DHL’s new service connects Ho Chi Minh City to Hong Kong

Weekly schedule provides faster and simpler connections to 33 major northern hemisphere trading ports widening Vietnam’s trade access to North America and Asia.

DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, on Tuesday announced the launch of its new direct Less than Container Load (LCL) service connecting Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Hong Kong, China. Via weekly scheduled shipments to Hong Kong, the service provides companies in Vietnam with access to 12 major trading ports in North America and 11 in North Asia, cutting transit times and helping the trade flows of South-East Asia’s sixth largest economy. 

Ho Chi Minh is Vietnam’s largest city, its economic centre and one of the fastest growing ports in the region. Its port is estimated to have handled 4.2 million TEUs in 2010, more than double the volume for 2007. Last year Vietnam’s GDP reached US$102 billion and the country is forecast to become the fastest growing of the emerging economies by 2025 with a potential growth rate of almost 10 per cent per annum. 

Kelvin Leung, CEO, North Asia Pacific, DHL Global Forwarding, said, “Hong Kong has traditionally been a major channel through which goods flow from Southeast Asia to North Asia and the US. As intra-Asia and Vietnam-North America trade lanes grow, demand for speedier and more efficient services to the port of Hong Kong has also grown. DHL’s latest direct LCL route successfully answers the call for these services originating from Vietnam.” 

Edward Hui, CEO, Hong Kong, Macau and South China, DHL Global Forwarding said, “Hong Kong’s container port, the world’s third busiest, handled over 23 million TEUs in 2010, an increase of around 12 percent over the previous year7. Today’s launch of our new direct LCL service from Ho Chi Minh to Hong Kong, operated by Danmar Lines, DHL’s in-house carrier, allows Vietnam-based exporters to better tap into the international opportunities that Hong Kong offers.” 

Marc Meier, Senior Vice President, Ocean Freight & Head of Global LCL, DHL Global Forwarding, said, “With the introduction of this new service, we are granting our customers in Vietnam competitive edge with unrivalled coverage of more than 115 weekly point pairs from Hong Kong to the destination terminals in China, Japan, Taiwan, the US and Canada.” 

DHL offers unrivalled coverage of more than 1,300 weekly point pairs from 25 South Asia Pacific Terminals sailing to 53 destination terminals in North Asia Pacific. Its South Asia Pacific team manages traditional LCL as well as LCL/FCL, buyers’ consolidation and Multi Country consolidations. Combined with local expertise, customers can choose optimum routing and enjoy controlled and timely customs clearance, according to a DHL report. 

The launch of weekly LCL services from Vietnam is one of many service expansions in Asia this year for DHL Global Forwarding. Earlier in the year, DHL Global Forwarding launched LCL services between Chinese ports of Shanghai and Dalian to Hamburg, Germany, between Busan, South Korea and Manzanillo, Mexico, from San Salvador, El Salvador and Hong Kong, and between Singapore and Buenaventura, Colombia, with more in the pipeline such as Nhava Sheva to Durban. 

DHL currently operates the world’s largest LCL network with close to 2,000,000 cubic meters of LCL freight handled annually via 45,000 point-pairs. As a global leader in LCL, DHL carries more than 97 per cent of its total volumes in house. The in-house systems and strong global network enables the control of cargo flow, information flow, speed, accuracy, cost efficiency and reliability. Going beyond port to port, DHL LCL service also offers a complete end-to-end supply chain management that includes pick-up at origin, consolidation and deconsolidation, delivery at destination and customs clearance. All LCL services are accompanied by DHL’s first-class IT solutions such as DHL Track & Trace and other tools to allow full visibility throughout the whole supply chain. For complete peace of mind, DHL also provides insurance services to customers as a value-added service. DHL’s Shippers Interest Insurance (SII) covers losses or damages of all cargo transported by DHL, as well as transportation costs.