[photopress:logistics_UPS.jpg,full,alignright]UPS says the growing manufacturing center north of Shenzhen, China, and increased intra-Asian shipping activity have led the logistics giant to spend $180 million to relocate its intra-Asian logistics hub to Shenzhen.
The company’s current intra-Asian hub is in the Philippines at the former Clark Air Force Base.
UPS says Southeast Asian markets in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan account for more than half of UPS’s total intra-Asia volume. The plan is to open the new 1 million square foot hub in 2010.
Dan Brutto, president, UPS International, in a statement put the totally logical view, ‘Given the growth in shipping along the southern rim of China, it now makes more sense to sort and dispatch this volume from a hub closer to our customers. And, in making the switch, because of the growth we’re seeing, we intend to build a new sorting hub in Shenzhen with five times the capacity of the existing hub.’
The UPS Shenzen hub will launch 100 flights per week and its 400 staff will be capable of sorting 18,000 packages an hour.
Which is logical and given the growth and growth of the China market probably the only way to go. There is, of course, another side to this equation.
In the Phillipines at Clark Field the number of daily flights will drop from nine a day to two and, very probably, eventually dry up altogether leaving quite a lot of people out of work.
A UPS official said, ‘We will maintain our presence in Clark on a reduced basis. Clark will continue its function as gateway to the Philippines’ import and export.’ Which is a bit of a joke considering the amount of imports and exports coming out of that country.
This is not to over-state the case that for every winnner there normally is going to be a loser. But rather to remember that only thirty years ago the Philippines was considered one of the most vibrant economies in Asia and the one with the greatest potential.
Source: Purchasing.com and ABS.CBN