DHL GLOBAL Forwarding is expanding its logistics services network in China to meet the demands of shifting manufacturing patterns, with the opening of five new inland branch offices.
Two of the new offices are located in the country's most important inland regions, namely Zhengzhou city in Henan province and Taiyuan city in Shanxi province. The other three offices are located in the tier three cities of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, Xuzhou in Jiangsu province and Huizhou in Guangdong province.
"The move is aimed at better meeting the fast growing demand in central and western China for logistics services of international standards," said a company statement.
DHL also plans to establish two more branch offices and 20 sales offices, with the aim of achieving 30 per cent coverage in third tier cities by 2015, it said.
The company said the opening of the new offices is timely as China's manufacturing industry is going through a major geographical shift from coastal areas such as the Yangtze River and the Pearl River deltas, the central and western regions.
Said DHL freight chief Roger Crook: "With the development of central and western China becoming one of the Chinese government's priorities as part its 12th five-year plan to speed up the industrial transfer to inland areas, DHL has benefited from a rapid build-up of infrastructure. This has in turn, facilitated the provision of DHL's scheduled door-to-door services and multi-modal transport."