International express mail services company DHL Express has announced a restructure plan to cut 9500 jobs in the US and close down US domestic operations.

DHL Express is a division of German based Deutsche Post World Net, which is world's largest logistics group with 520,000 employees in more than 220 countries.

The decision to windup US domestic operations is mainly due to credit crisis and tough competition from rivals like FedEx and UPS Inc. In last one year DHL lost almost $1.5 billion in US division.

The DHL Express unit currently employs some 18,000 workers. Deutsche Post said its other operations in the U.S. won't be affected by its decision to close all of its U.S. ground hubs and reduce the number of stations from 412 to 103 across the U.S.