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The UAE’sDP World launched its first commercial direct freight service between the UAE’s Jebel Ali Port and Iraq’s Umm Qasr Portto make the flow of goods between the countries safer, faster, and more efficient, according to the Dubai Media Office. DP World’s maritime logistics subsidiary, P&O Maritime Logistics Transports, will operate the service, which will also run under its name.
The details: The direct trailer-ferry service will connect UAE’s Jebel Ali port to Umm Qasr port in southern Iraq within approximately 36 hours, and will run on a weekly basis. The goods can be transported on a UAE-plated trailer, which is then loaded onto a ferry and carried to the Iraqi port, according to the service’s website.
The route helps save time + avoid damage to goods: Emirati exporters who transport goods to Iraq have been using two overland routes passing through three countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan — to reach Iraq in a journey that can take up to 14 days. Due to each country’s respective requirements, which may require goods to be reloaded onto local trucks, the goods being transported are at risk of damage, the service said. The new direct ferry-trailer route eliminates border delays and allows UAE-plated trucks to deliver the goods to their destinations in Iraq under a special agreement DP World has signed.
Who will use the service? Transport, logistics, and export and import firms, according to the website. P&O is also looking to attract players in the electronics, food and beverage, oil and gas, construction, automotive, machinery, manufacturing and technology sectors, all of which see trade happen extensively between the two countries.
The service already has customers: Emirati freight forwarder ADSO Group was the first to use the direct service, according to Post and Parcel. The new service “delivers great logistical efficiencies across our operations, we benefit from cost-savings by reducing our time spent on the road and crossing borders,” Post and Parcel quotes ASDO General Manager Riaz Karmali as saying.
