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A.P. Moller-Maersk opens doors to 560,000sqft logistics park at Port Qasim

With its six purpose-built sheds, the new facility makes Maersk the country’s largest logistics and warehousing provider, with a total footprint of more than 1.3 million sqft across seven cities

A.P. Moller – Maersk (Maersk), the integrated logistics company, on Wednesday inaugurated its new Integrated Logistics Park at Port Qasim in Pakistan.

Jakob Linulf, Danish Ambassador to Pakistan; chairman Port Qasim, Rear Admiral (r) Syed Hasan Nasir Shah; Hasan Faraz, managing director, Maersk Pakistan; the leadership team at Maersk Pakistan and leaders from the top businesses in Pakistan were present on the occasion.

Jakob Linulf Pakistan has incredible potential to grow, and there are enough opportunities for trade to flourish here.

"Despite the various current challenges, Maersk has played an important role as a trusted partner for Pakistan’s traders,” he said.

“Maersk’s commitment to invest in a large facility such as the one inaugurated today in Port Qasim speaks volumes of the potential that is out there to be harnessed,” he said.

Why to invest in Integrated Logistics Park

The Covid-19 pandemic impacted economies worldwide brought most lives to a standstill and disrupted the global supply chains. However, goods did not stop moving around the world and all the essentials required to battle the pandemic kept moving.

"This was possible because shipping and logistics companies showed immense resilience in their operations amidst the most challenging times. Ships kept sailing, ports stayed operational, warehouses remained open, and cargo kept moving despite international borders getting closed," according to a statement issued on Wednesday.

During this time, Maersk’s integrated logistics solutions created maximum value for importers and exporters. Maersk’s end-to-end solutions ensured customers’ cargo kept moving. The warehousing facilities especially strengthened Maersk’s position by being able to store goods that were in lower demand and slowed down supply chains when needed. This garnered a lot of confidence in the customers’ minds about Maersk’s resilience, commitment and ability to react quickly and appropriately to the changing behaviour of the end consumers.

Building on this background, Maersk Pakistan took the bold decision to invest in an Integrated Logistics Park that would act as a warehouse, including a consolidation & fulfilment centre and cold storage, at Port Qasim. Maersk Pakistan went on from acquiring a 26-acre land parcel to carefully designing and constructing a six-shed facility spread over 560,000sqft that will answer all the requirements of its customers through a single location.

Perfect warehouse destination

This facility will cater to storage requirements of cargo from retail & lifestyle, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), automotive and technology sectors. Located within Port Qasim, the Integrated Logistics Park will be the perfect warehouse destination for customers to manage their import and export cargo with the least time delays while connecting to and from vessels, the statement said.

“At Maersk, our purpose is to improve life for all by integrating the world. With our state-of-the-art Integrated Logistics Park, we want to ensure that we play an important role in connecting and simplifying the supply chains for importers, exporters and traders of Pakistan,” Hasan Faraz said.

“I am proud of this major investment in Pakistan and is a critical building block in the logistics infrastructure. It is also apt to recognise the unwavering support our customers have extended, with whom we could have meaningful conversations that helped us design a solution that creates value in their supply chains,” he said.

The Maersk Integrated Logistics Park will come equipped with modern Warehouse Management Systems. With Maersk taking care of the movement of cargo – ocean transportation on one side and landside transportation on the other side of the warehouse – customers will experience lesser handovers of their cargo, leading to higher efficiencies, faster turnaround times, deeper visibility and better control over the cargo movement. All of this will result in better predictability of supply chains.

— muzaffarrizvi@khaleejtimes.com