DHL Global Forwarding, the freight forwarding division of Deutsche Post DHL, inaugurated on Wednesday its first free trade zone (FTZ) in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. This is also the country's second FTZ.

DHL has invested $10 million in the zone, the country's second FTZ, which will offer clients warehousing palletised, non-palletised, cold storage, odd dimension and handling of special/sensitive cargo.

A client can hold goods on behalf of foreign and Indian buyers and suppliers. Goods can also be procured from and sold to other special economic zones, export-oriented units and bonded warehouses. Direct delivery of containers from port without movement of container freight station is also permitted in the FTZ, said Mr Christoph Remund, Chief Executive Officer, DHL Forwarding.

To begin with, the zone will offer services to five sectors ? retail; IT and telecom; engineering, manufacturing and automotive; life science and healthcare; and energy.

For instance, as value-added services for the life science and healthcare sector, it will offer cold storage facilities, with temperatures in three zones: 15-25 degree Celsius; 2-8 degree Celsius and -20 degree Celsius, he told newspersons.

In the next phase, DHL plans to construct its second FTZ in Mumbai and a third in Delhi before 2012 end, he said.

Mr Amadou Diallo, Chief Executive Officer, South Asia Pacific, DHL Global Forwarding, said the company would also look at the aerospace sector, especially with Chennai and its nearby regions to emerge as a major MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) region, he said.

Investments in India

DHL Forwarding has so far invested around ?300 million in India. In 2009, it handled 1.22 lakh tonnes of air shipment and 55,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of ocean freight.

It has around 15,000 customers in India, and some of them are located within the vicinity of the new facility, Mr Diallo said in a press meet last year without naming the clients.

The total logistics market in India earned revenue of $75.19 billion in 2009, representing 6.2 per cent of the country's GDP.

The market is expected to touch $120 billion in 2014, a 9.9 per cent CAGR between 2009 and 2014, according to a report on Strategic Analysis of Indian Logistics Market by Frost & Sullivan.

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