UPS to move Asian logistics hub to China

By Dave Hannon -- Purchasing, 5/21/2008 10:45:00 AM

UPS says the growing manufacturing center north of Shenzhen, China, and increased intra-Asian shipping activity have led the logistics giant to spend $180 million to relocate its intra-Asian logistics hub to Shenzhen. The company’s current intra-Asian hub is in the Philippines at the former Clark Air Force Base.

UPS says Southeast Asian markets in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan account for more than half of UPS’s total intra-Asia volume. The new 1 million sq ft hub is slated to be open in 2010.

“Given the growth in shipping along the southern rim of China, it now makes more sense to sort and dispatch this volume from a hub closer to our customers,” notes Dan Brutto, president, UPS International, in a statement. “And, in making the switch, because of the growth we’re seeing, we intend to build a new sorting hub in Shenzhen with five times the capacity of the existing hub.”