Dubai Supply Chain Analysis

Logistics is the management of the flow of things between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet requirements of customers or corporations. The resources managed in logistics can include physical items, such as food, materials, animals, equipment and liquids, as well as abstract items, such as time, information, particles, and energy. The logistics of physical items usually involves the integration of information flow, which is material handling, production, packaging, inventory, transportation, warehousing, and often security. The complexity of logistics can be modeled, analyzed, visualized, and optimized by dedicated simulation software. The minimization of the use of resources is a common motivation in logistics

Its location, both geographic and strategic, is a natural business gateway between East and West and has been an essential element of trade routes between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond for centuries. And with the current booming economies of India and China in particular, Dubai is once again a focal point for global distribution. Its low logistics costs and superb infrastructure (ranked number one in the Middle East by the World Bank) have led to massive foreign investment. Dubai is the world’s third largest re-export hub, and in 2011 the emirate reached new highs, with total exports and re-exports registering a record AED 431 billion (USD 117 billion), a 21 per cent increase on the previous year. A recent report from Frost & Sullivan predicts revenues from the UAE’s logistics market alone will reach a staggering AED 34.5 billion (USD 9.4 billion) by

Emirates airlines, Etihad airlines and the other Middle Eastern carriers are also taking advantage of their location at the crossroads of three continents. Dubai International Airport handled nearly 900,000 tons of cargo up to June 2011, a figure which is predicted to rise 2.8 million tons by 2015, and a recently published Boeing report estimates total Middle Eastern air freight will continue post 4 per cent annual growth to 2029. Not only are the airlines expanding, but airports are being developed to step into the global hub role, including Dubai’s Al-Maktoum International Airport, the world’s most ambitious logistics project. The airport currently operates 24 hours a day on an A380-compatible, 4.5 km runway with the capacity to handle 600,000 tons of cargo. On completion, this is due to rise to a massive 12 million tons and 160 million passengers per year. Among the prime air routes, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that freight between the Middle East and Asia will increase at 9.7 per cent compound annual growth rate by 2014. With the fastest growing freight route now between the Middle East and the United States, the logistics and cargo movement