The freight management arm of DHL Group on Monday announced the acquisition of Uruguay-based Aero Cargas S.A., giving the company its first direct operation in a country that is experiencing regional and international trade growth.

Latin America has seen strong growth in cross-border trade, including airfreight, in the past couple of years as geopolitical tensions, wars and tariff proliferation make trade in other parts of the world more difficult. DHL Global Forwarding ( XETRA: DHL ) said the investment in Aero Cargo was motivated by Uruguay’s potential to capture more trade flows given its position as an Atlantic gateway to the Mercusor trade bloc, with the Port of Montevideo at the entrance to the primary inland waterway that flows past Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.

But DHL’s annual report on global trade ranks Uruguay No. 130 in the world for connectedness, a measure of a country’s international trade, capital, people and information flows. Uruguay exported $13.5 billion in goods during 2025, the highest figure in 10 years, driven by beef, soybeans and dairy, according to the government of Uruguay. Imports have been growing faster than exports in the past year. The country’s largest trade partners are China, Brazil and Argentina.

The acquisition follows DHL’s 2030 growth strategy of investing in high-growth markets and evolving trade corridors, adding local operating capacity in a market where the company had long worked through an agent. Aero Cargas has served as a DHL agent in Uruguay for more than 30 years. It arranges air and ocean freight, project cargo, land transport and customized multimodal services. It also has a strong track-record in Free Trade Zone operations, pharmaceutical logistics and regional inventory management, DHL said in a news release.

The ability to coordinate freight transportation for large industrial projects is important as Uruguay’s data center sector continues to expand, anchored by massive investments from multinational tech giants and state-backed AI-infrastructure, and the country grows as a top digital hub in South America. DHL has long experience with complex logistics moves, such as transporting heavy machinery, cooling systems and advanced components for large technology projects.

In April 2025, DHL Group said it would invest $2.2 billion over five years in healthcare logistics. About 10% of that is expected to be invested in Latin America.

More than $1 billion worth of pharmaceuticals moves through Uruguay annually as global pharma brands increasingly rely on the country as their regional distribution center for Latin America. Active ingredients and finished products arriving from Europe and North America need to be reprocessed, repackaged and re-exported to markets like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia.

Erik Meade, the head of DHL Global Forwarding Latin America, said the acquisition of Aero Cargo allows DHL to quickly support clients that require precision logistics and temperature-controlled facilities to reach customers in the region.