Plan to counter downturn by increasing regional links outside mainland

Panalpina, the Basle-based international freight forwarder, is seeking to boost the number of its strategic partnerships with manufacturers in Southeast Asia to offset the effect of the region's economic downturn.

But it said it had no intention of seeking mainland joint ventures to get a class-A licence that would allow it to offer a comprehensive freight-forwarding service by land, sea and air.

Chairman Gerhard Fischer said the firm had several alliances with manufacturers 'but there is scope for more'.

These deals offer lucrative long-term contracts which encompass the entire logistical chain, from supply of raw materials to parts delivery and distribution of finished products.

These agreements last year helped increase gross revenues by 28.1 per cent to 5.43 billion Swiss francs (about HK$28.4 billion) and push gross profit up 21.2 per cent to 896 million francs.

Panalpina has agreements with Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications giant, for forwarding systems to the mainland and the Commonwealth of Independent States; with Scandinavian engineering giant ABB for intercontinental transport and logistics services; General Motors and its parts subsidiary Delphi Automotive Services; and Volkswagen.