DHL Supply Chain is building what it claims will be the largest warehouse in Malaysia yet, as well as the country’s first double-story storage facility of its kind.
The 1-million-square-foot mega warehouse located in Shah Alam, Selangor, has an investment cost of MYR100 million (US$31.27 million) and is set to start operations in November.
The facility, to be called Malaysia Integrated Logistics Centre, is seen to double DHL’s local supply chain warehouse footprint with its transportation network and warehousing capacity.
Prakash Rochlani, managing director of DHL Supply Chain Malaysia, said the company has seen the impressive growth of the contract logistics market in Malaysia in recent years and believes this trend will continue. “We’ve therefore identified the country as key to our growth strategy and made the important investment,” he said.
He added that the new logistics facility will create 500 new jobs within the next 24 months, and 1,000 jobs until 2020.
The warehouse is expected to cater to the current and future logistics demand of the country and the region, focusing initially in the areas of technology, fast-moving consumer goods, retail, and spare parts.
The facility eventually plans to expand its logistics offerings to the automotive, engineering and manufacturing, and life science and healthcare sectors.
The warehouse is the newest of three DHL facilities built in the country this year, with the two other purpose-built facilities located in Penang and Johor.
It features a double-ramp system, 111 loading docks of varying levels for different vehicle types, and bonded and environment-controlled storage.
DHL Supply Chain, a wholly owned unit of Germany’s Deutsche Post DHL, plans to further enlarge its local network over the next couple of years by opening six branch networks, increasing the current transport fleet by another 50 trucks, and establishing six more multipurpose facilities.
The company intends to widen its warehousing footprint by 200 percent by 2020 as it projects increasing freight forwarding requirements in the region.
