Enhancing the efficiency of the Aluminium supply chain

The background

Our customer, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), is the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas sectors and the world’s largest producer of 'premium aluminium'. In addition to aluminium smelters in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, they have an alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi, and a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in the Republic of Guinea. With their exports, they bring in billions of dollars of revenue into the UAE each year.

The challenge

Although Emirates Global Aluminium is a key player in the containerised aluminium shipping sector, they were looking for a reliable logistics partner that could help them address certain challenges.

Speed to market: Emirates Global Aluminium wanted to move their goods faster from the production facilities in the UAE to their markets across the globe in order to compete with other exporters that were positioned closer to several markets.

Digitisation and end-to-end supply chain visibility: They wanted to optimise their supply chain with a logistics partner that could signal, flag, and inform them about any possible delays or issues in their supply chain so that they could make the right decisions at the right time.

Reliability: Emirates Global Aluminium wanted a reliable partner that can deliver their cargo to their customers on time and in a consistent manner that minimises disruptions in their supply chain.

Cost efficiency: They wanted to keep up with the increase in the price of raw materials (alumina extracted from bauxite ore) that resulted in lower profits on selling aluminium.

The Maersk solution

Together we worked on a tailor-made product that connected Port Said in Egypt, via Salalah which increased efficiency by reducing transit time.

The solution also included the following

• Inland waterway solutions to warehouses in Europe, reducing Emirates Global Aluminium’s transit time by 3-4 days and minimising demurrage costs
• Cross border trucking movements
• Airfreight options
• Warehousing and distribution solutions
• Maintaining schedule reliability by offering rolling priority and reducing chances of delays in arrival
• A flexible product design which allows for easy customisation of the solution, based on the customer’s needs
• An improved container release process
• A volume allocation program which can help them plan their supply chain better
• Digital solutions like Inttra and Tradelens in place of manual and physical documentation processes to improve efficiency, coordination, and supply chain visibility

The result

Emirates Global Aluminium made substantial savings on exports from both Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

With Maersk’s digitisation services, the customer has visibility of their cargo, leading to supply chain optimisation. Due to this, they successfully reduced their overall lead time on their west bound trade by approximately 5 days and reached their markets faster.

All of these achievements have also led to reduced working capital costs and increased customer satisfaction for Emirates Global Aluminium. They now confidently carry over 40% of their cargo to North America. Europe, the Mediterranean and the Far East with Maersk and this relationship continues to expand.