STINNES, SCHENKER ANNOUNCE E-COMMERCE LOGISTICS PLAN

STINNES, SCHENKER ANNOUNCE E-COMMERCE LOGISTICS PLAN    Stinnes AG, the German parent company of Schenker, has announced plans to develop seven e-commerce projects for its transportation, chemicals, materials and wholesaling divisions.
   The group aims to provide logistics services to Internet companies for products bought on-line.
   “We have the logistics know-how; we operate over 1,200 locations of our own around the globe; and we have the IT structures needed to move, control and support the product flows,” said Wulf H. Bernotat, chief executive officer of Stinnes.
   This year and next year, Stinnes will spend a total of 40 million euro ($38 million) on the e-commerce projects. It expects that, by the year 2004, the projects alone will generate a sales volume of 1.1 billion euro ($1 billion), and earnings before interest and taxes of 60 million million ($57 million).
   Stinnes said that its “e-fulfillment service line” product will provide transportation by road, rail, air or sea, the operation of warehousing centers, handling of customer products including unpacking, packing and customs clearance, electronic freight bills, tracking, tracing and information on inventory levels in warehouses.
   “Furthermore, the e-fulfillment service also includes the integration of the planning and transaction systems of all the parties involved in the process chains, as well as advice given to customers with regard to their web presentation and even the operation of an IT infrastructure for customers,” the company said.
   Stinnes is currently the logistics service provider for two electronic marketplaces.
   The market for e-fulfillment services will grow to approximately 35 billion euro ($33 billion) in Europe by the year 2004, Stinnes said.
   One of the projects of Stinnes is “IMPORTAL Online,” business-to-business marketplace for imported products.
   In a related development, Schenker, the forwarding and transportation arm of the Stinnes group, said that it has set up an e-fulfillment group with an initial staff of about 10 people.