Globe Express Services (GES) has entered into a partnership with Profactory to offer logistics services to companies in Brazil's Manaus Duty Free Zone, just one year after opening its first Brazilian office in Sao Paulo.

Though most foreign-invested companies in the Manaus zone hail from Japan (38 per cent) and the US (18 per cent), there has been increasing penetration by Chinese companies in recent months.

GES said that Manaus has become a major manufacturing platform for re-exports and an important doorway to the Brazilian market, attracting roughly 450 companies to date with joint revenues of US$14 billon.

Commodities handled within the free trade zone include consumer electronics, electrical appliances, InfoTech products, motorbikes and chemicals, with the United States, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Germany among its top export markets.

According to Flavio Padilha, general manager of GES in Brazil: "Our company's global network, with marked presence in the US and Asia, places GES in a strong position to serve this emerging market."

In the long term, Manaus is likely to gain further significance as part of a projected road-river link between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, which is expected to provide an alternative to the Panama Canal, the statement said.