Moving Supply Chains At A Time Of Disruption

Keeping supply chains flowing reflects DSV’s commitment to business continuity during times of disruption.

Recent years have been challenging, with Covid, unrest, dysfunctional ports and natural disasters affecting South Africa, and geo-political conflicts destabilising other parts of the world – Russia/Ukraine war, the broadening conflict in the Middle East, attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and continuing tension between China and Taiwan.

DSV’s focus, though, is to keep customer goods moving to their end destinations, and Gordon Wyatt, Executive Vice President, Air & Sea for MEA, said DSV is “ready to grow and tackle the headwinds coming our way”. The group implements robust business continuity plans, with infrastructure resilience, enhanced security, inventory management and diversified suppliers and routes being just some of the strategies deployed.

“We have the people, operational excellence and commitment to sustainable growth to keep our customers’ supply chains moving throughout the region”, he said. “Operational excellence is our pathway to success. Our business processes in our warehouses and vehicles help us operate transparently with high levels of productivity and scalability to make sure our strategies and plans come to life and deliver for our customers.”

Specific to the Oil & Gas industry, DSV grew its footprint in both Angola and Mozambique, and the ocean freight division has performed beyond expectations despite having to navigate choppy waters and volumes grew to record TEUs in the SA market in 2023.

Similarly, the entire region has benefited from managing carrier relationships at both local (South Africa) and regional levels (MEA), as opposed to group level. DSV’s carrier strategy reflects a commitment to a powerful global network that harnesses local and regional knowledge and conditions to deliver competitive advantage to customers.

DSV’s Project Logistics product grew rapidly in 2023, transitioning from conventional Freight Forwarding to a customized approach, and it expects to continue expanding into Africa, tapping into emerging business opportunities.

DSV expanded its reach across the Healthcare sector, adding customers in Morocco, Nigeria, Botswana, South Africa and Zambia, and successfully developed regional products in Zambia, Nigeria, Botswana and Mozambique.

Specialized Healthcare logistics supply chains were added to DSV’s regional portfolio, including shipping frozen high value blood plasma, managing blood sample testing between various continents, and shipping life critical vaccines from India into South Africa. DSV will add facilities, in strategically important countries, to boost the handling of sensitive airfreight temperature-controlled shipments.

Although the past year has been a turbulent one for airfreight globally and air volumes dropped by as much as 15%, DSV’s Airfreight division managed to grow volumes in many regions, and aims to do so again in 2024 by focusing on global accounts and SMEs.