Pearson says his company is not affected globally by Nokia’s departure from Romania because “we follow major companies everywhere.”
Nokia announced at the end of September it would close the plant in Jucu, Cluj county (northwestern Romania). Several days later it announced plans to build a plant in Vietnam to make smartphones. Nokia Romania is one of DHL’s customers on the local market, with exports put at EUR2 billion this year.
DHL Express Europe’s CEO says volumes shipped from Romania are on the rise and the main growth drivers are the automotive component industry and the technology sector. He also sees “solid growth prospects” in Eastern Europe.
The Express division of DHL operates three planes in Romania using the Otopeni (Bucharest), Arad (western Romania) and Cluj airports. It has 450 employees serving about 120,000 destinations, with more than 2 million shipments a year.
DHL Romania makes about 90% of its revenue from international shipping, while the rest come from domestic courier services provided by its Cargus division.
Demand for international shipping from corporate customers in Bucharest and Cluj and the surrounding areas went up by 10% and 20%, respectively, in the first six months.
DHL’s customers include carmaker Renault Dacia, fashion company H&M and aerospace component producer Honeywell, which ranked seventh among the 100 largest exporters in Romania last year.
DHL Romania and Cargus posted EUR57 million revenue last year, almost the same level as in 2009. DHL International Romania ended 2010 with 151 million lei (EUR35 million) in revenue, up 9% in euro year-on-year, according to Finance Ministry data.
(English version by Loredana Frățilă-Cristescu)