While its level of global connectedness has remained relatively stable over the past few years, South Korea must continue to invest in deeper trade ties – and the infrastructure that sustains them – to key partners like the European Union and China if it wants to maintain its record of economic growth and development. Our new offerings like Flexigateway, combined with the range of value-added services already built into our multimodal network, seek to streamline and stabilize the logistics process for Korean businesses of all sizes.”

DHL now offers specialized solutions for some of South Korea’s largest industries such as car racking and expert handling for automotive exporters, garment-on-hanger services for the fashion industry, temperature-controlled containers for technology manufacturers, and licenses, labelling and dedicated warehousing for wine and spirits producers.

Features such as end-to-end customs handling, GPS tracking of containers and a range of cargo insurance options are also available for the multimodal network.

“South Korea’s economy continues to rely heavily on value-added exports to grow, and reinforcing its existing trade partnerships will help it continue to weather global uncertainty,” said Seok-pyo Song [left], managing director of DHL Global Forwarding Korea. “This new connection to our Asia-Europe multimodal network will not only improve the fundamentals of freight flexibility, cost and reliability for Korean businesses – it also directly addresses the unique needs of our country’s most crucial and well-regarded industries, giving them the confidence to pursue greater expansion overseas.”

DHL added a Shenzhen-Minsk route to its Asia-Europe multimodal network in May 2017.