News / Expansion for Dimerco as Taiwan 3PL eyes booming e-commerce markets

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Taiwanese 3PL Dimerco Express Group is targeting expansion in China and India to accelerate its already impressive air and ocean forwarding growth this year.

Primarily serving the Chinese and ASEAN markets, last year Dimerco broke into Armstrong & Associates’ top 25 global freight forwarders list with volumes of over 200,000 air freight tonnes and 175,000 teu.

“Dimerco has been continuously accelerating its global development plan and we continue to utilise our organisation strength and the efforts of our air and sea teams to secure new business,” said vice-president Andy Hsu.

“The tonnage and volume for air and ocean has continued increasing in 2016 – as of the end of October, we have handled almost 178,000 tons for air freight and over 187,000 teu.”

Asian carriers have already reported robust growth for October, when the peak season got underway, and according to Netherlands-based analyst WorldADC, global volumes hit a 6.2% year-on-year increase for the month.

WorldADC explained that freight leaving Asia was the main driver of this growth, with China and Taiwan reporting increased exports of 12% and 19% respectively. India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines were also driving growth in Asia and, to a lesser extent, Singapore and Thailand, added Mr Hsu.

“In Europe, the whole market is still slow due to the bad economy and slow recovery – Italy is teetering on the brink of a banking crisis and the UK is leaving the EU,” he said.

But he added: “On the other hand, Germany has booming online retail and the Netherlands and Switzerland have improved slightly.”

In China, Dimerco has steadily expanded its service network to 75 locations, and is focused on cross-border e-commerce opportunities, said Mr Hsu, “considering the consumer buying power now in China”.

He said the main inbound commodities were cosmetics, textiles, lifestyle goods, luxury brands, baby food and health supplements.

Dimerco has secured some high-profile clients, including online retail giants Jing Dong Mall and Alibaba. However, Mr Hsu cautioned that the sector was vulnerable due to unpredictable government regulations.

“There’s some uncertainty of how the government wants to support this trade’s development. For example, in April, when new regulations were announced, a lot of cross-border business volumes dropped more than 50%, but when the government announced it would postpone implementation, they came back by 20%,” he said.

Dimerco’s forwarding activity in India is on less shaky ground, however. The company was recently named in the top five forwarders for inbound volume at Chennai Airport, and has expanded its network with three new sales offices in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Of particular focus is Hyderabad, capital of southern India’s Telangana state, where the new Dimerco office will support a major customer setting up a mobile handset production facility.

“We will also be focusing on attracting new business in Hyderabad, particularly in the electronics and pharmaceutical sectors, where we see enormous potential,” said Mr Hsu.

Dimerco sales revenue for October was Taiwan$1.4bn (US$44.6m), up 8.9% year-on-year, while net profit increased 222% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year.