DHL SUPPLY CHAIN, the logistics unit of Germany’s Deutsche Post, plans to add 10 hubs in China by the end of this year to meet increasing demand for domestic shipping. “China is not only a production base any more, and we are not just moving things for exporters, but also to support domestic consumption in China,” Victor Mok, vice president of DHL Supply Chain Greater China, said in opening a $25 million hub
in Shanghai for transportation in eastern China. DHL group has invested approximately $2.2 billion in the Asia-Pacific region, including domestic express services in China, and will continue to make significant investments in the future, Mok said. He added DHL Supply Chain’s growth in China would mostly be organic, although the company doesn’t rule out acquisitions. DHL Supply Chain, which focuses on services for warehousing, road transportation and distribution, also operates major China transportation hubs in Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Wuhan.
GLYN RICHARDS MAY have been the Bernie Madoff of the logistics world. A federal judge last week sentenced Richards, the founder of a phony New Jersey logistics company, to 30 years in jail for bilking investors, including members of his own family, out of $5.8 million. Richards, 45, ran the Ponzi scheme under cover of a company called All Freight Logistics of Audobon, N.J. Richards conned 62 people into investing from 2005 through 2007, telling them he had a federal contract to ship military equipment abroad and needed money to pay “upfront costs and expenses” to overseas agents and steamship lines. It was all a swindle, Richards admitted when he
WHILE ASSET-BASED TRANSPORTATION companies stagger under the weight of overcapacity and weak demand, 3PL service providers are looking to the rest of 2009 with hope. More than 60 percent of shippers, carriers and vendors providing 3PL services said they believe the overall health of their businesses will be better or much better from now until the end of 2009, according to a survey at eyefor-transport’s 7th 3PL Summit in Atlanta last month. The survey, conducted by Transite Technology, was a random sample of the more than 300 attendees of the conference representing 3PLs, shippers, carriers and vendors. Other highlights of the survey include:
• 32 percent of respondents said they believed the U.S. economy is in better health now than at the end of last year; 29 percent said they felt it is the same.
• 42 percent of respondents said their overall business is performing better or much better than at the end of last year.
• 70 percent said attracting new customers has been their top challenge over the last 12 months, followed by retaining existing customers and managing overall profitability.
pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering last June. According to local news reports, Richards promised one investor $36,000 within four months of a $25,000 investment, according to the federal indictment in the case. He paid some of his early investors with cash from later victims, but most received no money at all. “You didn’t even care about your own family,” the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Judge Renee Marie Bumb as saying during the June 30 sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Camden, N. J. She noted he skipped his father-in-law’s funeral to attend an alleged business meeting and stole from grandparents.
A NEW SENATE bill aims to improve the security of vessels and facilities that ship and receive dangerous chemicals and petrochemicals. Introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., the Maritime Hazardous Cargo Security Act of 2009 would require the Department of Homeland Security to ensure the safety of ships and warehouses that move and handle such chemicals as anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, chlorine, liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas. “Ships bringing liquefied natural gas from foreign ports — and the plants along our shores that receive them — must be better secured against terrorism,” Lautenberg said. “This bill would help us protect these ships, facilities that receive them and nearby communities from the potential hazards of high-risk cargoes.” The proposal, backed by bipartisan leaders on the Senate Commerce Committee and Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Safety, Security and Infrastructure subcommittee, would require training for Coast Guard personnel who handle hazardous cargoes. JOC
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