IGTA Journal - Winter 2020/2021

Of the four DHL divisions, the Supply Chain, that is the Supply Chain Logistics,was hit the most by the Corona crisis. Sales and operating earnings are decreasing. Is the trend in the meantime turning around? During normal business cycle cooling off phases the Supply Chain formerly has been relatively stable. Now we have seen a form of disruption, which we have not seen before. So, over several months, some of our sites had to remain completely closed. - Either because of state regulations or because as an example the production in the automobile factories was stopped for a long time. Within the fourth quarter the situation has stabilized. If one takes out the currency effects, then the turnover in the division in the third quarter organically was only 2% below the previous year amount. I do not expect, that the final yearly quarter will already bring a strong turnaround of the trend, but in 2021 we see very good chances for growth for this division. At the peak of the crisis there has been much talk about the deglobalization and positioning backwards of the supply chains. Do you see this somewhat happening? We are strongly convinced that globalization will proceed further. Only lately have we shown with our study, the DHL Global Connectedness Index, that by way of connecting the world this crisis will be better overcome than everyone has been afraid of. The economic advantages of globalization are for all participants significant. What will come about – and this we are already seeing in our talks with our customers – is the search for an answer to the question, how we can make supply chains more resilient. What can such answers be? When, as an example, a corporation with the supply of the important equipment so far had been dependent on a site in a certain country, then we can now jointly consider with the customer how we can position ourselves more broadly. This will reinforce trends that have already existed before the crisis – for instance when it comes to supplies from China there have been movements into other countries in Asia. Are such adaptations creating problems for Deutsche Post DHL? We feel ourselves well positioned when it comes to eventual rearrangements as to supply chains; not at least because we have the largest global footprint and therefore know how to execute it. Stronger than Supply Chain correlates the B2B - business of Express with the economic development. In spite of the weak worldwide economic development this division, after the first nine months and as measured by turnover and earnings, however comes out positively, can you explain this? B2B business recovered in the third quarter after the weakness in the second quarter of the year and was again close to the previous year's level. However, the growth driver in the Express division was e-commerce, i.e. B2C business. At the end of 2019, we allocated three out of ten shipments to this segment. At present it is around 45% of deliveries. IGTA eJournal | Winter 2020/21 | 24