RI exporters confident about sales

RI exporters confident about sales

By Vincent Lingga

SINGAPORE (JP): Indonesian exporters are predicting strong
sales over the next 12 months, concluded a recent survey
conducted by the Gallup Organization at the order of DHL
Worldwide Express.

"Respondents from Indonesia were the most bullish of all
countries surveyed for new export orders from overseas in the
next 12 months," Graham K. Davey, DHL's managing director for
Southeast Asia, said at the World Trade Congress here yesterday.

Davey presented the results of the survey conducted last month
in Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam in a special session. The survey was based
on 75 in-depth interviews in each country with high-level
executives of major exporting companies and multinational
corporations. A total of 623 top decision makers in exporting
businesses were involved.

Indonesian exporters, according to the survey, consider costs
and economic conditions to be the most important factors
affecting their performances.

"They see other ASEAN countries as one of the most promising
markets for export growth, followed by Europe, China and Japan,"
Davey added.

DHL Worldwide Express, which reported US$3.1 billion in sales
turnovers in 1994, consists of two separate and independent
private companies: The Brussels-based DHL International, which is
responsible for all non-U.S. based express operations; and DHL
Airways Inc., headquartered in Redwood City, California, which
serves all locations within the U.S. and its territories.

Lufthansa and Japan Airlines each have a 25 percent share in
DHL International.

DHL conducts its operations in Indonesia through its local
partner, PT Birotika Semesta.

The bullish sentiment revealed is somewhat different from the
views expressed by most businesses in Indonesia over the past
year, which saw a significant downward trend in export growth.

"Reflecting upon last year, 69 percent of the respondents
described their expectations for new export orders over the next
12 months as good or excellent," Davey said.

The survey showed that Indonesian exporters find certain
economic conditions to be the biggest obstacles to export growth.

"Ten percentage points greater than the average for all the
eight countries surveyed," Davey noted.

Trade restrictions were cited as the second biggest export
inhibitor, followed by costs and company performance.

According to DHL's regional director for marketing, Colman
Ridge, the rationale for his company's sponsoring of the export
survey is economics.

"Packages and express freight are now both the largest source
of our income and the fastest growing segment of our market,"
Ridge noted.

He quoted a 1995 Boeing report, which projected that air
express freight worldwide will grow by 18 percent annually
between 1995 and 2014, compared to only 6.6 percent in general
air cargo. The cross-border air express freight market was
estimated at US$6 billion last year.

Intra-Asia trade will post the highest annual growth at 19.3
percent in air express freight market, followed by Asia-North
America at 18.7 percent, Asia-Europe 17.2 percent and N. America-
Europe at 16.4 percent, Ridge added.

"Our records in Southeast Asia have been most impressive. Our
air express freight growth for export related products was a
staggering 59.3 percent last year," he noted.

According to a 1995 report by the Air Cargo Management Group,
DHL, which links over 80,000 business centers in more than 220
countries, has been the international air express market leader
with 44.70 percent of global volume as of the middle of 1995.

Federal Express is the second largest with 20.4 percent,
followed by United Parcel Service with 12 percent and TNT with
11.4 percent.

DHL also claims to be the leader in the markets of express
documents and parcels with an average market share of about 40
percent.

Ridge said DHL runs almost 500 service centers in 37 countries
in Southeast Asia and the Far East.

Davey explained how an express courier service company like
DHL has been transformed from mostly a mover of documents and
packages.

"We have become a key logistics service provider for companies
needing fast and time definite regional ad global distribution
on a door to door basis," he said.

He said express delivery firms are now playing a pivotal role
in the implementation of just-in-time manufacturing and global
sourcing and manufacturing.