DHL Global Forwarding, a unit of Deutsche Post AG, yesterday announced that it has added Taiwan to its North Asia multimodal network.
The inclusion is expected to provide improved freight service connecting Taiwan to China and Europe through a third additional rail service route between Zhengzhou, China, and Hamburg, Germany, the company said.
The new route complements the existing sea link between ports in Taichung and Shanghai, which enables access to European markets through two older rail links.
One service runs between Suzhou, China, the base for more than 10,000 Taiwanese export-oriented companies, and Warsaw, Poland, while another runs along the trans-Kazakh west corridor service that connects Chengdu, China, a major hub for many Western-based industries, and Lodz, Poland.
“As Beijing’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative begins to take shape, and customs clearance processes grow more streamlined, DHL’s full-container load service, DHL Railline, is becoming an increasingly viable and flexible alternative for satisfying clients’ freight needs,” said Steve Huang (黃國哲), chief executive officer of DHL Global Fowarding China operation.
The new multimodal Taiwan-China-Europe service is set to offer freight cost savings of up to 85 percent and cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90 percent compared with air freight, with delivery times reduced by 10 to 21 days compared with ocean freight, depending on origin and destination, Huang said.
DHL Global Forwarding China has been pioneering the multimodal service to Europe over the past seven years, Huang said, adding that the company is ready to extend the service to Taiwan.
Using the DHL Railline service, customers can block out single containers, wagon groups or whole block trains, using any and all combinations of rail, ship and road transport to achieve door-to-door service, which is also available for shipments between Taiwan and Japan.
Rail freight is an option that is faster than sea, and more economical than air, the company said.
However, Huang said that compared with air freight, which is subject to random customs inspections, the somewhat more stringent border control at some countries on cross-continental routes remains a challenge for rail freight, although he noted that the situation has been evolving rapidly over the past few years.
“We no longer have to perform customs clearance if the cargo is only passing through a country, while some nations have developed better electronically streamlined processes,” Huang said.
“We might soon see cheaper prices for imported European cheese and meat products at upscale grocery stores,” he said.
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