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ST.
PETERSBURG—Deutsche Post AG, Europe’s biggest postal
service, said its DHL Express division is experiencing
its fastest emerging-market growth in Russia and plans
to spend $250 million over the next four years
developing its transportation network in the country.
DHL is
already seeing the “fastest growth” in Russia, said
David Wilson, sales director for Eastern Europe, the
Middle East and Africa.
The
€15-million ($23-million) terminal will handle 500
metric tons a day, said Adrian Marley, general manager
of DHL Russia.
The
company is spending $250 million in the next four years
to develop port operations and make other network
improvements in Russia, driven by rising demand for
consumer products.
“If
someone lives in
Omsk, he wants to have the latest telephone, the latest cars, the
latest designer fashion as quickly as somebody in
Moscow,”
Marley said, referring to a city in western Siberia
north of the border with Kazakhstan.
DHL
serves more than 12,000 companies across more than 500
cities and towns in Russia, handling 5.5 million
shipments a year.
Besides
consumer products, DHL’s growth in the country is rising
on shipments of spare parts for cars, Marley said. DHL
had record revenue growth in April that was “higher than
in the teens” in percentage terms, Wilson said. “It was
fueled by countries like
Russia
growing at 40 percent.”
The new
terminal, located near
St. Petersburg’s
Pulkovo airport, will be linked to Asia and North
America via Finland and DHL’s hub in Leipzig, Germany.
The
company may launch a direct aircraft run from Leipzig to
Moscow and St. Petersburg, Wilson said, declining to
elaborate on timing.
If DHL
builds up sufficient volumes of shipments in Russia, the
company may consider direct flights to Asia, he said.
(Bloomberg) |
