Navia Deepens Southeast Asia Reach With New Office in Johor Bahru
The company’s second Malaysian location puts it on Singapore’s doorstep and one of the world’s busiest trade corridors
This week, Navia announced the opening of its freight forwarding office in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, continuing its expansion as a global player. This is its second location on the Malay Peninsula, its twelfth in APAC, and the next phase in its growth journey. The choice of Johor Bahru as a location was based on a few key factors: Singapore is on the doorstep, deeper coverage across Malaysia, and a relentless ambition for growth.
“Our expansion has always followed our customers…. Johor Bahru is us continuing to back the core markets that matter to them.”
Johor Bahru sits minutes from Singapore, connected by the world’s busiest land border crossing, with over 350,000 crossings a day (roughly four times the daily volume of San Diego–Tijuana’s San Ysidro crossing, which the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics says is 87,569 crossings a day). A new rail link, opening later this year, will make that journey just five minutes.
The state is also home to Port Tanjung Pelepas, the world’s 15th-busiest seaport, handling over 14 million TEUs a year, and Senai International Airport. Since January 2025, the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) has enabled duty-free trade and a single permit for land cargo moving between the two countries, targeting RM260 billion (approximately S$81 billion) in GDP for the zone, with 7% annual growth by 2030 according to Johor state government predictions.
In practice, that gives Navia customers a team with direct access to Singapore via sea and land. Take a shipment from Shanghai landing at Tanjung Pelepas: freight that once needed to clear through a third-party agent before reaching Singapore can now move under one Navia team, with one coordinated Navia solution, from origin port, to bonded storage, to final delivery. All of it is tracked with the same Critical Chain exception visibility and live reporting from the NaviaHub that Navia’s customers already use every day.
The new office extends Navia’s coverage across Malaysia. Alongside its existing Penang office, the Johor Bahru team now places Navia near Port Tanjung Pelepas, where a significant share of its freight already moves through.
The Johor Bahru office marks the second expansion Navia has made this year, following the launch of TCI Navia in China in August, another step in the company’s growing footprint.
“Our expansion has always followed our customers, not the other way round. We’ve been invested in Malaysia for seven years, and Johor Bahru is us continuing to back the core markets that matter to them. This is another step forward, not just for Malaysia but for what we’re building right across the region. What excites me most is the talent we’re adding on the ground and the capability we’re bringing in-house, so customers get the full Navia ecosystem working for them as one team.”, said Simon Borg, Group CEO of Navia.
About Navia
Navia is a global freight forwarder and 3PL provider. Founded in Australia in 2003, Navia has grown into one of the largest independently-owned logistics providers in the market, with offices across Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United States. Being independently owned allows the Navia team to provide customers with the network and reach of a multi-national, coupled with the care and attention freight requires. All of this is backed by the NaviaHub proprietary platform, which gives customers real-time SLA reports and exception management down to the SKU-level.
This press release was published as it was received from our partner, without any editing from The Business Times (BT) team.
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