UPS chooses Shenzhen for new intra-Asia air hub
UPS is moving its intra-Asia air hub to Shenzhen in China’s Pearl River Delta from its current location in the Philippines. The new air hub will significantly improve UPS’s service by reducing transit times across the Asia region.
UPS will base the new intra-Asia hub at the Shenzhen Airport in southern China, near Hong Kong. The repositioning of the hub will slash at least a day off shipment times-in-transit for Asian customers while offering a new level of service to the manufacturing region in Guangdong province, located just north of Shenzhen. The new hub, which will also reduce operational costs, will be completed and activated in 2010 and represents an estimated investment of US$180 million.
Derek Woodward, president, UPS Asia Pacific said “we expect a full day’s improvement in transit time on almost 200 city pairs once this hub opens.”
Currently, the markets of China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan account for more than half of UPS’s total intra-Asia volume. Of this, a sizeable proportion of Asia package export volume now originates in Hong Kong and southeast China, where the Shenzhen hub will be located.
The Shenzhen hub, expected to total about 89,000 square meters in size (almost 1 million square feet), will include an express customs handling unit, sorting facilities, cargo handling and cargo build-up areas and ramp handling operations. It will initially be capable of processing up to 18,000 pieces per hour but can be easily expanded to a capacity of 36,000 pieces per hour. It will employ about 400 people.
