Nippon Express Vietnam to open bonded warehouse in Hanoi's Minh Quang Industrial Zone

Nippon Express (Vietnam) Company Ltd. (president: Masakazu Shirai), a subsidiary of Nippon Express Co., Ltd. (president: Masanori Kawai), is building its own bonded warehouse within the Minh Quang Industrial Zone on the outskirts of Hanoi. Construction is scheduled to be completed in December 2008.

Like China and Thailand, Vietnam is attracting increasing interest as an overseas base for Japanese companies because of the availability of a high-quality labor force and improvements to the investment environment following Vietnam's accession to the WTO. Some 250 Japanese companies, among them electrical and precision equipment manufacturers, have already set up operations in Vietnam's second largest city Hanoi and environs, and the growing number of foreign companies in the area has generated a rapid rise in the demand for warehouse space.

NE Vietnam was established in July 2000 and is engaged primarily in air cargo forwarding, ocean cargo forwarding, and overseas removals. The construction of this large-scale warehouse will enable the company to enhance its logistics functions and otherwise meet the wide-ranging logistics needs of customers.

The Minh Quang Industrial Park is situated along National Route 5, connecting Hanoi with the port of Haiphong, the gateway to northern Vietnam, and is only 90 minutes from Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport; the convenience offered by the site has made it one of the more popular locations for expansion by Japanese companies. The park is also expected to serve as a base for trade between China and Vietnam due to its easy access to the border route connecting Vietnam and China, and the new warehouse being built in this park will become a transit point in northern Vietnam along the SS7000 road transport route.

The new warehouse will be equipped with temperature-controlled facilities as well as Nippon Express' proprietary warehouse management system REWARDS, enabling it to provide customers with Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), Just-in-time (JIT) inventory and other high-quality logistics services.