DP World: Surges in Demand Require Innovative Solutions

Supply chain professionals often talk about preparing for the dynamic changes their industries face, but few have stories as successful as DP World. 

DP World, a leading logistics company which specialises in cargo and maritime services, faced a supply chain crisis when automotive demand skyrocketed in Turkey last year. 

This demand caused port congestion across the country, resulting in significant delays in the delivery of vehicles. As a result, DP World’s Yarımca location had to innovate to avoid a total industry standstill.

The problem

DP World Yarımca is located at the heart of Turkey’s strategic industry and is among the largest Organised Industrial Zones. As such, it is perfectly positioned to provide automotive logistics services. 

In ordinary times, it prioritises speed and is adept at finding specialist solutions to meet quick timelines, aided in its positionality with the port and OSBs. 

However, when Turkish ports became congested as a result of delayed vehicle deliveries and increased demand, resulting in a record 110,000 vehicles sold in a singular month — a 37.5% year-on-year increase — it had to problem-solve like never before. 

The solution

DP World began importing 10,000 vehicles by putting new SUVs from Chery Automotive into containers. 

This meant the vehicle could be offloaded using traditional cranes at ‘lift on, lift off’ ports and did not require a specialised ‘roll on, roll off’ port as cars are traditionally transported. The result was a more efficient and resilient route for the vehicles. 

This solution became even more effective when DP World partnered with Chery to implement a specialised racking system to increase the capacity of the containers, from two SUVs to three. 

Changing this capacity improved cost efficiency across the supply chain from China to Turkey and enabled Chery to expand its presence in Europe. 

Rashid Abdulla, CEO and Managing Director of DP World Europe, says: “When we describe DP World to the outside world we often say we are a global smart trade enabler — this solution is an innovative example of what we mean by that.” 

“The automotive industry has experienced significant changes and supply chain challenges in the last few years globally, and in Türkiye that ranged from microchip to RoRo capacity shortages.

“I’m proud that our team could implement an alternative solution that helped to ease these challenges — and that we played a key role in the expansion of Chery Automotive into the Turkish market.” 

An automotive win-win

As a result of this problem solving, thousands of cars are now able to enter Turkey and a national automotive supply chain crisis has been averted. 

“Our terminal at Yarımca, which has not traditionally moved vehicles, is now becoming a key hub for new vehicles entering the market,” says Kris Adams, the CEO of DP World Yarımca.

“The new innovative solutions we have introduced will help Chery Automotive to establish itself as a significant supplier in this market and in neighbouring countries, offering economic benefits to Türkiye while also helping consumers get their new cars more quickly."

Having resolved customer wait times and resolved the inflated prices of the Turkish vehicle market, DP World Yarımca has proven its track record in supply chain solutions. 

It now boasts an annual handling capacity of 1.15m TEUs and supply chain professionals can learn significantly from the case, adapting quickly to unexpected supply chain issues is the key to a successful business. 

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