“We are in talks to build a greenfield cargo terminal in Bucharest,” Daniel Kearvell, managing director of DHL Express Romania, told ZF in an interview.
DHL would like to have a class A warehouse. The company is developing in Romania and Bucharest is part of this expansion because this particular region of the country generates 60% to 70% of DHL’s volume, so it needs a logistic center in the city, a terminal suitable to its needs, DHL’s managing director added.
Construction on the terminal will begin as soon as possible, Kearvell says and a business the size of DHL’s in Romania needs 15,000 to 20,000 square meters. It already has such facilities in Cluj and Timisoara.
DHL has recently expanded its terminal inside the Avram Iancu Airport in Cluj and will inaugurate a terminal in Timisoara soon, which is already operational. The company has a logistics center in Otopeni, but now wants to develop a terminal at the airport.
The investment in the terminal comes at a time when more and more companies in Romania are choosing shipping by air due to the lack of a developed road infrastructure. Shipping freight by plane is one of the best ways of transporting freight over long distances and more and more local manufacturers use this solution when sending products to Asia, Africa, and even South America.
Daniel Kearvell believes Romanian should develop its transport infrastructure and says the rise in the number of operational airports in the country is encouraging.
DHL is an important courier service provider, as well, and accounts for 48% of the market of deliveries abroad.
It posted 229 million lei (EUR51.5 million) revenue last year, an increase of 4% on 2013, according to the Finance Ministry website and Daniel Kearvell says he expects growth of about 10% this year. (EUR1=RON4.4458)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)