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UNITED Parcel Service (UPS) said Wednesday it is
moving its Asian hub in the Philippines to China by 2010 and would
scale back its current operations at Clark airport, a former US
military base.
UPS’ decision to move to
Shenzhen, China comes more than two years after Federal Express
(FedEx) pulled the plug on its operations in another former US
military base in the Philippines. FedEx announced the transfer of
its Asian hub at the Subic Bay Freeport to Guangzhou, also in China,
citing the shift in the volume of transactions to north Asia.
The pullout by the two companies
is a blow to the Philippines’ bid to become Asia’s logistics
hub.
“In the past few years the
increase in trend was moving towards the north of Asia. About 75
percent of the intra-Asia package volume shifted to North Asia, and
the decision was made to handle the packages close to our
clients,” said Andy Connelly, UPS senior vice president for the
region.
From 2010 the Shenzhen airport
will take most of the volume away from the UPS facility at Clark
airport north of Manila, he told a news conference.
The 89,000-square meter UPS
Shenzhen hub will launch 100 flights per week and its 400 staff will
be capable of sorting 18,000 packages an hour, Connelly added.
He said the China, Hong Kong,
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan markets now account for more than half
of UPS’ total intra-Asia volume, with a sizeable volume in
southeast China and Hong Kong.
“Given the growth in shipping
alone in southern China, it makes sense to sort and dispatch this
volume from a hub closer to our customers,” he added.
From the current nine aircraft
daily, Connelly said UPS flights out of the $300 million, 7,000
packages per hour Clark facility would be reduced to two flights.
“We will maintain our presence
in Clark on a reduced basis. Clark will continue its function as
gateway to the Philippines’ import and export,” the official
said.
The Clark staff will be reduced
to 70 from 200, he added.
President Arroyo earlier unveiled
a master plan to transform the Subic-Clark corridor into a
world-class logistics hub.
The President recently graced the
opening of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), a 94-kilometer
highway that shortened travel time between Subic and Clark to 40
minutes. Considered the country’s longest expressway, the
P27.40-billion highway is envisioned to transform the surrounding
area into a super region that would attract foreign investors.
 --With
AFP
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