National Air Cargo says it is investing resources to expand the company’s presence in Asia as part of its strategic plan to enhance growth and develop new business opportunities in the Asian marketplace.  The company recently formed a dedicated sales team for Asia and added toll-free phone numbers that will be maintained for extended hours through a dedicated call centre based in Kuala Lumpur.

“This investment is based on our significant growth in the Asian marketplace which has grown by approximately 50 per cent in just the last year alone,” Alan White, Regional Director, Pacific Rim, National Air Cargo said.  “We are confident that this allocation of corporate resources will provide us with a significant return on our investment in this emerging global marketplace.”

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The Dubai Airport Freezone was recently recognised as a strategic partner of Dubai Customs at an awards ceremony held in Dubai.

“Dubai Customs has a large service centre at the freezone to serve the multinational companies operating at the freezone,” says Ibrahim Ahli, Director of Marketing of the Dubai Airport Freezone. “We have been partner for the last decade with the customs department rendering excellent services to our international clients, we shall continue to support them and facilitate their tasks to enable us to give the best of services Dubai is known for.”

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Software as a service could be just what companies need to minimise cash flow.

When Microsoft’s Hotmail was first launched in 1996 the concept of logging into an email account stored on a remote server felt awkward to most of us. “Where are my messages stored?” many of us asked ourselves. “Can someone else read my mail? How can this possibly be free?” Yet the lure of a mailbox accessible anywhere with an Internet connection at no cost was too good to resist. Hotmail quickly took over the world.

Today, a similar idea, known as software as a service (SaaS) is posed to take over in much the same way. Companies such as SAP are now providing popular programmes on-line to clients on a subscription basis, an alternative to selling users licenses to install the software themselves. “You can          Kamel El-Ghossaini
pay a monthly subscription and run the application through the web,” explains Kamel El-Ghossaini, Senior Manager, Supply Chain Solutions for Span Group. “This minimises your hardware costs and minimises your initial investment. But, at the same time, your data will be stored on a third party server.”

Span Group recently began selling integration software Boomi Atomsphere
in SaaS format. Clients can use the programme to connect different software services together. “Integration serves two purposes,” says El-Ghossaini. “The first is application integration, which means connecting your internal systems, for example your warehouse management system with your financial application. The second is business-to-business integration, where you have to integrate with your trading partners.”

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Aptec not only has to move computers and cash as fast as it can, it now has to compete with the most experienced of 3PLs.

As Operations and Commercial Manager for Aptec, one of the region’s largest IT distributionhouses, Mario Veljovic understands that the tangible products his company offers are nothing unique. “The bare IBM laptop is exactly the same as the one you can pick up from our competitors,” he says frankly. “The difference we make is the service we offer, the credit we offer, the price we offer and the overall support we can give them.”

With estimated annual revenues between US$300 million and US$400 million, Aptec distributes thousands of products from leading IT manufacturers to over 3,000 customers in 40 countries. Well-known retailers such as Sharaf DG, Plug-ins Electronics and Jackys Electronics, as well as corporate resellers          Mario Veljovic 
such as Emirates Computers and Alpha Data rely on its services.
“We never sell direct,” says Veljovic. “We only go through indirect channels.”

While the company’s 500 staff members work in offices and distribution centres in the UAE, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and the UK, Aptec serves most of these subsidiaries through its 15,000 sq foot central warehouse in the Jebel Ali Free Zone. The facility contains a full racking system with bin locations, and can handle up to 3,500 pallet positions. On average, 2,000 SKUs of stock worth between US$10 million and US$15 million sit in the warehouse at any given time. The facility processes 30,000 orders and 360,000 order lines per year.

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A consistent effort to go ahead with execution is finally following long-time rhetoric over developing dedicated freight corridors in India. While plans for new corridors are being hatched, LOG.India takes a closer look at the old ones.

The idea of a dedicated freight corridor (DFC) for India was born in early April 2005. In October 2006, a special purpose vehicle, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), was formed to oversee the project. While at the moment only two freight corridors (eastern and western) are sanctioned and work has started on them, there are four more legs to the corridor that are also being considered by the government.

Last month, former member of the Planning Commission, Anwarul Hoda, reportedly said that the commission was ready with a plan for four new dedicated freight corridors: Kolkata-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai, Kharagpur-Vijayawada and Chennai-Goa. If accurate, this plan could be a timely solution. One of the key reasons stated for sanctioning western and eastern corridors is the high rate of saturation in the existing trunk routes of Mumbai-Delhi on the western corridor and Howrah-Delhi on the eastern corridor. The existing system on these routes is believed to be heavily
saturated, with capacity utilisation of 140 to 150 per cent. These new freight corridors are expected to provide long overdue relief and create additional capacity
for future use with a line capacity on the designated routes for another 25 to 30 years.

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Queues and paperwork may soon be a thing of the past for shippers in Dubai.

If Mahmood Al Bastaki’s wish comes true, all trade transactions in Dubai will one day occur online. As Director of Dubai Trade, Al Bastaki oversees the portal described as a single sign on, single window channel to the online services of DP World, Dubai Customs, Economic Zones World, and Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority. Users can register documents and activitiessuch as free zone licenses, manifest and cargo handling services, cargo clearance and haulage, invoicing and payments, and electronic warehouse receipts. “Our main goal is to provide a single window for trade,” he says.

His team has made major headway with the portal since he joined the organisation in December 2006. “For DP World, all the containerised cargo services are now on the Dubai Trade portal,” he says. “For bulk cargo, everything is still off-line, but the exact services that are offered for containerised cargo will soon be added for bulk cargo. We are trying to complete the cycle.”

Last year, Dubai Trade added a highly- popular e-payment gateway to the cycle. The site called ‘Rosoom’ allows DP World and Jafza clients to pay for charges such as customs duties, handling charges and administrative services through the web. Customers can pay with credit card, direct debit, or through online banking with a selection of banks. The programme has already proved a success, with DP World-based transactions alone totalling more than more than 97 million dirhams (US$26.4 million) between April 2008 and April 2009. “Meanwhile, we are adding more services to be paid online,” says Al Bastaki.

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Just when you thought Jebel Ali Free Zone couldn’t get any bigger, Economic Zones World announces a slew of new real estate projects for its flagship operation.

Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) may soon become a bit more hospitable. Its management, Economic Zones World (EZW), is looking beyond standard warehouses to providing services such as showrooms, food courts, labour accommodation, a hotel and convention centre, and office towers. At least five new projects are slated for release in the coming
year. Here are some to watch out for:

Light industrial units
Six blocks of light industrial units cum warehouses will be available in the North Zone of Jebel Ali near roundabout 7, around 300 metres from the port, in September 2009. These 43 warehouse will provide 126 sq metres of front-office space on ground and mezzanine floors, as well as 513 sq metres for light industrial or warehouse use. These buildings stand 10 metres high to allow for storage.

Warehouse showrooms
Jafza is developing 68 units for product display, as well as storage and distribution in its South Zone. “It is not only a showroom,” says Talal Al Hashemi, Managing Director, EZW UAE Region. “It is a showroom, storage, office and light industrial unit all in one.”

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Tenants will soon take hold of their promised plots in the Bahrain Logistics Zone.

Everyone knows the typical story of Gulf real estate: buy your home, office or warehouse while the only tangible evidence of the property is a pile of sand; believe the developer’s promise that the entire area will be fully operational in X number of months; wait X plus 12 months to take hold of the property while the developer finishes surrounding roads and sets up water and electricity; move into the property
as soon as you can; and, having completelyforgotten what the original artists impression looked like, tell yourself, “At least I have a home/office/warehouse.”

This is why I’m a bit surprised when Hamad Fakhro, Assistant General Director for the Bahrain Logistics Zone (BLZ), tells me that his team waited until infrastructure such as roads and electricity on the one sq metre plot of reclaimed land adjacent to the new Khalifa Bin Sulman port was 100 per cent complete before asking customers to sign contracts. “We have handed the contracts over to the potential tenants, and we expect the signed contracts back within the next one or two weeks,” he says. “We made sure that everything was finished, and only then did we bring the contracts and the design codes to the customers.”

Over the past year, his organisation has signed memorandums of understanding
with large companies such as Landmark, CEVA, Danzas and Marina Furniture; and Fakhro expects all the contracts sent out to return signed. “Customers were very eager to join the BLZ in recent times, even with the economic crisis. Also, upon meeting each single company when we handed them the contracts, they were quite excited,” he says. “There are no signs that anyone will change their mind.”

Hamad Fakhro

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Moving 40 rigs 400 times a year takes the perfect  partner, says Warith Al-Kharusi, Logistics Manager, Petroleum Development Oman

Warith  Al-Kharusi  has  a big  job.  As  Logistics Manager  for  Petro-leum Development Oman  (PDO)  he oversees  the  logistics  functions  of Oman’s national  oil  drilling  company.  This  includes  cargo  haulage,  passenger  movements,  leet management  and  emergency  response  across  a more  than  200,000 sq  kilometre  country.  “It’s  a US$300 million a year activity, and  
to do it on your own is very difficult,” says Al-Kharusi.

But in 2005, his job became easier when PDO made the decision to outsource  the movement of  its  rigs and cargo  such  as  pipelines  to  Bahwan DHL  Exel  Supply  Chain.  DHL  essentially serves as a 4PL, managing various  sub-contractors  and  service providers  to move  rigs over 400 times per year.  “We’re talking about 500 next year,” adds Al-Kharusi.

Warith Al-Kharusi

By 2006, PDO could already seeing  the  value  the DHL  relationship was  adding  to  its  business.  Rigs were moving  faster, and  thus sitting idle for less time and drilling for oil more. “We’ve got about 40 rigs  that we move, and if we move them better we can actually  take one rig out of  the  sequence,”  he  explains.  “It’s not  about  only  creating  cost  reduction but also value creation.”

The  transition  to  outsourcing, however, was  not  so  easy. “We  had to invest a lot of time in articulating what we needed out of  the  relationship,” he says. “We created the right expectations,  and  we  created  the right suppliers.”

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If anyone has firsthand knowledge of Gulf shipping it is Captain Mansoor Ghafoor. Before joining the business world in 1987, the current President of the UAE’s National Association of Freight Logistics (NAFL) and Vice President of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) spent 14 years at sea. He recalls his climb from Cadet to Bridge Captain in the Seventies and early Eighties with fondness.

“Ships were different then,” says the UAE national who serves as Chief Executive Officer for the freight forwarding company and shipping agency STALCO. “You learned proper shipping.”

Captain Mansoor Ghafoor

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