Christian Haug was nominated Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Pudong Int’l Airport Cargo Terminal, Co., Ltd. (PACTL) taking over responsibility as from 1 September this year. A Lufthansa Cargo spokesperson confirmed this personnel decision to CargoForwarder Global. Haug succeeds Lutz Grzegorz, who has headed the Sino-German ground handler since March of 2009.
Christian is anything but a newcomer in cargo handling matters, shown by his role as Lufthansa Cargo Director Sales & Handling Northeast USA, a term that ended in 2012. From his office at New
York JFK Airport, it took him to Shanghai, where he became the cargo carrier’s Director North and Central China, succeeding his iconic predecessor Peter Ullmayer, a real character and true air
cargo veteran who retired because of age reasons. Now, manager Haug goes back to his roots as ground handler of air freight at PACTL, a prime address in cargo matters at Pudong
International.
Setting record after record
PACTL is a Joint Venture, made up of three shareholders: Shanghai Airport (Group) Co., Ltd. (51%), Lufthansa Cargo AG (29%) and JHJ Logistics Management Co., Ltd. (20%). Founded in 1999, the
handling agent breaks one tonnage record after the other year by year. In 2015, the PACTL staff handled nearly 1.6 million tons, an increase of 6.5 percent on 2014. Looking at the import/export
ratio, it is noteworthy that export volumes are no longer dominant as they were in the years before. Meanwhile the wind has changed, seen by the 9 percent increase of air freight imports versus
4.8 percent export tonnage handled by PACTL in 2015. “The ongoing growth in international imports is mainly caused by the rising demand for imported consumer goods, such as perishables,
pharmaceuticals and other high-value articles,” comments Lutz Grzegorz, PACTL’s outgoing Vice President.
Growing buying power spurs imports
This is explained by the fact that China’s middle class is continuously spreading, despite the recent economic slow-down, enabling a growing number of people to buy sought-after items coming from
producers in Europe or North America. As result, an alignment process replaces the decades-long imbalance of goods flown into and out of China.
At Shanghai, PACTL processes just under 50 percent of the entire air freight tonnage handled there. Lately, particularly perishables have become an interesting and fast growing commodity. Only
weeks ago, PACTL’s new cool centre was IATA CEIV Pharma certified, this way becoming fully compliant with all applicable pharmaceutical standards expected from the manufacturers in terms of
facilities, equipment, operations and staff as well as being capable to provide a seamless cool chain transportation between PACTL’s cargo terminal and the aircraft parked at the apron of Pudong
International.
Until now, LH Cargo has not appointed a successor to take over Haug’s job as Regional Director North and Central China from September on.
Heiner Siegmund