Germany-based DHL recently invested more than $20 million to add facilities at Miami International Airport, a key hub for air freight to and from the fast-growing Latin American region.

The company has opened a refrigerated warehouse near the airport to store pharmaceuticals and other temperature-sensitive goods traded with Latin America.

It is also boosting ocean freight through Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, mainly for goods headed south, said Frank Appel, chief executive for Deutsche Post DHL at a media briefing in Miami.

"The United States is really taking Latin America more seriously and really engaging," Appel said, noting that DHL is active with new U.S. programs that encourage small firms to boost sales to the rising middle class and surging economies in South America.

DHL now employs more than 600 people in South Florida, most at its Americas headquarters in Plantation that oversee its express delivery operations from Canada to Argentina.

The company had more than 1,400 employees in the area five years ago before it pulled out of the domestic-only express business in the United States and before the global recession. It now serves U.S. customers for international shipments, a business it has been growing faster than rivals this decade.

Appel's plans and vision matter, because Deutsche Post DHL is a global behemoth.

The publicly traded company that runs Germany's postal system and operates transport networks worldwide has roughly 475,000 employees. Last year, it reported $71 billion in revenue (55 billion Euros). If it were a country, it would rank No. 64 in economic output, executives said.

Analysts call the company among the most respected worldwide in its transport field.

DHL has a longer track-record internationally than such U.S. rivals as FedEx and UPS. It's been more nimble than others to adjust, as companies shift to two-and three-day shipments instead of overnight delivery. And it has kept costs down compared to FedEx by operating a smaller company-owned fleet and contracting space as needed on other carriers, said transport analyst Satish Jindel of SJ Consulting in Pittsburgh.

"DHL is one of the better international carriers in terms of managing its profitability," Jindel said Monday.

Still, South Florida faces challenges to grow in logistics, DHL executives and analysts agree.

Panama is quickly emerging as a trade hub for Latin America. Many companies are setting up warehouses and light manufacturing there to process goods for sales southbound, executives said.

It's also unclear how much new trade South Florida may nab from the expansion of the Panama Canal slated for completion by 2015, compared to other U.S. east coast regions.

Megaships that will soon cross the expanded Canal carrying Asian goods to the U.S. East Coast seek more than deeper channels in deciding where to dock. Shippers also want efficient land links to carry goods from East Coast ports to points north and west, such as Chicago. Other Atlantic seaports are competing.

"What is very important for Miami is to have inland logistics more at the right standards," said Mathieu Floreani, who leads the DHL Global Forwarding division in Miami, "and that depends greatly on rail."

Source: www.sun-sentinel.com - Webview

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Such is the case for German-owned BITZER US, Incorporated, the leading manufacturer of compressors for commercial refrigeration and air conditioning systems.

In 2004 BITZER CEO and Chairman Peter Schaufler decided to build a 45,000 square-foot facility in the United States. He decided upon Oakwood for that investment.

Tuesday Schaufler stood front and center for the ribbon cutting ceremony officially opening BITZER’s new $10 million, state-of-the-art facility on Enterprise Way.

At just over two acres under roof, the 95,000 square-foot structure will be used in conjunction with the existing facility on Chamblee Road, located within walking distance.

"BITZER US, has enjoyed a 35-percent compounded annual growth rate over these past seven years," BITZER US President Peter Narreau said. "This new factory represents a fifty-percent labor force increase over the next two years."

BITZER’s success led to them being named 2013 Industry of The Year by the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce according to Chamber CEO and President Kit Dunlap.

State Senator Butch Miller, Hall County Commission Chairman Dick Mecum, and Oakwood Mayor Lamar Scroggs welcomed Schaufler and his Board of Directors (who traveled from Sindelfingen, Germany, for the dedication) to the Tanners Creek area.

"We welcome BITZER…and their great worldwide reputation for…top quality refrigeration compressors. We in the South love our air conditioning," Mecum joked as he spoke after Senator Miller, even borrowing Miller’s famed chapeau to keep cool under the warm midday sun.

"When you stop and think about (the fifty new employees at the factory)…that brings much more impact to our community than you can even begin to imagine," Mecum added.

"When we start looking around and we find grocery stores and restaurants are beginning to come into Hall County…it’s because of companies like BITZER."

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Automotive parts maker ZF Industries on Wednesday opened its third facility near Gainesville, Ga.

A University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) research study released today shows that Volkswagen Chattanooga activities:

The main import customer for the new Cargolux service is the German freight forwarder Senator International Spedition GmbH, a leading international freight forwarding company specialized in international freight, shipping, packaging and logistics. ‘Cargolux is a trusted and reliable partner who supports us in delivering first class global logistics services to our own customers. The Cargolux network offers us a wide array of options to accommodate with this weekly operation’, said Tim-Oliver Kirschbaum, CEO of Senator International based at the company’s headquarters in Hamburg.

‘Import tonnage on this flight mostly originates in the United States and Asia. At the same time Munich offers us an excellent opportunity to consolidate general cargo intended for other areas in our network ’, said Richard Forson, Cargolux Interim President and CEO.

Dr. Michael Kerkloh, the president and CEO of FMG, the Munich Airport operating company, sees the new cargo service as yet another affirmation of the importance of Munich as an airfreight center: ‘Every day, goods originating in Bavaria, other parts of southern Germany, Austria, eastern Europe and northern Italy are flown from our airport to destinations all over the world. We're looking forward to working together in the coming years with companies like Cargolux on the continuing development of Munich Airport as a cargo hub’.

While Cargolux has previously flown a number of charter flights from the Bavarian capital, this is the airline’s first regular airfreight service to and from Munich. Until now, the airline has relied on its trucking services to transport freight between its Luxembourg hub and Munich and earmarked for farther connections within its worldwide network.

The Munich airport team is looking forward to finally have Cargolux on line. The airport has recently started a push to expand its air cargo activities and attract more all-cargo operators. In 2012, the Munich airport handled around 290,000 tonnes of airfreight and mail.

Source: www.cargolux.com - Webview

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Linde North America, which is based in New Jersey, currently operates a synthetic gas plant in La Porte. With the investment, the company will expand its production capacity and will add a new air-separation unit.

The air-separation unit will produce oxygen and nitrogen, and a new gasification unit will use natural gas to produce synthetic gas, which is used in chemical production.

Linde, like a slew of other chemical and industrial gas companies, plans to take advantage of the low price of natural gas from horizontal drilling in U.S. shale plays for its expansion. Since both industrial gases and chemical plants rely on natural gas for feedstock, they can profit from improving their margins by using cheap shale gas.

“Not only does (shale gas) make our economics better, but it makes our customers’ economics better,” said Pat Murphy, president of Linde North America. “This is a wonderful, wonderful evolution for the Houston Ship Channel and the complex of companies that are there.”

Linde has already begun construction on the expansion, and it plans for the expansion to come on line in the first quarter of 2015.

Murphy did not disclose how many new employees the company would hire due to the expansion, but he said Linde would be adding “dozens” of local jobs in the future.

Furthermore, Murphy noted that Linde is moving its engineering office from Katy to the Westchase area, and it will have space for both its engineers and employees of its gases division.

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