2 November 2020
DHL Global Forwarding, the freight forwarding specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has launched an air freight charter connecting Asia Pacific to Europe and the U.S. to meet demand from customers in the technology, manufacturing and life sciences and healthcare sectors.
Managed by StarBroker, DHL Global Forwarding’s in-house charter team, the twice-weekly charter originates from Chongqing (China) and flies to Amsterdam (Netherlands), Chicago (United States) and Incheon (South Korea) before returning to China.
Thomas Mack, Global Head of Air Freight DHL Global Forwarding said: “While some passenger airlines have resumed operations, the situation in the air freight market remains volatile – especially as belly capacity is still tight. As the leader in the air freight market, DHL Global Forwarding’s top priority is to provide our customers with sufficient and reliable air freight capacity. Not only are the resilient, agile and reliable supply chains of highest importance for an economic recovery, but also in preparation for the availability of vaccines and other essential medical supplies during the pandemic.”
South Korea has seen its export of healthcare products rise year-on-year by 26.7% in the first half of 2020, with pharmaceutical goods in particular increasing by 52.5%. China has exported 28.5% more medical devices in the first five months of the year as compared to a year ago. In 2019, China, the Netherlands and the United States were among the top ten importers and exporters of medical goods.
“Over the years, DHL has built up its expertise from globally certified facilities and staff to technologies that track shipments in real-time in addition to ensuring the integrity of such products throughout their journey. Getting the much-needed air capacity is the last piece in the value chain puzzle, so to speak, that ensures temperature sensitive products such as life-saving vaccines reach the communities-in-need,” added Mack.
In a recently published white paper DHL together with McKinsey & Company as analytics partner explores the logistics challenges for vaccines and medical goods during COVID-19. To provide global coverage of COVID-19 vaccines, up to around 200,000 pallet shipments and around 15 million deliveries in cooling boxes as well as around 15,000 flights will be required across the various supply chain set-ups.
Good Distribution Practice
DHL Global Forwarding has a global network of facilities that meet the European Union’s Good Distribution Practice (GDP) guidelines for life sciences and healthcare supply chains. The international provider of air, sea and road freight services has a suite of temperature-controlled freight solutions such as DHL Air Thermonet and DHL LifeConEx that allows real-time visibility and active monitoring for the movement of goods that could include medicines, supplements, vaccines, medical devices and diagnostic equipment.
In April 2020, DHL Global Forwarding tapped on its network of life sciences and healthcare facilities, temperature-controlled solutions and customs clearance expertise to fly more than 1.3 million Covid-19 test kits from South Korea to Brazil, Ecuador, India, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The freight forwarder also launched a dedicated 100-ton weekly air freight service for organizations and governments shipping health and medical-related items and other goods from China to Middle East and Africa.
