DHL moves to larger facility in Southern California

Parcel delivery provider DHL Express will relocate its service center in California's Inland Empire to a larger facility to accommodate continued growth in international trade and e-commerce, the firm said Thursday.

DHL will relocate from a 39,000-square-foot facility in Ontario, Calif., about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, to a bigger building in the same city. The new facility is a $7 million, 75,000-square-foot unit, including 5,600 square feet of office space.

The larger warehouse also features additional dock doors and two conveyor belts that can process up to 3,000 pieces per hour, DHL said. It will process shipments ranging from documents and small parcels to palletized freight. The move will allow DHL to accommodate fast growth in its customers' international shipping business triggered by the rise of e-commerce, according to a statement by John Fox, general manager for DHL, Western U.S.

DHL's expansion follows the company's announcement in 2016 that it would invest $185 million in its U.S. operations to add the infrastructure, technology, and people needed to handle growing e-commerce volumes. It recently launched a service in the U.S. called "Parcel Metro," where it aggregates local delivery operators to provide local, last-mile services supporting e-commerce fulfillment.

Ontario is located in California's Inland Empire, which includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties and is one of the most rapidly growing economic regions of the country. There was a 15-percent increase in air cargo moving through the Ontario airport from 2016 to 2017, according to statistics from the Inland Empire Regional Chamber of Commerce.