Situated at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport in southern China, International Cargo Centre Shenzhen (ICCS) has reported a 26 per cent increase in its cargo ground handling services in 2007 versus the same period a year ago.
According to Sunney Sun Daugang, ICCS’ sales and marketing manager, the company handled a total of 113,570 tonnes of cargo in 2007, an impressive growth despite the fierce competition in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region’s air cargo market.
“Since August 2006, Jade Cargo Airlines started to operate (from Bao’an airport) to become one of our biggest customers, and Etihad Airways also started in the second half of 2006, including Donghai Airlines and AirAsia in 2007. Those new customers were the main reasons for the growth in terms of tonnage last year,”he said.
ICCS, officially registered as Shenzhen Airport International Cargo Terminal Co., Ltd (SACTL) is a joint venture between Shenzhen Airport Co., Ltd. (SACL) and Lufthansa Cargo AG (LCAG) with both companies sharing 50 per cent of the total equity.
Sun says although ICCS’ designed capacity was 150,000 tonnes, it could handle up to about 200,000 tonnes of cargo annually.
Asked about ICCS’ expansion plan, Sun says the company’s new terminal was under construction and would open in either May or June 2008. ICCS’ total capacity would then be increased to 400,000 tonnes, he added.
Confirming that the company had a total of 18 airline customers to date, Sun says ICCS’ short term strategy is to strengthen the business of all its existing airline customers, while putting a special focus on hub-carriers such as Donghai, Jade Cargo, Shenzhen Airlines and China Southern Airlines.
“In the medium term, we will be targeting promising markets such as India and the Middle East. Depending on the expansion of certain airlines’ network, we will look at increasing transit and transfer traffic, utilising the many domestic flights as feeder and de-feeder flights for international cargo,”Sun says.
In addition, ICCS is also, in parallel, building up a road feeder service to attractmore cargo to the airport.
“As regards our long term strategy, we are looking at forming strategic partnerships with related airports in our key markets such as Asia, Europe and the Middle East,”Sun said.
The executive points out that ICCS plans on attracting more customers by maintaining its high level of quality services and by working together with other airports and authorities to further improve its infrastructure and processes.
ICCS is also promoting the handling of new products/services such as dangerous goods and perishable cargo.
When asked how ICCS was maintaining its security systems as the US and Europe were becoming very stringent with their security measures, Sun says the company had joined the Transport Asset Protection Association (TAPA) to further improve its 24-hour security system.
The system includes a smart security team of 35 members, a pass-system for access to its facilities that have been approved by police and its own security department. In addition, ICCS also uses 88 digital cameras whose records are kept for 90 days and body scanning machines located at each entry and exit point to safeguard its customers’ cargo.
Sun says that when ICCS’ new terminal begins operations, the security team would be increased to 45 and an additional 40 digital cameras would be installed.
The recruitment of experienced and highly qualified staff in order to meetinternational standards and to create international awareness for Shenzhen wasthe toughest challenge faced by the groundhandler since it was established in 2004,according to Sun.
It’s also an area in which ICCS continues to work very hard at investing, for instance, in human resources, facilities and upgrading operational processes and customer service. In Sept last year ICCS was qualified by Cargo 2000 as meeting its quality management standards.
Moreover, ICCS has also participated in several international trade fairs such as Air Freight Asia in Hong Kong and Air Cargo Europe in Munich.
ICCS also continues to improve the skills of its employees by sending them to attend numerous IATA standards training meeting as well as to work on obtaining qualification and certification of in-house trainers from Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for DGR-training.
To date, the company employs over 300 staff whose numbers will increase after the new terminal comes into operation.
Regarding the installation of Hermes, dubbed the most contemporary ground cargo handling system available today, Sun says it was better than the traditional cargo handling system in that it involves paperless operation, provided real time warehouse service, service level profiling, high level of automation and detailed analysis capabilities.
The benefits from Hermes include increased quality, reduction of operation cost, accurate and measurable performance, and enabled individual service to customers.
As to whether ICCS’ terminal handling charges are comparable to those charged by neighbouring airports like Hong Kong International Airport, Guangzhou, Macau and Zhuhai, Sun says ICCS prefers not to focus on whether it is competitive simply on a terminal charge basis.
“By contrast, we focus on the quality which we off er and our commitment to our customers. If we look at the PRD air cargo market, all I can say is the terminal handling charges of ICCS in Shenzhen is definitely not higher than other international cargo terminals,”Sun said, adding that ICCS’ rates were either cheaper or the same as its counter-parts.