T

wo logistics companies are capitalizing on Indonesia's expansion and investment opportunities.

The world's leading mail and logistics services group, Germany-based Deutsche Post DHL, is set to invest ¤49.2 million (US$66.72 million) to strengthen its market position in Indonesia.

While Japanese logistics company Yamato Holdings Co. Ltd. launched PT Yamato Indonesia on Tuesday with an initial investment of $1.2 million.

DHL, which marks its 40th anniversary in the country this year, will be allocating ¤40 million to its supply chain division, with the remaining ¤9.2 million going to its express division.

'We are committed to partnering with Indonesia to realize its dynamic market potential and become a major force in intra-Asia trade and the ASEAN trade triangle,' DHL Global CEO Frank Appel said on Tuesday.

The DHL Group expects the Asia Pacific region to generate one-third of its global revenue by 2017.

Business consultant Frost & Sullivan previously projected that the country's logistics industry would grow by 14.5 percent in 2013 to $168.3 billion. Indonesia expects to enjoy further double-digit growth in the coming few years.

Abdul Rahim Tahir, managing director of DHL's Indonesia supply chain, said the investment funds would be used to establish new warehouses in Cikarang, West Java; Surabaya, East Java, and Medan, North Sumatra, to enhance DHL's networks and services.

Abdul said the construction of its new warehouse in Cikarang, which is 21,800 square meters in area, was completed in September and that it had just begun operating.

'We are now working on our facilities in Surabaya and Medan, which will add another 50,000 square meters of space to our warehousing. After that, we are going to expand to Balikpapan [East Kalimantan] and Makassar [South Sulawesi],' he said.

By the end of 2015, he said, DHL planned to see a 60 percent increase in warehouse space, above and beyond its current warehousing space of 164,000 square meters, to bolster its investment in the transportation sector.

Separately, Yamato Holdings has launched Yamato Indonesia to provide logistics consulting services in the country.

'We invested an initial $1.2 million to open a branch office in Jakarta. So far, we plan to provide consulting services only in the city. We will not be delivering goods as our company does in Japan,' PT Yamato Indonesia president director Kazushige Higurashi told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the company's press conference.

He said some of the funds would also be used to hire at least 10 consultants for the company's Jakarta office.

'We will help our clients to maintain their logistics in a better way. For example, we will help them
to develop temperature-controlled warehouses for products that have to be kept at certain temperatures, like food,' Yamato Holdings' executive officer, Makoto Kigawa, told the press conference.

He said the company would also assist its clients to develop information-technology (IT) logistics monitoring to enable them to track the progress of their goods deliveries. (ogi)