DHL Global Forwarding and Freight is to offer multi-modal services that combine air, road, rail and sea transport from China to the rest of the world. The company says the initiative will ease the capacity shortage for air and ocean freight from China and will help companies reduce their transport costs by 20 to 50 per cent and carbon emissions by up to 89 per cent. Freight volumes from China and Asia as a whole are booming and intra-Asia trade is forecast to grow at a compound rate of 6.2 per cent, while air cargo volumes between North America and China are expected to grow by eight per cent compounded between 2010 and 2019 and 6.8 per cent compounded for the same period between Western Europe and China. DHL says multi-modal will combat the seasonal capacity shortages that are expected to remain in place for the next two to three years. source: acap