time:matters opens Asia office in Singapore

time:matters opens Asia office in Singapore Germany-based courier, same-day and emergency air cargo carrier time:matters, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, said Tuesday it opened an Asian branch office in Singapore at the beginning of this month.
   “With the establishment of the branch office in Singapore, time:matters is taking into account that the need for extremely fast, yet at the same time highly reliable logistics solutions is increasing worldwide — especially on intercontinental routes — which particularly applies to the Asia Pacific region,” the company said in a statement. “Manufacturing processes that are characterized by the increasing outsourcing of individual production steps as well as the continual reduction of storage, also cause logistics — especially in the Asia Pacific area — to be faced with new challenges with regards to speed and punctuality. time:matters orients itself towards these requirements, whereby the focus in the Asia-Pacific region is currently on the car-supplier and the high-tech industries.”
   Mirjam Berle, spokeswoman for time:matters, told American Shipper Tuesday at the Transport Logistic exhibition in Shanghai that the company typically works with logistics companies who on behalf of their customers need to speed delivery of components to keep manufacturing processes ticking.
   “We’re dealing in situations where hours, not days, are important,” she said, adding that it uses a network of more than 500 transportation partners around the globe.
   While time:matters does use Lufthansa, it doesn’t do so exclusively, as it simply selects the routing that delivers cargo at the exact time needed.
   Berle said the company’s business is thriving in an environment where manufacturing has to be shifted quickly as rising costs or other external factors may necessitate. For instance, a company may manufacture components in one part of the world and distribute to assembly plants in another part of the world, rather than add component-manufacturing plants at the manufacturing sites.
   “So they may pay more for our service but it would be far less than maintaining storage in several locations globally,” she said.
   The Singapore office, which will function as the head of Asia operations, will be managed by Andreas Loewenstein. ' Eric Johnson