Its latest investment in the region has taken the form of a hazardous materials facility at Santa Rosa in the Philippines, built at a cost of approximately US$1.717 million.
"Philippines is our longest established market in the Asia Pacific region. The new Santa Rosa operation represents a breakthrough for the organisation, and the country, as it is one of the very few logistics services facilities in the Philippines to offer hazardous material storage and handling services. We chose the Philippines because of its resilient economy, highly educated workforce, and good infrastructure," Circle president and chief operating officer for the Asia Pacific region, Paul Graham, said.
The Philippines is already a major market for the company.
It has 12 offices and 250 employees in the country, covering a wide range of industries and logistics activities. These include ocean non-vessel-operating-common-carrier (NVOCC) operations, Customs brokerage, and air and ocean freight forwarding.
As the logistics industry booms in Asia, its particular application to chemicals and hazardous materials is becoming a strong niche market. As recently reported in Cargonews Asia there has been activity also in Singapore in installing new state-of-the-art facilities in this speciality.
It appears to be an area of activity where manufacturers and suppliers are especially happy to leave logistics activities to third party vendors while they concentrate on their own core competencies.