DHL eCommerce has opened a distribution centre in Shenzhen capable of handle up to 18 million shipments annually, as it plans to increase Chinese coverage by 50 per cent by the end of the year.

The Shenzhen centre will serve as a consolidation point for international outbound shipments from Southern China, and will have dedicated customer service support for online retailers in the city. DHL also plans to expand existing distribution centres in Shanghai and Hong Kong to cater for growth in online retailers.

DHL eCommerce chief executive officer (CEO), Charles Brewer says China – US e-commerce has seen triple digit growth since 2015. He says: “With China accounting for more than 40 percent of global retail e-commerce sales in 2015, our investments in China demonstrate our focus on developing efficient and reliable logistics services, to bring high quality e-commerce services to Chinese retailers and meet changing consumer expectations.”

DHL says launching the Shenzhen centre follows the success of Shanghai, which acts as a distribution point for outbound e-commerce goods for Eastern and Northern China. The Shanghai and Hong Kong centres are being expanded so they can handle 48 million and 71 million shipments annually, respectively.

DHL eCommerce Asia Pacific CEO, Malcolm Monteiro says: “Since its launch last July, the DHL eCommerce Shanghai Distribution Center has seen a 700 per cent increase in the volume of e-commerce goods being shipped out of China.”

“With our plans to expand our existing capabilities in Shanghai and Hong Kong, we are confident that this will provide our customers with the fullest support they need, in order to reach their global customer base”