DHL named Africa's top international freight forwarder

Roger Olsson, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding Sub Saharan Africa, who received the award, said: “DHL offers tailor-made solutions to businesses in Africa and it’s a service that’s second to none. It’s a tribute to DHL’s strong African team that their dedication to excellence in international freight forwarding has been recognised yet again. DHL has been supporting the business in Africa for more than 35 years now but what’s most important is that we have continued to anticipate, adapt and create services that clearly meet Africa’s fast evolving business needs and help fulfill its vast potential.”
According to the 2014 year-end report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), trade activity across the African region remained positive despite major economies Nigeria and South Africa underperforming for parts of 2014. Regional growth supported demand for air freight and capacity rose just 0.9% for the year as a whole, helping to strengthen load factors.
African carriers’ freight tonne kilometers (FTKs) grew by 12.2% in December and 6.7% for the year as a whole. Globally, the air cargo business is growing again after several years of stagnation with demand growth up 4.5% compared to 2013 measured by freight FTKs.
DHL Global Forwarding was recognized for being the leading service provider in the region’s air freight industry. With a focus on the Oil and Gas and the Mining sectors in the past few years, DHL’s freight management team has been very successful in developing customized solutions for customers in these sectors. “We also saw significant volume growth in Africa in both its regular and charter operations connecting all regions with Africa for the Oil and Gas and the Mining sectors. In addition, the India-Africa and China-Africa lanes are growing strongly, driven mainly by the life sciences, pharmaceutical and high tech sectors,” Olsson said.

Roger Olsson collects the STAT Times award as the Air Freighter of the year. (Picture STAT Times)