One of the region’s top logistics firms is riding a wave of optimism having bagged in the first quarter of this year a number of contracts for handling freight.

Almajdouie Group Logistics expects to cross 11 million tonnes in the handling of all kinds of cargo this year. That will be a moderate increase over the 2010 figure, a senior official has said.

'In Q1 2011 we signed more than 10 agreements, of which three are major contracts, each covering 850,000 tonnes. Other major contracts are on the way and these could be signed in the coming months,' said Almajdouie Group Logistics vice president SI Mustafa.

Mustafa said project cargo in the first quarter of this year was slow but it picked up in the second quarter and could gather pace in the remaining quarters. He added that petrochemicals cargo was steadily growing and the group had already dealt with around 2 million tonnes in the first quarter, he said.

Total cargo handled across all sectors in 2010 was 10 million tonnes against 8 million tonnes in 2009. The 2010 figure looked a lot better because two new plants started operations, enabling Almajdouie’s cargo tally to rise by 2 million tonnes that year.

Project handling success
Over the past 12 years, Almajdouie proved very successful in project handling and management, maintaining a market share of 67 to 93 per cent of projects granted by overseas EPC contractors over that period, said Mustafa. The company had a particularly good year in 2007 as regards project cargo when it handled nearly 2 million tonnes. In 2010, the group transported six evaporators of 4,700 tonnes each in Abu Dhabi, which the official said were the largest of their kind in the world. In the difficult times that the Gulf was going through in 2010, Almajdouie Group was able to transport 350,000 tonnes of project cargo. This year, Mustafa says, that figure could rise to 1 million tonnes and double up to 2 million tonnes in the following year.

Mustafa: pressing ahead to draw more business to Almajdouie

Almajdouie is also proud of its achievements in petrochemical logistics. 'We’re on top, handling over 65 per cent of polymers produced in Saudi Arabia,' Mustafa stated. The services are wide ranging and include product management, silo management, silo maintenance , maintenance of packaging machines and management of warehouses plus such varied services as packaging, palletising and inventory control, container stuffing, loading of bulk trucks and seabed containers, moving material to the company’s terminals and ship to port matters including documentation and so on.

‘To manage such huge operations we developed the world’s second largest terminal at Jubail which covers an area of 488,000 sq m and deals with a yearly average exceeding 500,000 teu,' stated Mustafa.

The company has also been active in its offerings to fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms in Saudi Arabia. The services include management of their warehouses and distribution of goods to retail outlets and satellite warehouses around the kingdom. Almajdouie currently handles an amazing variety of goods including potable water, dairy products, burgers, oil, gas, paints, garments and household articles. Almajdouie is serving more than 20 clients exclusively on long-term contracts, which places it among the top logistics operators for the FMCG sector.

Quite a pack
Almajdouie Group now embraces 14 specialist logistics companies operating across the region. Activities of Almajdouie Logistics World include general transportation, the movement of heavy and oversized goods and engineering. It has developed special skills in lifting and erection. The company has also managed to gain business in contract logistics and tours and travels.

Almajdouie Logistics World owns and operates the resources it needs to undertake assignments, the company emphasises.

It will be transporting eight over-sized and super-heavy 'bullet' tanks to the Jubail Export Refinery Plant (JERP) of Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (Satorp). The first bullet has been moved and the remainder will be transported by mid-June. These were fabricated by Zamil Steel.

Almajdouie has also moved two big boiler blocks to JERP from Jubail Industrial Port. Two other similar boilers will be moved in course of time.

As well as Logistics World, the group is engaged in automobiles as a distributor of Hyundai vehicles and in trailer manufacturing. The non-logistics spectrum also takes in bakeries, coffee shops, the real estate business and investment in shares.

'We’re proud to be a part of national growth and we’re striving to add even more value in the coming days. Our diversified activities have helped us to grow every year. If we’re slow in one segment, we do well in other segments and the combined results show growth,' remarked Mustafa.

'We do not copy our competitors but try to be innovative. Our focus is on customers’ needs, not on what our competitors are doing. We’re an asset-rich company and can maintain our commitments without depending on third parties. An important asset we have is human resources.'

Success story
The success story goes back to the early 1960s when Sheikh Ali Almajdouie resigned his position from the Saudi Port Authority and became self-employed. Starting with the customs clearance business, he expanded into transportation, buying some trucks to help him in the business. Almajdouie was commissioned by Saudi Aramco to move pipes from the port to the Aramco pipe yard in Dhahran. Aramco also entrusted Almajdouie to move pipe consignments overland from Kuwait to Dhahran. In the late 1970s, Almajdouie emerged as one of the largest transportation companies in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Capabilities were enhanced when Almajdouie imported multi-axle trailers, the first Saudi company to do so.

Almajdouie has expertise in handling over-sized

Almajdouie developed a container terminal outside Dammam. Sabic, in its early days, appointed Almajdouie as their exclusive transporter for polymer imports from Brazil and Qatar. The company continued to serve as Sabic’s exclusive contractor until 1991 when business volumes increased hugely and were beyond the capacity of one firm.

'Even today,' says Mustafa, 'Almajdouie is the largest contractor for Sabic for the handling of total logistics from plants to port and to other parts of Saudi Arabia and internationally.'

With the growth of business, Almajdouie opened a branch office in Jubail and followed that with an office in Jeddah. Today, it operates from its own offices and terminals in Dammam, Jubail, Riyadh, Jeddah and Yanbu while also having satellite offices in Jizan, Madinah, Hasa and Qasim in Saudi Arabia and its own firms in the GCC locations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. In the wider international sphere it operates from offices in Japan, Korea and Canada.

Mindful it has to give something back to the community, Almajdouie Logistics World decided to share its knowledge and expertise with the younger Saudi generation. It established the Middle East Logistics Institute (Meli) in association with America’s Michigan State University. Short-term and long-term courses have already begun, the company says. The courses will help Meli graduates win positions within the logistics industry in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East.

Almajdouie was also the proud winner of an award from the Saudi Innovation Index 2010 which recognised it as the No1 company for innovation in the business sector.

Earlier in 2009, it was declared the best road hauler at the third annual Middle East Logistics Awards (Mela).