DUBAI- Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DP World, has met with senior executives from India’s Tata Group to explore opportunities for cooperation, knowledge sharing, and best practice.
Discussions covered logistics and supply chain operations, innovative customer care and creating high quality, sustainable services. The meeting was attended by Ahmed Al Haddad, Chief Operating Officer of Jafza, and Mahmood Al Bastaki, CEO of Dubai Trade.
Bin Sulayem outlined DP World’s operations across 40 countries, and its role in enabling trade across the global supply chain by providing industry-leading services, including the Jebel Ali model of integrated port and free zone, which is now gaining popularity around the world. The company has extensive business interests in India, including six container terminals, Inland Container Depots, warehouses and container rail freight services, supporting over 30 percent of the country’s container trade.
It recently acquired a 90 percent stake in Continental Warehousing Corporation, an Indian logistics firm Earlier this January, NIIF, India’s first sovereign wealth fund and DP World had announced the creation of an investment platform Hindustan Infralog to invest up to US$3 billion in ports, terminals, transportation and logistics businesses in India. The Continental acquisition will be the first investment of the platform. "The Tata Group have been an integral part of India’s growth story for 150 years and we also have a deep-rooted relationship with India that have recently expanded our horizons to develop logistics infrastructure. We believe that our both companies can benefit through exchange of knowledge and know how, sharing expertise and experience in areas that deliver solutions to India's growing economy and trade," Bin Sulayem said "We are working to expand business relations with India in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. We aim to share insights on our successful business model in line with the Dubai government’s 2021 policy, and the UAE's post-oil strategy to create a sustainable knowledge-based economy."
The Tata delegates toured Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone, including Terminal 3, T3, the world's largest semi-automated container handling facility with an annual capacity of four million twenty-foot equivalent container units, TEUs. They were briefed on the T3 operational efficiencies, where capacity was increased by 1.5 million TEU last year in response to the high levels of utilisation at the port and with the recovery in volumes, particularly in the lead up to Expo 2020. Indian container imports at Jebel Ali Port have increased annually in the past four years from 205,000 TEUs in 2013 to 254,000 TEUs in 2017, while exports reached 132,000 TEUs.
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