• The China-Netherlands-U.S.-South Korea airfreight charter is developed with the demands of the life science and healthcare sector in mind
• The Covid-19 pandemic saw shippers leverage DHL Global Forwarding's cold chain capabilities in life science and healthcare to transport test kits and pharmaceutical products

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach^[1] - 15 September 2020 - DHL Global Forwarding, the freight forwarding specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has launched an air freight charter connecting Asia Pacific to Europe and the U.S. to meet demand from customers in the technology, manufacturing and life science and healthcare sectors. Managed by StarBroker^[2], DHL Global Forwarding's in-house charter team, the twice-weekly charter originates from Chongqing, China and flies to Amsterdam, Netherlands; Chicago, United States; Incheon, South Korea before returning to China.

Thomas Mack, Head of Global Air Freight DHL Global Forwarding said, "While some passenger airlines have resumed operations, the situation in the air freight market remains volatile -- especially as belly capacity is still tight As the leader in the air freight market, DHL Global Forwarding's top priority is to provide our customers with sufficient and reliable air freight capacity. Not only are the resilient, agile and reliable supply chains of highest importance for an economic recovery, but also in preparation for the availability of vaccines and other essential medical supplies during the pandemic."

South Korea has seen its export of healthcare products^[3] rise year-on-year by 26.7% in the first half of 2020, with pharmaceutical goods in particular increasing by 52.5%. China has exported 28.5% more^[4] medical devices in the first five months of the year as compared to a year ago. In 2019, China, the Netherlands and the United States were among the top ten importers and exporters^[5] of medical goods.

"Over the years, DHL has built up its expertise from globally certified facilities and staff to technologies that track shipments in real-time in addition to ensuring the integrity of such products throughout their journey. Getting the much-needed air capacity is the last piece in the value chain puzzle, so to speak, that ensures temperature sensitive products such as life-saving vaccines reach the communities-in-need," added Mack.

In a recently published white paper^[6] DHL together with McKinsey & Company as analytics partner explores the logistics challenges for vaccines and medical goods during COVID-19. To provide global coverage of COVID-19 vaccines, up to ~200,000 pallet shipments and ~15 million deliveries in cooling boxes as well as ~15,000 flights will be required across the various supply chain set-ups. The complete white paper can be downloaded under https://www.dhl.com/pandemic-resilience^[7].

DHL Global Forwarding has a global network of facilities that meet the European Union's Good Distribution Practice^[8] (GDP) guidelines for life science and healthcare supply chains. The leading international provider of air, sea and road freight services has a suite of temperature-controlled freight solutions such as DHL Air Thermonet^[9] and DHL LifeConEx^[10] that allows real-time visibility and active monitoring for the movement of goods that could include medicines, supplements, vaccines, medical devices and diagnostic equipment.

To meet growing demand for imports of temperature-controlled and high-technology goods into Australia, DHL Global Forwarding will also launch a new airfreight charter on September 23. Flying four times a week, the charter will consolidate goods from Europe, China and Singapore in Hong Kong before transporting them to Sydney, Australia.

In April 2020, DHL Global Forwarding tapped on its network of life science and healthcare facilities, temperature-controlled solutions and customs clearance expertise to fly more than 1.3 million^[11] Covid-19 test kits from South Korea to Brazil, Ecuador, India, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The freight forwarder also launched a dedicated 100-ton weekly air freight service^[12] for organizations and governments shipping health and medical-related items and other goods from China to Middle East and Africa.

Note to editors:

For the life sciences and healthcare sector, sector players needed to keep drugs and devices on the move to support healthcare services worldwide, many of which were facing over-stretched capacities.

Unlike other industries, life science and healthcare supply chains are complicated by strict quality and regulatory controls, including temperature regulation and special handling requirements. Find out on Logistics of Things how a healthy supply of life-saving medical products kept moving through a global health crisis.^[13]

References

1. ^{^} Media OutReach (www.media-outreach.com)
2. ^{^} StarBroker (www.dhl.com)
3. ^{^} export of healthcare products (www.koreabiomed.com)
4. ^{^} 28.5% more (www.cnbc.com)
5. ^{^} top ten importers and exporters (www.wto.org)
6. ^{^} white paper (www.dhl.com)
7. ^{^} https://www.dhl.com/pandemic-resilience (www.dhl.com)
8. ^{^} Good Distribution Practice (www.ema.europa.eu)
9. ^{^} DHL Air Thermonet (www.dhl.com)
10. ^{^} DHL LifeConEx (www.lifeconex.com)
11. ^{^} 1.3 million (www.dhl.com)
12. ^{^} 100-ton weekly air freight service (lot.dhl.com)
13. ^{^} Find out (lot.dhl.com)