International freight forwarder Kuehne & Nagel will offer direct Internet booking through its home page for air and sea-freight services for all cargo out of Hong Kong from March 1. Kuehne & Nagel's Asia Pacific managing director Andy Weber said the service would be extended to the mainland later. The company had invested in the Rhythm software from I2 Technologies which enabled it to provide tracking and tracing facilities to all divisions dealing with sea and air, he said. Kuehne & Nagel's Asia Pacific sales and marketing director Jan Lyngdam said the company's tracking and tracing service was product-related and could provide information such as collar size and stock refurbishment, unlike other products which provided purely tracking of air waybill services. He said investment in computer systems was part of the company's overall electronic data processing strategy to link up all its offices worldwide, and would probably be the first traditional freight forwarder to do so. To be a leading supply-chain management service provider, the company started to operate its own container freight station at Hong Kong International Distribution Centre from January 1. The facility, which has been leased for three years, will be used for the 350,000 cubic metres of sea freight and 35,000 tonnes of air freight the company handles annually. Previously, the company sub-contracted Asia Terminals to provide the container freight station and other cargo-related services. Mr Weber said it was necessary to have full control of the operations to provide customers with a supply-chain management service. Kuehne & Nagel recorded an estimated 30 per cent rise in sea-freight and 10 per cent growth in air-freight business in the Asia-Pacific region last year, Mr Weber said. The forwarder saw a 25 per cent rise in exports handled from Asia to 265,000 teu (20 ft equivalent units) and a 6 per cent increase in imports involving 70,000 teu last year, he said. '[Last year] was an excellent year for Kuehne & Nagel Asia Pacific,' Mr Weber said, adding that the company was expecting this year to be strong, too. 'All the signs are positive and with our strengthening of the [electronic] systems, we will be able to absorb additional business which comes to us,' he said. Last year, the firm opened new offices in Fuzhou, Changchun and Suzhou, bringing its mainland office complement to 14. It also opened an office in Cambodia, operating under Kuehne & Nagel Cambodia, which is 100 per cent-owned by Kuehne & Nagel. This brings the Asia-Pacific office complement to 19.