Damco, one of the global leaders in logistics and freight forwarding, partnered with Morocco-based SNTL to come up with integrated and personalised logistics solutions for the Moroccan market.
The joint venture was named “SNTL Damco Logistics” and will help Damco provide a strong added value, integrated logistics offer and specialised logistics platform to its customers in Morocco.
To boost the partnership, SNTL, the biggest fleet operator in Morocco for the past 70 years, will create new logistics centres in five years. Those centres will be established in six prominent Moroccan cities; Casablanca, Tangier, Agadir, Fes, Meknes and Marrakech to better manage the import and export operations and national cargo flows.
SNTL’s investment on these logistics centres will reach up to 1.5 billion Moroccan dirhams, or approximately USD 175 million – a clear sign that SNTL is serious in providing better logistics solutions to its customers in cooperation with Damco.
“This partnership confirms our commitment to our customers locally and our engagement in Morocco,” says Oussama El-Edghiri, General Manager of Damco Maghreb.
SNTL General Manager Oussama Loudghiri strongly agrees, saying: “SNTL Damco Logistics is a Moroccan company created with the aim to be a leader in logistics. After an intensive selection process, we have decided to choose Damco as a partner because of its solid reputation, broad network and its local and global logistics expertise. We also share the same vision aspiring to offer high quality logistics services, allowing our customers to reduce their logistics costs and simultaneously improve the competitiveness of the Moroccan market.”
SNTL’s first logistics centre that will be fully operational is Mohammedia Zenata, which opens on February, 2011.
A 28-hectare logistics zone, Mohammedia Zenata is strategically located nearby the Casablanca port and the main roads and offers storage spaces that suit the needs of the market. The first phase of the project is ready with a 36,000-square meter warehouse combining dry and cold storage.
Among its line of services are: dry storage for palletised cargo, dry storage for non-rackable cargo, cold storage with positive and negative temperatures, container yard for dry and reefer containers, bonded warehouse for non-cleared cargo and parking space for international truckers.
On a daily basis, SNTL operates a fleet of 1,000 trucks to perfectly compliment the services of Damco, a trusted name enjoying a solid presence in emerging markets like Morocco.
“We have been a market leader for the last 14 years and, thanks to this partnership, we’ll further strengthen our logistics capabilities in the market and continue to offer the best logistics solutions to our customers. Morocco’s logistics competitiveness is high on our agenda and the new joint venture comes in support of this shared SNTL-Damco vision,” El-Edghiri says.
SOURCE: damco.com
