Page 24 - MUMBAI - 10 MARCH 2025

20 EXIM newsletter Mumbai & Western India, Monday, March 10, 2025
INDIA
DP World introduces all-women shifts

at its warehouse operations

Female representation in logistics business grows to

over 14% of the workforce

Exim News Service demonstrated by the women-led growth. The increased participation
MUMBAI, March 9 team. This has led to creation of new of women in our logistics operations
DP World has set up women-led job opportunities for women in the has significantly doubled the produc-
shifts at its warehouse operations in logistics sector. Currently, female tivity levels by demonstrating valu-
Gujarat and Rajasthan with plans representation in DP World’s logis- able contributions women bring to
to broaden this initiative to its facili- tics business in India is over 14% of the sector. As we expand this initia-
ties in Bihar and Uttar tive to new cities, we are
Pradesh. excited to continue cre-
The leading global ating opportunities for
provider of smart end-to- women to thrive within
end supply chain solu- our operations”.
tions launched the pilot As part of its commit-
project last year with ment to creating a safer
an all-women shift at its and more supportive
sorting facility in Guja- workplace for women,
rat for one of the lead- DP World offers com-
ing e-commerce brands. prehensive induction
This team is responsible and training programs
for core activities such as designed to empower
sorting, scanning and categorising the total workforce, with plans in employees and foster their growth.
packages, ensuring efficient and ac- place to increase this figure further. Combining on-the-job training with
curate order processing, showing im- Speaking about this initiative, online learning, the training sessions
proved productivity and operational Monal Srivastava, Vice Presi- cover key areas such as operational
efficiency. dent - People, DP World Sub- procedures, material handling, safe-
This initiative, now extended to continent, said, “DP World is com- ty protocols and technology usage,
DP World’s warehousing operations mitted to building a workforce that ensuring women are equipped with
in Rajasthan, has resulted in opera- reflects our core principles: shaping the skills and knowledge to thrive
tional efficiency nearly doubling due a better future, embracing adapt- and develop in their roles, highlight-
to the dedication and commitment ability and driving sustainable ed a release.

Is Africa the next major expansion point?
Exim News Service deployments) of over 16,000 TEU. Since January 2024,
COPENHAGEN, March 9 26 vessels of 15,000 TEU and over have been deployed
RECENTLY, MSC scheduled the deployment of on trades connecting to West Africa, of which 22 were
23,000+ TEU vessels on its Asia-WAF ‘Africa Express’ operated by MSC on its standalone services. Addition-
service. At present, the largest vessel on the service is of ally, these vessels were deployed across 4 services, 3 of
16,600 TEU, with the average vessel size on the service which are these MSC standalone services. This shows
of 14,465 TEU. These new that MSC is strengthening
phase-ins would increase the its West Africa network and
nominal capacity of the ser- anticipating an even stronger
vice by 50%, which is a sub- growth opportunity in the re-
stantial increase. The first gion. The economic indicators
of these deployments, MSC for Africa can provide an ex-
Diletta, was pulled from the planation why.
Asia-NEUR ‘Lion’ service, The population of Africa
and was later replaced by a reached 1.5 billion in 2024
smaller 15,500 TEU vessel. and is expected to grow to 2.5
This is a surprising develop- billion by 2050. This would
ment considering that over increase Africa’s share of the
the past few years, the op- global population to 28%. At
posite trend has been preva- present, 30% of the 1.5 billion
lent i.e., smaller vessels on people are in West Africa.
Asia-NEUR being replaced by Furthermore, over the last
larger vessels. 18 months, 56% of the ports
Figure 1 shows the aver- in West Africa have seen an
age and maximum vessel size increasing connectivity trend.
of vessels deployed on deep-sea services to West Africa. Even in economic terms, Y/Y growth in Sub-Saharan Af-
Since June 2022, the average vessel size to West rica (the only African aggregate for which the IMF pub-
Africa has grown by 50%. Shipping lines have also lishes economic growth figures) is eclipsing that of the
been deploying larger and larger vessels to the region, world as well as that of the advanced economies, as per
with the largest existing vessels (before MSC’s latest an analysis by Sea-Intelligence.