DHL Supply Chain chief executive Hendrik Venter says global trade is adapting rather than retreating, despite an increasingly volatile International environment.
Businesses have faced a relentless series of disruptions in recent years, from the Covid pandemic to war in Ukraine and escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Those pressures have prompted repeated warnings that globalisation is in retreat and that trade will increasingly shift towards more localised patterns.
But Venter, who took over as chief executive of DHL Supply Chain last year, argues those predictions are overstated.
“We’ve come to live with volatility,” he told City AM, adding that the disruption felt since Covid has become a permanent feature of the trading environment.
“Coming out of Covid, we went into the conflicts, the Ukrainian war, which is now four years going,” he said, suggesting businesses have grown more sophisticated in managing uncertainty.
“Global trade is alive and well,” Venter added. “I don’t think people or companies are retracting from global trade.”
Companies are now reassessing where they source goods, where they store them and how exposed they are to potential disruptions.
“Supply chains are now becoming real boardroom discussions,” Venter said. “It’s not a function managed far away anymore.”
He said companies are examining where bottlenecks and breaking points exist, and making decisions about sourcing, storage and demand accordingly.
A recent report from the National Preparedness Commission warned Britain remains vulnerable to major supply chain shocks, arguing ministers should do more to prepare for future pandemics and geopolitical conflict.
DHL, which operates around 3,200 warehouses globally and manages 55 million square metres of warehousing space, has already been absorbing those disruptions directly.
Conflict around the Strait of Hormuz has increased pressure on shipping routes, while airspace closures have created capacity constraints for freight operators.
“It is a bit of a perfect storm at the moment,” Venter said. “You’ve got elevated energy costs, fuel prices increasing, you’ve got capacity challenges and you’ve got increasing demand.”
The company has responded by using alternative ports and combining sea, air and road transport to keep goods moving when traditional routes are disrupted.
“We have the ability to quickly activate our ground fleet, use different ports and then truck it,” he said, though he acknowledged this approach is more expensive and less sustainable over time.
“We’re definitely seeing that companies are re-routing their supplies, they’re diversifying and they’re forming new alliances,” he argued, citing the redirection of US-China trade flows as one example.
Beyond geopolitical pressures, Venter identified the rapid buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure as a significant driver of supply chain activity in 2026.
Data centres require vast amounts of equipment, including cooling systems, power supplies, server racks and specialist components, all of which must be transported and installed at scale.
DHL recently added more than 700,000 square metres of warehousing linked to data centre projects within a single year, reflecting the scale of investment flowing into AI infrastructure.
According to Venter, AI-related products accounted for 41 per cent of global growth during the first three quarters of 2025.
The company launched 665 analytics and AI projects last year and now has around 8,500 robots working across its warehouses, though Venter pushed back on suggestions that automation leads inevitably to job losses.
“We have 8,500 robots deployed across our businesses and we still increased our headcount,” he said, emphasising that technology is intended to support workers rather than replace them.
DHL Supply Chain employs around 184,000 people globally, including more than 30,000 in the UK, and Venter expects people to remain central to the Business going forward.
“We’re focusing on building a hybrid workforce,” he said. “AI augments our people and enhances their productivity.”