Agility Abu Dhabi, which designed, constructed and owns this stateof- the-art facility, will manage operations and distribution to the Asia market over 10 years. The hub will receive 600,000 tonnes of polyolefins annuallyfrom Borouge’s plant in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

“We expect to receive the polyolefins in a phased operation and it may take about one and half years to reach the annual target,” said James Gagne, Agility’s CEO Greater China.

He pointed out that while adjacent to the logistics hub is a 30,000 square metre Compound Manufacturing Unit (CMU), which produces 50,000 tonnes of polymer compounds each year, Agility also had reserve land in the area for further expansion of the logistics hub in the near future when necessary.

Asked how the polyolefins would reach China from Abu Dhabi, an Agility executive replied that Agility Abu Dhabi would work with different ocean carriers to provide the transport. “It also depended on how the supply chain is revamped, including the packing and distribution to customers,” he noted.

Hans Hickler, Agility’s Asia Pacific region’s new CEO, said the acquisition of Baisui United Logistics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, a Shanghai-based logistics company in 2008, had served Agility’s needs in the China market, and the company will invest in niches where they can create an opportunity or in the domestic network as and when the need arises. Agility opens massive new logistics hub in Shanghai

He said sometimes as a logistics services provider, the company had to lead its counterparts in the industry to show them that through harnessing all its capabilities, Agility had become involved in real estate, investment, distribution, expanding outside the scope of a traditional 3PL.

“We have even managed a convoy of trucks, as we did for a project in Papua New Guinea, although the project was supposed to be a traditional distribution project.

“For the PNG project, we even had to develop man camps and provide air lifts because of the regular mud slides,” Hickler said, adding that one could not think like a traditional forwarder whenfaced with such challenges.

Shifting logistics requirements
He said as trading patterns were changing in China, there was a shift towards domestic consumption, and therefore, logistics companies had to adapt to such changes.

Hickler said that Agility was well positioned worldwide, including in China and in Asia. “We have a broader view of what solution is versus our competition.” Agility, he said, had the foresight to develop its domestic network in China and to link it up to its international network.

Regarding the China market, Gagne said it was highly fragmented with a large number of small players, of which 90 percent were small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

In order to tackle this, Agility invests in people as they are the ones who provide solutions to the company’s customers, he said, adding that in China the renminbi was appreciating and the middle class was growing.

Asked which product was growing fastest in the China market, Gagne said it really depended on what type of product was coming into the Mainland market.

“If we draw a 200 kilometre arc around Shanghai, we would say that in this area, the fastest growth is being registered by consumer products as well as medical products.”

“If we look at the automotive industry and the consumption pattern, there are many different scenarios in the Southwest and Northeast of China,” Gagne said.

But one thing that is for sure is that the growth in China will continue and many suppliers will also grow near these production centres. As the middle class continued to grow prosperous, demand for automobiles and industrial products would continue to increase.

Gagne pointed out that in the areas of energy and chemicals, the growth areas were in Shanghai, Pearl River Delta in southern China and Northeastern part of China.

He said the consumers in second tier and third tier cities like Chongqing and Chengdu were growing and he sees it as a middle term opportunity.

The Expo challenge
Asked how Agility was tackling its task after being appointed as the sole handler of perishables at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, a company spokesman said currently, Agility was deploying 100 trucks daily with 300 staff specially trained in cross-docking at the Expo site to serve the needs of handling perishables, food products and beverage.

This ser vice, which involves transporting about 50-60 tonnes of food and beverage daily, is provided between midnight to 6am daily. The products are stored at two warehouses – one of over 20,000 square metres and another of about 5,000 square metres.

Agility is also providing services for chilled products at the Expo like icecream which has to be handled at between-18 to -25 degrees temperature.