DHL Global Forwarding inks three-year deal with Ambatovy

DHL Global Forwarding (DHL-GF) has entered into an initial three-year global freight forwarding agreement with Madagascar-based mining conglomerate Ambatovy.

The deal entails two contracts for the provision of on-shore and off-shore services by DHL-GF. On-shore, DHL-GF is responsible for handling import customs clearance for airfreight shipments of mining spare parts into Madagascar. The air- and oceanfreight specialist will then handle delivery to the Ambatovy mine site and transportation services to the mining company’s plant at Toamasina.

DHL is also obligated to provide off-shore international air- and ocean-freight, delivering mining equipment to support Ambatovy’s nickel, cobalt and ammonium sulphate production. The mining company has these operations consolidated at key DHL hubs in the United States (Houston), Canada (Montreal), Europe (Antwerp), Africa (Johannesburg) and China (Shanghai).

Nikola Hagleitner, CEO of Industrial Projects for DHL-GF, explained that the partnership would help Ambatovy “manage its supply chain in order to sustain its operations in Madagascar.” Hagleitner added that DHL’s partnership would “enable Ambatovy to tap into our global expertise in project forwarding, and extensive network spanning over 220 countries and territories – enabling us to operate efficiently even in challenging and remote locations, and more importantly, facilitate global trade flows and the development of infrastructure globally.”

Ambatovy is a joint venture between Sherritt International Corp., Sumitomo Corp. and Korea Resources Corp. The mining operation is a large-tonnage, long-life nickel and cobalt mining enterprise. At full capacity, the Madagascar mine can produce 60,000 tonnes of refined nickel, 5,600 tonnes of refined cobalt and 210,000 tonnes of ammonium sulphate fertilizer annually.