U.S.-based global third-party logistics solutions provider UWL has expanded its global footprint with the opening of its first office in China in Shanghai’s Bund area. UWL began servicing customers on Dec. 1.
“2021 and 2022 were years of tremendous challenge for UWL and our customer base, who to this day, remain heavily invested in China and Asia for their manufacturing needs,” UWL President Duncan Wright said. “This expansion is part of our strategy to be physically closer to our customers’ factories and our ocean network and carrier partners. The better we can collaborate on solutions and have more direct control of origin services, the better we can support our customers.”
The Shanghai location is the fourth new office opening for UWL in the last 12 months, following an office in Chicago in November 2021, and locations in Long Beach, Calif. and Vietnam in April 2022.
UWL Vice President Martin Karczewski, whose team is responsible for carrier and agent relationships across the globe, said that with Shanghai being the busiest port in the world, most of UWL’s customers have some relationship to central China.
“Being physically located here allows us to respond faster to their needs and concerns, and we improve our ability to access multiple capacity types, be it via agent relationships or direct carrier relationships,” he explained.
“We are confident that this office will act as a control tower for UWL’s operations across China,” Wright added. “Even though China has seen recent political change and strict COVID protocols, at the end of the day, it remains a huge and complex market that feeds a large percentage of U.S. demand.”
“To take UWL to the next level,” he remarked, “we need to have boots on the ground to manage cargo both globally and locally, and we will continue to add strategic international office locations in the near future.”