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AP Moller-Maersk
Maersk Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah Port enter strategic partnership
Deal to establish Maersk’s first petrochemical hub in the Kingdom
Maersk Saudi Arabia recently announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with King Abdullah Port, the region’s first privately owned, developed and operated port, to enhance the Kingdom’s logistics capabilities by adding state-of-theart services and technologies to the port’s offerings.
As part of the partnership, both the entities signed a deal to set up Maersk Integrated Logistics Hub, a non-bonded warehouse, to provide comprehensive logistics services and benefit local petrochemical exporters.
The agreement was signed by Mohammad Shihab, Managing Director, Maersk Saudi Arabia, and Jay New, CEO, King Abdullah Port, in a ceremony held at King Abdullah Port. The signing ceremony was attended virtually by Richard Morgan, Regional Managing Director, Maersk West & Central Asia.
Logistics hub
The Maersk Integrated Logistics Hub at King Abdullah Port will cover an important logistical requirement of exporters who already have access to Maersk’s solutions such as landside movement of cargo, customs clearance, and ocean logistics, thus ensuring a truly integrated logistics offering.
The hub will serve as the focal supply chain solution, primarily
for Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical exporters, through the large space allocated for handling and storing cargo. It will play an important role in facilitating the storage of export cargo and enable pallet handling, stuffing and shuttling.
Major initiative
The establishment of the hub is part of a major initiative aimed at increasing the performance efficiencies and competitiveness of Saudi Arabia’s logistics sector. It is also in line with the objectives of Vision 2030, which include transforming the Kingdom into a top global logistics hub connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa, increasing the non-oil exports, and improving the Kingdom’s global ranking on the Logistics Performance Index from 49 to 25.
Located within a two-kilometre radius from the terminal yard and directly adjacent to the customs inspection zone, this hub’s strategic location will greatly benefit the exporters by saving time. Furthermore, most of the exporters based out of the manufacturing hub of Yanbu have had to truck their cargo almost 350 km to Jeddah for loading onto vessels.
With the Maersk Integrated Logistics Hub at King Abdullah Port, this distance has been drastically reduced to 200 km. Exporters currently require 14 to 18 days from receiving the booking to loading the material on the vessel.
New capabilities
With the new hub, this process will now take only 6 to 8 days, given material availability,
AP Moller-Maersk accelerates fleet decarbonisation with 8 large ocean-going vessels
In the first quarter of 2024, AP Moller-Maersk will introduce the first in a groundbreaking series of 8 large ocean-going container vessels capable of being operated on carbon neutral methanol.
The vessels will be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and have a nominal capacity of approx. 16,000 containers (TEUs).
The agreement with HHI includes an option for four additional vessels in 2025. The series will replace older vessels, generating annual CO2 emissions savings of around 1 million tonnes.
Additional capital expenditure (CAPEX) for the dual fuel capability, which enables operation on methanol as well as conventional low Sulphur fuel, will be in the range of 10-15% of the total price, enabling Maersk to take a significant leap forward in its commitment to scale carbon neutral solutions and lead the decarbonisation of container logistics.
“This order proves that carbon neutral solutions are available today across container vessel segments and that Maersk stands committed to the growing number of our customers who look to decarbonise their supply chains,” stated Soren Skou, CEO, AP MollerMaersk.
“This the ideal large vessel type to enable sustainable, global trade on the high seas in the coming decades and from our dialogue with potential suppliers, we are confident we will manage to source the carbon neutral methanol needed,” commented Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, CEO, Fleet & Strategic Brands, AP Moller-Maersk.
thus reducing the turnaround time, increasing efficiency, and improving competitive advantage through reduced logistics costs. The reduction in trucking wills also positively contribute towards environmental sustainability through reduced emissions.
Maersk is initially investing in 100,000sqm. of warehousing space during the first two years of operations at the hub, to cater to the annual throughput that will reach 1 million metric tons by third year as demand from exporters grows over the years.
“The Maersk Integrated Logistics Hub at the King Abdullah Port is an important milestone on our journey of providing logistics solutions for our customers in Saudi Arabia,” affirmed Shihab.
“The strategic partnership between Maersk and King Abdullah Port is an important step in raising the efficiency of the Kingdom’s logistics sector and boosting our capabilities in logistics and trade in line with the Vision 2030 objectives. We are confident that this will significantly enhance the port’s outstanding operational capabilities by enabling us to provide sophisticated services seamlessly,” asserted New.
Maersk is initially investing in 100,000sqm of warehousing space. In future catering to the annual throughput that will reach 1 million metric tons by third year as demand from exporters grows.
Maersk signs shipbuilding contract for world´s first container vessel fueled by carbon neutral methanol
Hyundai Mipo Dockyards to build the 2100 TEU feeder vessel
AP Moller-Maersk and Hyundai Mipo Dockyards have recently agreed on a contract for Hyundai Mipo to build a feeder vessel with a dual engine technology enabling it to sail on either methanol or traditional very low sulphur fuel.
Maersk announced the intention to order the vessel, an industry first, on 17 February 2021. It will fly the Danish flag.
“From 2023 we will offer a truly carbon neutral product for our many customers who look to us for help to decarbonize their supply chains,” commented Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, CEO, Fleet & Strategic Brands, AP Moller-Maersk.
The feeder will be 172 meters long and will sail in the network of Sealand Europe, a Maersk subsidiary, on the Baltic shipping route between Northern Europe and the Bay of Bothnia.
The methanol propulsion configuration for the vessel will be developed by MAN Energy Solutions and Hyundai Engine and Machinery (main engine) and Himsen (aux engine) in collaboration with Hyundai Mipo and Maersk.
“While we are pioneering these solutions for our industry, we are working with well-proven technologies and the cost potential from further scaling is becoming very clear to us,” remarked Ole Graa Jakobsen, Head of Fleet Technology, AP Moller-Maersk.
GatewayRail becomes India’s first rail operator to join Tradelens
LSP modernizing customers’ supply chains by offering secure digital documentation
GatewayRail, India’s leading intermodal logistics service provider and rail-linked Inland Container Depots (ICD) operator, has become the first rail operator in India to join TradeLens, a blockchain-underpinned digital logistics platform, jointly developed by AP Moller–Maersk and IBM.
The association between GatewayRail and TradeLens is a major milestone in digitizing India’s vast inland container logistics ecosystem with a significant impact on efficiency gained by exporters and importers.
TradeLens brings together data from the entire global supply chain ecosystem. This data allows TradeLens and its network partners to modernize manual and paperbased documents by replacing them with blockchain-enabled digital solutions.
It also allows the network partners to provide their customers with deeper visibility into the entire journey for their cargo from origin to destination.
Customers moving import and export containers on these services will be able to make full use of the solutions provided on the TradeLens platform such as the TradeLens eBL, an electronic Bill of Lading using blockchain technology and integrated with trade finance companies and the Core product that offers true end-to-end visibility in addition to digital documentation.
“At GatewayRail, we have a commitment towards ease of doing business through digitisation of logistics. Joining the TradeLens platform allows us to lead the change in Indian intermodal logistics ecosystem,” remarked Sachin Bhanushali, CEO and Director, Gateway Rail Freight Ltd.
“There is no doubt that digitizing supply chains will ultimately help in bringing down the total cost of logistics, which is an important cornerstone of the National Logistics Policy,” commented Bimal Kanal, Head of TradeLens, South Asia.
