DHL to expand U.S. air cargo hub

Express carrier will spend $108 million to increase cargo handling capacity at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport.    DHL Express will invest $108 million to expand its Americas air hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport in the face of growing demand for international air cargo service, especially for e-commerce shipments.
   The expansion, which is expected to be completed late next year, will provide more gates to accommodate additional aircrafts, additional warehouse space and new equipment for faster sorting of shipments, as well as unloading and reloading planes, the company said.
   The Cincinnati/N. Kentucky hub processes about 46 million international shipments per year for the United States, Canada, Mexico and Latin America. Shipments to and from almost 100 service centers in the United States move through the facility, which also has connections to gateways in Los Angeles, New York and Miami.
   DHL said it received approval from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority for a sales and use tax credit on construction costs, building fixtures, electronic processing equipment as well as equipment used in research and development.
   Including the new funds, DHL will have invested a total of $280 million in the hub since establishing its U.S. international operations center at the Cincinnati/N. Kentucky airport in 2009. The number of personnel has grown from 1,600 to 2,000 during that time.
   DHL investments in its express delivery network in the past 18 months include $200 million to double the size of its European hub in Leipzig, Germany, $85 million for a new Southeast Asia hub in Singapore, and a $177 million expansion program in the Middle East and North Africa.