DP World’s flagship Jebel Ali Port has won the prestigious Shipping Port of the Year Award at the annual Supply Chain and Transport Awards (Scata) 2012.

The award, Jebel Ali’s fourth in six years, was received on behalf of DP World by Mohammed Ali Ahmed, chief operating officer, DP World, UAE Region, at the Scata annual gala attended by hundreds of supply chain industry leaders.

The award is recognition of Jebel Ali’s exceptional management and innovative approach to improve operational efficiencies, with the purpose of providing outstanding services to its customers.

DP World, UAE Region has over the past two years introduced a series of initiatives aimed at boosting efficiency; those include a technology-driven labour management system that cuts time of completing a single operation by up to 30 per cent, advanced Gate Automation supported by RFID container tracking to enable 20,000 truck movements a day, and 3G connectivity to enable shipping lines to access bay and stowage plan information, helping them cut port call time.

Late last year DP World announced plans to expand capacity to cater to the next generation ultra large container ships at Jebel Ali. When completed, the expansion will raise the port’s total capacity to 19 million TEU by 2014, in line with emerging customer demand.

Mohammed Ali Ahmed, chief operating officer, DP World, UAE Region, said: “This prestigious supply chain award recognises our service excellence as well as the leadership position DP World plays as the gateway for cargo into the GCC, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa.”

“Our investment today will ensure Jebel Ali continues to meet our customer requirements for additional capacity and efficiency improvements. We thank Scata for the honour,” he added.

The Scata 2012 ceremony, organised by magazine publisher ITP Business, included 16 categories in total, covering the logistics, sea freight and air cargo sectors. Nominations were assessed by a prestigious panel of experts, selected from within the Middle East logistics industry. - TradeArabia News Service