Almajdouie Logistics (MLC) has seen its business grow in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia to the point it now executes a similar tonnage as in its traditional stronghold in the Eastern Province.

According to the chief executive of Almajdouie Logistics, S I Mustafa, each of the two regions now totals business of a million freight tonnes on an average annually.

Focus on the west is growing with the region securing projects entailing 2.2 million freight tonnes that are to be executed in the next 18 to 24 months.

Almajdouie Logistics has won a share of the new business. It will be providing onshore services to Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) which was awarded a Saudi Electricity Company contract worth $3.3 billion to build a heavy oil-fired plant in Jeddah South.

Almajdouie will handle 500,000 freight tonnes of equipment including turbines, generators and boilers.

The evaporator of 5,736.8 tonnes that was transported by Almajdouie, after its arrival from Vietnam, to the site of the Yanbu 3 desalination project

The company will also handle project cargo and offer onshore services such as customs clearance, transportation  of general, containerised and super-heavy cargo for the construction of Rabigh Arabian Water and Electricity Company (Rawec)’s power plant. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was awarded the project which involves a total volume of 150,000 freight tonnes. Almajdouie began executing its part of the project from early 2014. 

The company is also actively involved in the Yanbu 3 seawater desalination project and has secured contracts for the Shuqaiq power plant and the Jizan Refinery project. The refinery, to be located in Jizan Economic City, will be export-oriented and have capacity of 400,000 barrels per day. Saudi Aramco is building the refinery in two phases.

For the Yanbu 3 desalination plant, which is being built by Doosan, Almajdouie transported an evaporator weighting 5,736.8 tonnes which it believes to be the world’s heaviest of its kind. The equipment was fabricated in Vietnam and shipped to Yanbu in May. It was the first of six evaporators that will be sent to the project site. Four will be fabricated in Vietnam and two at Bilfal Heavy Industries in the kingdom. Almajdouie executed the roll-off operation at the Yanbu jetty and the subsequent transportation to the project site.

Mustafa signed an agreement with K J Park, general manager of Daelim Corporation, Korea, for providing logistics services in the Rabigh CP 1 and 2 project. Almajdouie will handle 150,000 freight tonnes over a one-year period.

Almajdouie has worked with Daelim over several years and many contracts among which were Saudi Kayan, Satorp, Yanbu Export Refinery and Sadara. At a gala dinner, Park honoured Mustafa, presenting him with a plaque of appreciation for Amajdouie’s dedicated and commendable performance in many completed contracts.

“Almajdouie has substantial resources in the Western Region with huge infrastructure facilities such as three terminals covering more than 600,000 sq m. One of the terminals is close to Jeddah port and the other two are in the vicinity of Jeddah and all of them cater to the handling requirements of project cargoes and export operations.

“We offer superior, cost-effective and assertive facilities and crew and equipment along with a dedicated and professional management team to handle things with utmost care,” said Mustafa.

“Our operations enable project clients a single-window operation,” he added.

OTHER LOGISTIC SERVICES

On the logistics of petrochemicals and other products, Mustafa said: “Our long-term contacts with Yanpet, Yansab, Natpet and PetroRabigh have kept us busy in the Western Region, and exports of all plant material are done from Jeddah, Yanbu and the recently started King Abdullah Port in Rabigh.

Recently, Almajdouie concluded a deal with Hempel Paint to provide services in inter-branch movement for five years. Under the deal, Almajdouie will handle the transportation and distribution of Hempel products from its factories in Dammam and Jeddah to their warehouses countrywide.

Mustafa and Al Sayed of Hempel exchanging documents at a contract signing ceremony

Mustafa and Hempel country manager Yusuf Al Sayed, signed the contract.  Hempel started its business relationship with Almajdouie in 2010 and the logistics firm gradually increased its operational fleet as business advanced.

“Our terminal facilities in the Western Region provide our clients an excellent platform. Even Jubail plants such as Ibn Zahr, Saudi Kayan and Petrokemya export their containers mostly from Jeddah because of lead times and vessels availability that are better than in the Eastern Province,” Mustafa stated.

“Approximately, we can say we handle around 1.8 million teu yearly from which around 1.047 million teu is accounted for by the Western Region. The region also accounts for around half of the 450,553 teu we export annually.”

Almajdouie offers logistics services to FMCG companies in the kingdom, assisting in the management of their warehouses and distribution of products kingdom-wide. The products include potable water, dairy products, burgers, garments and houseware.

Almajdouie is also proud of its role in the Makkah Metro project. It provided logistics support to Fracht, forwarder of Siemens, who supplied electrical inputs including transformers and cables. This cargo amounted to 100,000 freight tonnes and had to be moved 80 km from Jeddah to Makkah.

CUSTOMER CARE

Customer care is one of the fortes of Almajdouie, Mustafa said. He recalled his firm was approached by an EPC contractor with a request it complete a job that another logistics company was unable to tackle. “Although we were busy, we provided them professional, tailored services to meet their deadline and this was appreciated. “You can find many small companies to manage your task but you cannot expect to see professionalism and experience in all of them. Experience does not have short cuts,” affirmed Mustafa.

“Almajouie’s most important asset is its human resources.”