October 7, 2025 • 41 mins
South American markets and their emerging economies are giving logistics companies growth opportunities through near-shoring, free-trade zones and rising bulk-export demand. In this Talking Transports podcast, Morten Johansen, DP World Americas’ executive vice president and chief operating officer, joins Lee Klaskow, Bloomberg Intelligence senior transportation and logistics analyst, to discuss how the company is positioned to benefit as an end-to-end logistics provider in the region. Many ports in South America are operating at high utilization rates, which could accelerate automation and expansion initiatives. Johansen also talks about expansion opportunities in the Dominican Republic and Brazil, building out its freight-forwarding and contract logistics businesses and how 2026 might shape up.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi everyone, this is Lee Clasgow when We're Talking Transports.
Welcome to Bloomberg Intelligence Talking Transports podcast. I'm your host,
Lee Klaskow, Senior Freight transportation logistics Analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence,
Bloomberg's in house research arm of almost five hundred analysts
and strategists around the world. A quick public service announcement
before we dive in. Your support is instrumental to keep
(00:29):
bringing great guests and conversations to you, our listeners, and
we need your support, So please, if you enjoy this podcast,
share it, like it and leave a comment. Also, if
you have ideas, feedback, or just want to talk transports,
I'm always happy to connect. You can find me on
the Bloomberg terminal, on LinkedIn, or on Twitter at logistics Lee.
(00:50):
We're delayed to.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Have with us.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Morton Johansson DP World America's COO and executive vice President.
His career in the maritime and logistics sector spans more
than two decades. Prior to joining DP World in twenty eleven,
he served as head of Technology, Operations and Engineering for
APM Terminals. His career also include leadership roles as aggester
(01:13):
and mayors. Welcome to talking transports. Martin, thanks for being here. Thanksy,
Thanks for the opportunity to join you today. I appreciate it.
So DP World may not be a household name for everybody,
could you tell us a little bit about what the
company does.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Of course, So DP World it's actually we have been
around for a long time. But as you say, maybe
if you're not in the industry, you might not know
the name DP World now. But DP world is were
headquartered out of Dubai. So our history starts all the
way back in the nineties seventies where we operated the
(01:53):
pasheet in Dubai as a as a local poard operator
in Dubai at that time. But since then we have
grown rapidly globally and have actually become a real global
and very diverse operator today. Where DP World really took
(02:13):
off and became international was back in in two thousand
and five. There's there's basically two periods that that marks
the the growth of DP World significantly as a as
a port operator. And in two thousand and five we
acquired the CSX World Terminals, which was the port side
(02:35):
of Zea Land here in the in the US. And
then in two thousand and six we acquired A p
and O Ports, and with those two big acquisitions we
became a true real global port operator back back then.
Since then we have we have evolved a lot. We
have grown organically around the world with with port acquisitions.
(03:00):
Then going back what is it now, maybe five six years,
we have expanded into becoming a logistics operator as well.
So you can say we are kind of an into
end supply chain operator today and we don't really see
ourselves as a as just a port operator more anymore.
So we do obviously ports, we do freight forwarding, we
(03:22):
do contract logistics, We do maritime. And when I say maritime,
I was saying we're not a we're not a shipping line,
but we are a common feeda operator. So we provide
maritime solutions for our customers, and then we do contract logistics.
(03:43):
And then we also work a lot with digital solutions
that supports our business and add value to our customers.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Okay, great. And so when you talk when you're talking
about ports, you're talking about all kinds of ports, right
like container ports, bulk ports, people ports. Do you deal
with passengers as well?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
We we do, we do predominantly we are container port operator,
but we do operate break bulk facilities around the world.
That's from grind bulk to to liquid bulk. We also
operate cruise terminals, especially here in the Americas. We handle
cruises in Argentina. We do cruises in in China as well.
(04:24):
So it's it's quite a diverse portfolio operations.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
That we have. And and geographically, you know the America
is what do they make up of the company And
if you can break that out by like you know,
how how deep world does.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, so in falls the Americas is from from Canada
all the way down to to Chilean and Argentina, and
in South America. We operate in in twelve countries today.
So if we go from from north to south, we
operate in Canada, we operate in in the US. It
(04:59):
makes we are in Panama, we are in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Surinam, Colombia,
and the Dominica Republic. It's not in all of those
countries where we operate ports. That's only in either of
them where we actually operate ports. In the other four
(05:22):
countries we operate mainly freight forwarding officers and or contract
logistics operations.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Gotcha and you know, could you do you do see
a lot of you know, because you know, as you
mentioned you are an internet logistics provider, you probably do
see a lot what's going on in the world when
it comes to commerce. Can you talk about, you know,
what your customers are saying about, you know, demand going forward?
It's obviously been a very violatile and uncertain time this year.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
For sure, Lee, without a doubt, I think when when
we talk to our customers, what what our customers are
looking for is reliability and and stability because I think
since since COVID, when the world was really turned upside down,
(06:12):
the word reliability has become more and more important than ever.
And how do you ensure a stable supply chain going forward?
So that's where we as as deep world, being as
diverse as we are, and with the global footprint that
we have, we can actually offer our customers good solutions
(06:33):
where we can handle each handoff in the supply chain,
so the customer will have more or less a single
source to go to. So when we talk about that
is stability, is transparency in the in the supply chain.
Often when you deal with different stakeholders, it's difficult to
(06:53):
have the visibility of where your cargo is at any
given time. So by working with us in deep world,
and not just for the physical assets that we have
around the world with our boats and officers and operations,
but also for the systems that we have developed, we
can offer that single source of information and that real
(07:15):
time trace ability of Chicago.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And you know a lot of your customers did they
pull forward their demand ahead of tariffs earlier in the year,
And you know a lot of people talk about, you know,
we're in this air pocketed demand because there's been so
much pull forward? Is are you Are you seeing that
with your customers? We do.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's a little mixed in the America's Region force obviously
like that. There's been a lot of uncertainty this year
with tariffs, and we have seen a fund loading of volumes,
especially imports coming into the region. We see a slight
(07:56):
softening of volumes a little bit. It's basically in in
Canada and in Northern Canada. But if we look at
South America, the volumes are stronger than ever and most
of our our ports are operating a very very high capacity,
so we haven't really seen an impact in slow down
(08:19):
in South America. It's a little more in North America
where we where we see.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
It right, What's what's driving the robust growth in South America.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I think with with everything that goes on geopoliticity, I
think it's it's a good time and it's a good
opportunity for for South America. We all know that the
pressure there is on on trade from from from Asia
into to the US and finding alternative markets, alternative supply chains,
(08:53):
and there I see South America playing a very important role,
not just in in food and perishable products. If we
look at the trade coming into two US, but also
with's been moving manufacturing closer to the US. There will
be a lot of unshoing coming into the US, but
(09:15):
there will also be reassuring it's not necessarily everything that
you can ensure into to the US, so more low skill,
low value manufacturing. We see a big influx UH and
interest in coming into South America and into some of
the countries where we operate where we have economic zones
(09:37):
as well, So like in Dominica Republic and in Equator
we have what we call economic zones integrated in into
the poor so it's basically we operate a free zone
environment where we have set up today is mainly logistics
distribution that we operate from these economic zones, but we
(09:59):
now doing a major expansion in the Dominica Republic where
we're actually opening up this free zone for manufacturing companies.
So manufacturing companies can come and set themselves up in
this ecosystem that we have. Everything is within a free
zone and you basically operate within this free zone and
(10:20):
you can you can do redistribution, you can do your
rear shuring manufacturing. Majority of that goes into to the
US for the Medicare Republic. And the location is is
a very attractive location, not just from a from a
time perspective, because you can you can ship bias in
(10:41):
three to four days into the US, you can ship
your cargo, buy a air on a daily basis. But
it's also a very attractive location with a long history
of manufacturing companies, US companies being based in the in
Theominicare Republic, Relatively low labor cost, good civil infrastructure technology.
(11:04):
So we see a lot of opportunities for for South
America and opportunities to grow that interregional trade in the
in the Americas.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
And I don't know if you're if you know where
you see, you see it. But like the companies that
are going to Dominican Republic to take advantage of this,
what industries are there? Is it? Is it mostly apparel?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Traditionally it's been apparel. We see we see other companies,
especially with electronic electronic components. Also medical devices, not so
much pharmaceutical, but more medical devices. And when I say
medical devices, it can be anything from your I V
(11:50):
back that's being produced in in the DR to the
the gown that they were. It can be too, et
cetera that's being produced. So there's there's so many different
elements and opportunities that can be brought into to the
DR for manufacturing.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Very very interesting. And you know you mentioned you're in
a contract logistics business. Could you talk about, you know,
where is that business predominantly and then kind of give
us an example of what what that's what those services
look like.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So we did we did an acquisition back in twenty
twenty one of a company called the Syncreon Logistics and
they are a contract logistics operator predominantly operating in the
US and in Europe. But if we just look at
at the Americans advance, this is the region that we
(12:51):
look after We do a lot of contract logistics operations
around the US. I think we have probably forty plustions
and we service mainly the automotive and the tech industry.
So in the automotive industry industry, we supply parts into
the manufacturing line for the for the car manufacturers. For
(13:17):
for the tech industry, it can be distribution of their products.
We do modifications for example, to to laptops, what kind
of software you need on your laptop. We do that
and we distribute it. And we have seen a big
optake in in data centers, not that we are operating
(13:39):
the actual data centers, but we are supporting the logistics
and the distribution into the data centers for companies. So
that's that's mainly what we see here. And in North
America then we do a different type of what we
call contract logistics, which is more traditional palettin let out,
(14:01):
pick and pack when you added services. In in South America,
mainly in in again in the Dominican Republic, we do
a lot in we do we do it in Ecuador,
we do some in in Brazil as well, But the
more sophisticated type of contract logistics is mainly around US,
(14:21):
Canada and and Mexico where we do.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That that tend to be a high return out and
invested capital, but low margin business or like I'm assuming,
is it like cost plus how how is that business?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
It varies from from customer to customer, how the how
the contracts are set up. The logistics business and the
port business two very very different businesses. They're all in
the in the supply chain at some point, but they're
very different. The port industry is extremely capis heavy, slow
(14:58):
to market. You can just build a porter from one
day to another. If you need to do a greenfield port,
we often looking at three three plus years to build
to build a new port. In today's world for a
small and medium port, you're often talking half a half
a billion. A bigger port is is a billion plus.
(15:22):
Where the contact the districts is is very different. Often
we don't actually own the warehouses. We release warehouses. So
it's it's an acid light business. But both of them are.
It's with different margins as well.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, yeah, and then you know, on the port business,
I'm assuming there are different operating models depending on the
geography and and and the workers like what you know,
the kind of union agreement you have can you talk
about automation in the in the port industry, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
What do you graphic?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
What what geographies is it high and where is it
kind of really tough to push those technology innovations through.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, So if if I should talk to too globally
for for deep world, we generally see more automation in
in higher labor cost countries. So in northern western countries
you you often see more automation. If I look at
(16:29):
at the Americas, we are I would to say we
are we're behind with automation, but we haven't really had
the need for for automation in the in the Americas.
That is changing because if we look at at our
port portfolio here, all of our boats, fortunately which is good,
(16:50):
is operating at a very high capacity. So when when
you reach that high capacity, it starts to make sense
to introduce automation for for various reasons. It can be
to run a more consistent operation by using automation. A
(17:12):
lot of the focus why we're doing it is is
linked to safety and security and in getting people away
from high risk areas. It's not about reducing jobs in
in any way. It's about changing the jobs that we
have in in the port industry today, and we cannot
we cannot deny that we're also facing challenges. It depends
(17:36):
on on where you operate in the in the region,
but if we look at today's world, it's it can
be difficult to attract young people into a to a
port environment, which traditionally is a is a hard labor environment.
You're often outside for eight hours a day. You can
(17:57):
be on board a ship during lashing. You can stand
on a key handling twistlocks in in tough environments, which
is also posing a safety risk. If we can change
those kinds of jobs and put people inside in a
more pleasant environment. So when we're looking at at automation
(18:18):
for for the American's region, we're generally looking at a
stepped approach. One thing is that we will electrify our
equipment first, and that's especially when it comes to our
yard equipment. That's the RTGs that we operate in the
yard and the horizontal transportation for the RTGs. Once you
electrifying the equipment, you can start introducing remote control. So
(18:43):
we just instead of having an operator sitting in the
in the machine it self, the operator will sit inside
in in an office. In a better economic economic position
and work conditions in an air conditioned office. So this
is this is what we're focusing on when we are
looking at at automation, right, And you said, what was
(19:04):
that RTGs? RTGs, that's that's it's Robert ty gana creams.
So that's that's the cranes that operate in the in
the yacht of our braces. We don't really we don't
really automate our key creams. So the cranes to operate
the vessels. We do that some places in the in
the world, but in the America not yet.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You know, you mentioned earlier, you know, kind of a
softness in demand and in parts of the America's a
lot of that had to do with terrists pull forward.
You know. I guess you have an intriguing perspective too
because the contractual the contract logistics business about peak demand,
Because are your customers telling you that this peak season
(19:50):
is going to be good, bad, muted? Like, what what
are they telling you about peak season going into the holidays?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I think outlook, it's fairly stable. I don't think we
will see a big geek coming. But I don't think
we will see and a further downturn or softening in
in volumes. That's at least the indication that we get
from our contract logistics customers. It's also when we look
(20:22):
at the outlook and the indications from from the shipping lines,
it kind of remains stable. But we have seen a
slight softening in smallness around the last two months, we
have seen the slight softening in volumes.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
You know you mentioned earlier how Deep World is growing
as port business, you know, organically through acquisitions. When you
guys make an acquisitions or acquisitions, are these large companies
that you're acquiring or is this like one port or
one terminal. Could you just talk about, you know, the
targets that you've had in the past and maybe talk about,
(21:03):
you know, what geography is. Are you focused on growing
through acquisitions.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I will talk mainly to the Americas. This is the
area where where where we look after it. Generally we
prefer to go organically and that's through expanding our current assets.
So where we can, we will expand capacity. So some
(21:28):
of our big terminals around the world, obviously Dubai which
is our our flagship port in in Jebelali, we keep
on expanding capacity and in Jebelali we're doing major major
expansion in in London, Gateway in the in the UK.
And for the America's our let's say our flagship ports.
(21:54):
Our biggest ports versus around between one and a half
to two million tea. You in in the Americas is
in is in Perdue, It's in the Dominica Republic, in Calcerto,
is in in Santos, and we're growing rapidly in in
Ecuador as well in Insorga. So we have ongoing expansion
(22:15):
of capacity in in Ecuador. We are busy expanding in
uh in Santos. In Brazil, actually major major expansion where
we are diversifying the business that we do. In Brazil.
We don't only operate containers, were also handle the pulp
and we have signed a contract to handle the grain
(22:37):
and fertilizer as well through our facilities. So it's it's
in bulti purpose facilities. So we're building not only are
we expanding our container berth, but we're also building two
finger peers in in Brazil to to handle the pulp
and to handle the grain and fertilized and then in
the mini our public we just announced a couple of
(22:58):
months ago a civil one hundred and sixty million dollar expansion,
which is split more or less fifty to fifty and
in expanding the port going from around two point two
million TU or to three point two million TU, and
then an aggressive expansion and growth of our economic zone
(23:18):
in the in the Dominican public. So we we prefer
to do it that way, but obviously we are looking
at any opportunities in the region where there's an opportunity
to acquire an existing assets. That's that's how our preferred
mode of growth. So we don't operate any posts in
(23:40):
the United States. Okay, you probably know back in two
thousand and six when we acquire P and O Ports
that included quite a few terminals in in the US,
which I will go too much into the detail of
the history. It became political, yes I remember now, yes,
(24:02):
and and we decided we don't want to be part
of that, so we sold it. What what is today
is Post of America. So we don't have any poort
assets in the in the US. It doesn't mean that
that we're not interested. That's not that many opportunities around,
but should the right opportunity come up in the US,
(24:25):
we would definitely be interested in in evaluating.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
It got you okay, So you also mentioned, you know,
we really didn't talk about the freight forwarding business. How
large of a player is DP world in the freight
boarding market? And can you talk about you know, there's
been some significant consolidation in the market with d s
V acquisition of dB Shanker. Can you talk about, you know,
(24:49):
how that has impacted your forwarding business?
Speaker 2 (24:52):
So if I start with the with the last question first,
I think it's it hasn't really impacted us the conservent dations.
What you see with the with DSV and and Shinka.
We are still i would say, in a in a
startup phase of the frate foraring business for for deep people.
(25:14):
So we are we're slowly building up scale of our
of our faith forwarding business and our prisons around the world.
Last year it was really focusing on starting up offices
and actually hiring people and slowly starting up the fate
forwarding business. So we are still relatively if you look
on global terms, a relatively small player in the in
(25:37):
the faith forwarding field.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
And is that growth going to come going forward? You know,
are you going to try to consolidate through acquisitions or
do you see growth from really just organic growth.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
We we have done some a few minor acquisitions globally
in the last twelve to eighteen months. I think going
forward you will probably see an organic growth on our
faithfuling business.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And are you expected to grow organically above the market
or kind of with the market.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I think it's fair to say that we will probably
grow with with the market. Gotcha? Okay?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You know you kind of mentioned a little bit about
Technology'd like to talk more about technology. Could you talk
about you know, obviously everyone wants to talk about AI
and machine learning. Are you leveraging those types of technologies
and and and what do you what are you doing
with them?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
If you are, you're You're right. That's kind of the
boss word around these days, and everybody talks about AI
and maybe even without knowing exactly what it means and
then gave me everything is just being put into a
to a pocket of being called AI today. But if
if we look at at our digital solutions, what we've
(26:58):
been focusing on for the last three to four years,
it's actually in building our in house solutions. Sorry. If
I start with our support side of the business, we
have developed our own terminal operating system, so we are
rolling that out across all our facilities globally. In in
(27:20):
DP World, we have also developed our own faith forwarding
system that is called Cargos, So we have Cargos Wanna
versus our faith forwarding system, and then we have other
solutions as well. But many people don't know is that
(27:42):
actually our our chairman of Deeply World is also the
chairman of of Customs in the in Dubai, so we
have very close ties with the customs solutions and we
have a digital arm in Dubai that also work on
custom solutions and implementing its run by to buy customs.
But the software is developed by BYOS and we have
(28:06):
we have done some implementations in the UK supporting the
UK customs. We have also done some in the in
the American public, implementing a risk engine for for Dominican customs.
But that is just to add add value to to
the communities where where we operate. If you look at
(28:28):
our own core systems, is really about having the our
faith in our own control and having our own in
house systems and how you can tie them all together
and created that seamless system solution that can give the
customer the transparency in the in the supply chain because
(28:50):
often if you ask customers is again as I say,
it's the it's the speed, is the reliability, and it's
the visibility of the supply chain. That's what we're trying
to create solutions for customers. When it comes to AI. Yes,
we are working on different solutions with AI, some link
(29:12):
to back office solutions. How can we support our maybe
mainly our our HR functions, our finance functions, how can
some of those be be more efficient by the by
the use of AI and machine learning. And when we
look at at the operational side of the business, especially
(29:34):
important for our facilities where we operate at high capacity.
When you are at eighty eighty five percent utilization in
the port, it's very difficult to do something without the
use of technology. So we are we're using AI to
reduce the amount of reshoffles, nonproductive moves in our terminals,
(29:59):
being able to predict better the dispatch of for example,
of import containers, being able to predict in that container
is actually going to being dispatched, so you have you
don't have to do all these non productive moves in
a in a yard. So there's there's many many opportunities
for how we can use this, I would say it's
(30:21):
still still early days of the solutions that we are
that we're voting out.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
And when you're talking about, like, you know, using tech
for the forwarding business, is this about like automation where
you know a lot of forwarders and freight brokers out
there like to talk about how you know, some orders
or some transactions don't even involve a human. So it's
from the email with the quote that comes in through
(30:47):
the execution is all done through machine learning and AI.
Is that the stuff that you guys are building on
the forwarding side.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I would say that's to come. Okay, we're not there yet,
but that's definitely one of the areas where you can
do something right.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And so you know it's you know, we're almost on
by the time this comes this episode comes out, will
be October twenty twenty five is going to be gone
in a blink of an eye. So when you're looking
forward into next year, what do you think twenty twenty
six is going to hold for DP world versus you know,
the the crazy year that was twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
I'm actually very excited going into twenty twenty six. As
I said, especially in our South America side of the business,
where we're all in the majority of our ports hoars well,
every more or less every facility is operating at a
very very high utilization. So we have, as I mentioned earlier,
(31:51):
we have some big expansions going on to increase our capacity.
We working on different contract logistics solutions and and growth solutions.
I think especially in the in the tech industry here
in the US, I think we are all. We all
(32:15):
see the growth in data centers in the US, so
I see a lot of opportunities there also in retail
and e commerce. And a new thing that we have
rolled out this year is starting up with multi user
warehouses around the US. Traditionally, for the for the cel business,
(32:36):
we get a contract with the customer and then we
retail our solutions for that customer here and now we're
going out doing multi user facilities. So we might have
an anchor customer to start with, but we will have
a lot of white space that we're going out to
sell to to other customers. So that's a new way
(32:56):
of doing contract logistics for us in the in the
U with a little more traditional and what we have
done in South America. So I see a lot of
opportunities for growth and how we can we can tie
all our different solutions together and present the customer with
that with a good into end solution, which is really
(33:19):
what we are trying to do and what we're saying
DEPOL is from from factory flow to customer doll So
without global presence that we have, I think that the
future is looking bright for for DEPO.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
And when you're talking about the multi customer warehousing in
the US that you're looking to expand upon, is that
mostly e commerce business?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I wouldn't say mostly that the e commerce can be
a part of it, but you can really handle any
types of business, any type of commodities in the in
the multi user warehouse. Yeah. Yeah. And then.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Obviously, you know we mentioned twenty twenty five was there
was a lot of volatility and uncertainty. Are you expecting
more of the same in twenty twenty six outside the
you know, the DP specific things that you guys are
doing looking for growth.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That's a very good question. I think in today's world
we see we see changes constantly, right, and I think
that's that's one of the key words to be successful
in our industry as it's being able to to be
agile and being able to pivots as things are changing.
(34:39):
So do I expect it to be more volatile or
the same. It's it's very difficult to predict. I think
the last the last two for eighteen months as for
sure that that's the case.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
You know, environmental issues are still top of mind for
a lot of folks, especially companies outside the United States.
Could you talk about, you know, DP World their approach
to lowering their carbon foot preiter emissions.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
We have, we have very aggressive targets to do this.
We we aim to be net zero by by twenty fifty.
I'm actually proud to work for Deep World because we
we have taken a very aggressive approach in investing in
electrification up front, so actually replacing traditional diesel equipment before
(35:31):
the end of life in order to accelerate the the
reduction of carbon emissions. So there is a there is
a guideline in Deep World that we cannot buy diesel
equipment anymore. So whenever we do replace them in equipment,
if we start off new facilities, all our equipment from
(35:54):
light vehicles to folk lifts to the big Yark cranes,
Horse hundred transporter, that we have everything is electrified. So
we actually on a on a very good path to
achieve that across the deep people. We're also looking at
how can we look at a clean energy sources. In Chile,
(36:17):
for example, all our energy is sourced one hundred percent
from clean energy. In Dominican Republic, we're running a major
solar project. So with the economic zone that we have
and today we have around one hundred and sixty thousand
square meters of warehouse, we put solar on all the warehouses.
(36:40):
So we have a project now to go up where
we can produce up to twelve meg of solar and
we can actually be self sufficient byronic solar.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Great. So is there anything on the horizon that the
supply chains and logistics industries might be facing that are
on your that are on your radar.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I can't think of any thing like new I think
there's there's a lot of disruption already going on that's
that we have to deal with. If if I look
at at the America's region, I see generally a lack
of capacity, and now I'm talking about the port side
of the business. There's generally a lack of capacity in
(37:23):
the region, especially in in in South America, where you
will see most port not not just deeply world operated facilities,
but most ports are full running at max capacity. As
I mentioned earlier, you cannot just create capacity from from
one day to another. So the ability to become more efficient,
(37:45):
the ability to to actually create more capacity for expansions,
is going to be critical for the coming years.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Got yeah, and how did how did you find your
way into the transportation markets?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I start out of the in Mersk back in nineteen
ninety two in Denmark as a trainee, and then in
nineteen ninety five I was I was in to South
Africa and I've basically been the next pat in this
industry since then. So I worked in South Africa, in Angola,
(38:20):
I've been twice in the Netherlands, and then I've been
now in this part of the world, and that the
Manica Republic. I ran the Medicare Republic and the business
we have down there for for almost what twelve years?
For DP world, it's kind of you. We always joke
either you love or you hate this. If you love it,
(38:43):
you're stuck and you can't get out of it. And
I think I'm a victim to that.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Was there anything that inspired you back in nineteen ninety
two to apply to that trainee position.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
At merisk To be completely honest with you, I was
entirely show what I wanted to do back then when
I was lucky, I got into at a good industry.
And the thing, as I say, like either you love
you hated. This is a very dynamic business. Things change
every single day, and I think that's that's part of
(39:18):
what what fascinates me working for Deep World is is
great because we are very very ambitious. If you look
at our history and you I've seen our growth has
been incredible, and I see us growing a lot a
lot more in in the coming years.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
And before I let you go, I was like asking,
my guess, is is there a book on you know,
the freight market or leadership that's kind of close to
your heart that you like to recommend to people.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
If a book on nder on the market, not not necessarily.
One one I'm reading right now is The Cold War
two by by Jason Schenker. He's an economist. I'm here
in the US that we have actually used a lot
as a speaker, and he has a very interesting perspective
(40:12):
on the economy, and I think it is often right
in predicting what's going to happen in the future. Now,
so that's I just started it. But it's a very
interesting book.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
All right, great, well, I really want to thank you
for your time Warton.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
This is great, no pleasure. Thanks for the opportunity, all right.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
And I want to thank you for tuning in. If
you like the episode, please subscribe and leave a review.
We've lined up a number of great guests for the podcast,
so please check back to hear conversations with C suite executives, shippers, regulators,
and decision makers within the freight markets. Also, if you
want to learn more about the freight transportation markets, check
out our work on the Bloomberg Terminal at Bigo and
(40:52):
on social media. This is Lee Clasgow signing off and
thanks for talking transports with me. Talk to you next week.
Hi everyone, this is Lee Clasgow when We're Talking Transports.
Welcome to Bloomberg Intelligence Talking Transports podcast. I'm your host,
Lee Klaskow, Senior Freight transportation logistics Analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence,
Bloomberg's in house research arm of almost five hundred analysts
and strategists around the world. A quick public service announcement
before we dive in. Your support is instrumental to keep
(00:29):
bringing great guests and conversations to you, our listeners, and
we need your support, So please, if you enjoy this podcast,
share it, like it and leave a comment. Also, if
you have ideas, feedback, or just want to talk transports,
I'm always happy to connect. You can find me on
the Bloomberg terminal, on LinkedIn, or on Twitter at logistics Lee.
(00:50):
We're delayed to.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Have with us.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Morton Johansson DP World America's COO and executive vice President.
His career in the maritime and logistics sector spans more
than two decades. Prior to joining DP World in twenty eleven,
he served as head of Technology, Operations and Engineering for
APM Terminals. His career also include leadership roles as aggester
(01:13):
and mayors. Welcome to talking transports. Martin, thanks for being here. Thanksy,
Thanks for the opportunity to join you today. I appreciate it.
So DP World may not be a household name for everybody,
could you tell us a little bit about what the
company does.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Of course, So DP World it's actually we have been
around for a long time. But as you say, maybe
if you're not in the industry, you might not know
the name DP World now. But DP world is were
headquartered out of Dubai. So our history starts all the
way back in the nineties seventies where we operated the
(01:53):
pasheet in Dubai as a as a local poard operator
in Dubai at that time. But since then we have
grown rapidly globally and have actually become a real global
and very diverse operator today. Where DP World really took
(02:13):
off and became international was back in in two thousand
and five. There's there's basically two periods that that marks
the the growth of DP World significantly as a as
a port operator. And in two thousand and five we
acquired the CSX World Terminals, which was the port side
(02:35):
of Zea Land here in the in the US. And
then in two thousand and six we acquired A p
and O Ports, and with those two big acquisitions we
became a true real global port operator back back then.
Since then we have we have evolved a lot. We
have grown organically around the world with with port acquisitions.
(03:00):
Then going back what is it now, maybe five six years,
we have expanded into becoming a logistics operator as well.
So you can say we are kind of an into
end supply chain operator today and we don't really see
ourselves as a as just a port operator more anymore.
So we do obviously ports, we do freight forwarding, we
(03:22):
do contract logistics, We do maritime. And when I say maritime,
I was saying we're not a we're not a shipping line,
but we are a common feeda operator. So we provide
maritime solutions for our customers, and then we do contract logistics.
(03:43):
And then we also work a lot with digital solutions
that supports our business and add value to our customers.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Okay, great. And so when you talk when you're talking
about ports, you're talking about all kinds of ports, right
like container ports, bulk ports, people ports. Do you deal
with passengers as well?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
We we do, we do predominantly we are container port operator,
but we do operate break bulk facilities around the world.
That's from grind bulk to to liquid bulk. We also
operate cruise terminals, especially here in the Americas. We handle
cruises in Argentina. We do cruises in in China as well.
(04:24):
So it's it's quite a diverse portfolio operations.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
That we have. And and geographically, you know the America
is what do they make up of the company And
if you can break that out by like you know,
how how deep world does.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, so in falls the Americas is from from Canada
all the way down to to Chilean and Argentina, and
in South America. We operate in in twelve countries today.
So if we go from from north to south, we
operate in Canada, we operate in in the US. It
(04:59):
makes we are in Panama, we are in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Surinam, Colombia,
and the Dominica Republic. It's not in all of those
countries where we operate ports. That's only in either of
them where we actually operate ports. In the other four
(05:22):
countries we operate mainly freight forwarding officers and or contract
logistics operations.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Gotcha and you know, could you do you do see
a lot of you know, because you know, as you
mentioned you are an internet logistics provider, you probably do
see a lot what's going on in the world when
it comes to commerce. Can you talk about, you know,
what your customers are saying about, you know, demand going forward?
It's obviously been a very violatile and uncertain time this year.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
For sure, Lee, without a doubt, I think when when
we talk to our customers, what what our customers are
looking for is reliability and and stability because I think
since since COVID, when the world was really turned upside down,
(06:12):
the word reliability has become more and more important than ever.
And how do you ensure a stable supply chain going forward?
So that's where we as as deep world, being as
diverse as we are, and with the global footprint that
we have, we can actually offer our customers good solutions
(06:33):
where we can handle each handoff in the supply chain,
so the customer will have more or less a single
source to go to. So when we talk about that
is stability, is transparency in the in the supply chain.
Often when you deal with different stakeholders, it's difficult to
(06:53):
have the visibility of where your cargo is at any
given time. So by working with us in deep world,
and not just for the physical assets that we have
around the world with our boats and officers and operations,
but also for the systems that we have developed, we
can offer that single source of information and that real
(07:15):
time trace ability of Chicago.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And you know a lot of your customers did they
pull forward their demand ahead of tariffs earlier in the year,
And you know a lot of people talk about, you know,
we're in this air pocketed demand because there's been so
much pull forward? Is are you Are you seeing that
with your customers? We do.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's a little mixed in the America's Region force obviously
like that. There's been a lot of uncertainty this year
with tariffs, and we have seen a fund loading of volumes,
especially imports coming into the region. We see a slight
(07:56):
softening of volumes a little bit. It's basically in in
Canada and in Northern Canada. But if we look at
South America, the volumes are stronger than ever and most
of our our ports are operating a very very high capacity,
so we haven't really seen an impact in slow down
(08:19):
in South America. It's a little more in North America
where we where we see.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
It right, What's what's driving the robust growth in South America.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I think with with everything that goes on geopoliticity, I
think it's it's a good time and it's a good
opportunity for for South America. We all know that the
pressure there is on on trade from from from Asia
into to the US and finding alternative markets, alternative supply chains,
(08:53):
and there I see South America playing a very important role,
not just in in food and perishable products. If we
look at the trade coming into two US, but also
with's been moving manufacturing closer to the US. There will
be a lot of unshoing coming into the US, but
(09:15):
there will also be reassuring it's not necessarily everything that
you can ensure into to the US, so more low skill,
low value manufacturing. We see a big influx UH and
interest in coming into South America and into some of
the countries where we operate where we have economic zones
(09:37):
as well, So like in Dominica Republic and in Equator
we have what we call economic zones integrated in into
the poor so it's basically we operate a free zone
environment where we have set up today is mainly logistics
distribution that we operate from these economic zones, but we
(09:59):
now doing a major expansion in the Dominica Republic where
we're actually opening up this free zone for manufacturing companies.
So manufacturing companies can come and set themselves up in
this ecosystem that we have. Everything is within a free
zone and you basically operate within this free zone and
(10:20):
you can you can do redistribution, you can do your
rear shuring manufacturing. Majority of that goes into to the
US for the Medicare Republic. And the location is is
a very attractive location, not just from a from a
time perspective, because you can you can ship bias in
(10:41):
three to four days into the US, you can ship
your cargo, buy a air on a daily basis. But
it's also a very attractive location with a long history
of manufacturing companies, US companies being based in the in
Theominicare Republic, Relatively low labor cost, good civil infrastructure technology.
(11:04):
So we see a lot of opportunities for for South
America and opportunities to grow that interregional trade in the
in the Americas.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
And I don't know if you're if you know where
you see, you see it. But like the companies that
are going to Dominican Republic to take advantage of this,
what industries are there? Is it? Is it mostly apparel?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Traditionally it's been apparel. We see we see other companies,
especially with electronic electronic components. Also medical devices, not so
much pharmaceutical, but more medical devices. And when I say
medical devices, it can be anything from your I V
(11:50):
back that's being produced in in the DR to the
the gown that they were. It can be too, et
cetera that's being produced. So there's there's so many different
elements and opportunities that can be brought into to the
DR for manufacturing.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Very very interesting. And you know you mentioned you're in
a contract logistics business. Could you talk about, you know,
where is that business predominantly and then kind of give
us an example of what what that's what those services
look like.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So we did we did an acquisition back in twenty
twenty one of a company called the Syncreon Logistics and
they are a contract logistics operator predominantly operating in the
US and in Europe. But if we just look at
at the Americans advance, this is the region that we
(12:51):
look after We do a lot of contract logistics operations
around the US. I think we have probably forty plustions
and we service mainly the automotive and the tech industry.
So in the automotive industry industry, we supply parts into
the manufacturing line for the for the car manufacturers. For
(13:17):
for the tech industry, it can be distribution of their products.
We do modifications for example, to to laptops, what kind
of software you need on your laptop. We do that
and we distribute it. And we have seen a big
optake in in data centers, not that we are operating
(13:39):
the actual data centers, but we are supporting the logistics
and the distribution into the data centers for companies. So
that's that's mainly what we see here. And in North
America then we do a different type of what we
call contract logistics, which is more traditional palettin let out,
(14:01):
pick and pack when you added services. In in South America,
mainly in in again in the Dominican Republic, we do
a lot in we do we do it in Ecuador,
we do some in in Brazil as well, But the
more sophisticated type of contract logistics is mainly around US,
(14:21):
Canada and and Mexico where we do.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That that tend to be a high return out and
invested capital, but low margin business or like I'm assuming,
is it like cost plus how how is that business?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
It varies from from customer to customer, how the how
the contracts are set up. The logistics business and the
port business two very very different businesses. They're all in
the in the supply chain at some point, but they're
very different. The port industry is extremely capis heavy, slow
(14:58):
to market. You can just build a porter from one
day to another. If you need to do a greenfield port,
we often looking at three three plus years to build
to build a new port. In today's world for a
small and medium port, you're often talking half a half
a billion. A bigger port is is a billion plus.
(15:22):
Where the contact the districts is is very different. Often
we don't actually own the warehouses. We release warehouses. So
it's it's an acid light business. But both of them are.
It's with different margins as well.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, yeah, and then you know, on the port business,
I'm assuming there are different operating models depending on the
geography and and and the workers like what you know,
the kind of union agreement you have can you talk
about automation in the in the port industry, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
What do you graphic?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
What what geographies is it high and where is it
kind of really tough to push those technology innovations through.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, So if if I should talk to too globally
for for deep world, we generally see more automation in
in higher labor cost countries. So in northern western countries
you you often see more automation. If I look at
(16:29):
at the Americas, we are I would to say we
are we're behind with automation, but we haven't really had
the need for for automation in the in the Americas.
That is changing because if we look at at our
port portfolio here, all of our boats, fortunately which is good,
(16:50):
is operating at a very high capacity. So when when
you reach that high capacity, it starts to make sense
to introduce automation for for various reasons. It can be
to run a more consistent operation by using automation. A
(17:12):
lot of the focus why we're doing it is is
linked to safety and security and in getting people away
from high risk areas. It's not about reducing jobs in
in any way. It's about changing the jobs that we
have in in the port industry today, and we cannot
we cannot deny that we're also facing challenges. It depends
(17:36):
on on where you operate in the in the region,
but if we look at today's world, it's it can
be difficult to attract young people into a to a
port environment, which traditionally is a is a hard labor environment.
You're often outside for eight hours a day. You can
(17:57):
be on board a ship during lashing. You can stand
on a key handling twistlocks in in tough environments, which
is also posing a safety risk. If we can change
those kinds of jobs and put people inside in a
more pleasant environment. So when we're looking at at automation
(18:18):
for for the American's region, we're generally looking at a
stepped approach. One thing is that we will electrify our
equipment first, and that's especially when it comes to our
yard equipment. That's the RTGs that we operate in the
yard and the horizontal transportation for the RTGs. Once you
electrifying the equipment, you can start introducing remote control. So
(18:43):
we just instead of having an operator sitting in the
in the machine it self, the operator will sit inside
in in an office. In a better economic economic position
and work conditions in an air conditioned office. So this
is this is what we're focusing on when we are
looking at at automation, right, And you said, what was
(19:04):
that RTGs? RTGs, that's that's it's Robert ty gana creams.
So that's that's the cranes that operate in the in
the yacht of our braces. We don't really we don't
really automate our key creams. So the cranes to operate
the vessels. We do that some places in the in
the world, but in the America not yet.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You know, you mentioned earlier, you know, kind of a
softness in demand and in parts of the America's a
lot of that had to do with terrists pull forward.
You know. I guess you have an intriguing perspective too
because the contractual the contract logistics business about peak demand,
Because are your customers telling you that this peak season
(19:50):
is going to be good, bad, muted? Like, what what
are they telling you about peak season going into the holidays?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I think outlook, it's fairly stable. I don't think we
will see a big geek coming. But I don't think
we will see and a further downturn or softening in
in volumes. That's at least the indication that we get
from our contract logistics customers. It's also when we look
(20:22):
at the outlook and the indications from from the shipping lines,
it kind of remains stable. But we have seen a
slight softening in smallness around the last two months, we
have seen the slight softening in volumes.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
You know you mentioned earlier how Deep World is growing
as port business, you know, organically through acquisitions. When you
guys make an acquisitions or acquisitions, are these large companies
that you're acquiring or is this like one port or
one terminal. Could you just talk about, you know, the
targets that you've had in the past and maybe talk about,
(21:03):
you know, what geography is. Are you focused on growing
through acquisitions.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I will talk mainly to the Americas. This is the
area where where where we look after it. Generally we
prefer to go organically and that's through expanding our current assets.
So where we can, we will expand capacity. So some
(21:28):
of our big terminals around the world, obviously Dubai which
is our our flagship port in in Jebelali, we keep
on expanding capacity and in Jebelali we're doing major major
expansion in in London, Gateway in the in the UK.
And for the America's our let's say our flagship ports.
(21:54):
Our biggest ports versus around between one and a half
to two million tea. You in in the Americas is
in is in Perdue, It's in the Dominica Republic, in Calcerto,
is in in Santos, and we're growing rapidly in in
Ecuador as well in Insorga. So we have ongoing expansion
(22:15):
of capacity in in Ecuador. We are busy expanding in
uh in Santos. In Brazil, actually major major expansion where
we are diversifying the business that we do. In Brazil.
We don't only operate containers, were also handle the pulp
and we have signed a contract to handle the grain
(22:37):
and fertilizer as well through our facilities. So it's it's
in bulti purpose facilities. So we're building not only are
we expanding our container berth, but we're also building two
finger peers in in Brazil to to handle the pulp
and to handle the grain and fertilized and then in
the mini our public we just announced a couple of
(22:58):
months ago a civil one hundred and sixty million dollar expansion,
which is split more or less fifty to fifty and
in expanding the port going from around two point two
million TU or to three point two million TU, and
then an aggressive expansion and growth of our economic zone
(23:18):
in the in the Dominican public. So we we prefer
to do it that way, but obviously we are looking
at any opportunities in the region where there's an opportunity
to acquire an existing assets. That's that's how our preferred
mode of growth. So we don't operate any posts in
(23:40):
the United States. Okay, you probably know back in two
thousand and six when we acquire P and O Ports
that included quite a few terminals in in the US,
which I will go too much into the detail of
the history. It became political, yes I remember now, yes,
(24:02):
and and we decided we don't want to be part
of that, so we sold it. What what is today
is Post of America. So we don't have any poort
assets in the in the US. It doesn't mean that
that we're not interested. That's not that many opportunities around,
but should the right opportunity come up in the US,
(24:25):
we would definitely be interested in in evaluating.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
It got you okay, So you also mentioned, you know,
we really didn't talk about the freight forwarding business. How
large of a player is DP world in the freight
boarding market? And can you talk about you know, there's
been some significant consolidation in the market with d s
V acquisition of dB Shanker. Can you talk about, you know,
(24:49):
how that has impacted your forwarding business?
Speaker 2 (24:52):
So if I start with the with the last question first,
I think it's it hasn't really impacted us the conservent dations.
What you see with the with DSV and and Shinka.
We are still i would say, in a in a
startup phase of the frate foraring business for for deep people.
(25:14):
So we are we're slowly building up scale of our
of our faith forwarding business and our prisons around the world.
Last year it was really focusing on starting up offices
and actually hiring people and slowly starting up the fate
forwarding business. So we are still relatively if you look
on global terms, a relatively small player in the in
(25:37):
the faith forwarding field.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
And is that growth going to come going forward? You know,
are you going to try to consolidate through acquisitions or
do you see growth from really just organic growth.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
We we have done some a few minor acquisitions globally
in the last twelve to eighteen months. I think going
forward you will probably see an organic growth on our
faithfuling business.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And are you expected to grow organically above the market
or kind of with the market.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I think it's fair to say that we will probably
grow with with the market. Gotcha? Okay?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You know you kind of mentioned a little bit about
Technology'd like to talk more about technology. Could you talk
about you know, obviously everyone wants to talk about AI
and machine learning. Are you leveraging those types of technologies
and and and what do you what are you doing
with them?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
If you are, you're You're right. That's kind of the
boss word around these days, and everybody talks about AI
and maybe even without knowing exactly what it means and
then gave me everything is just being put into a
to a pocket of being called AI today. But if
if we look at at our digital solutions, what we've
(26:58):
been focusing on for the last three to four years,
it's actually in building our in house solutions. Sorry. If
I start with our support side of the business, we
have developed our own terminal operating system, so we are
rolling that out across all our facilities globally. In in
(27:20):
DP World, we have also developed our own faith forwarding
system that is called Cargos, So we have Cargos Wanna
versus our faith forwarding system, and then we have other
solutions as well. But many people don't know is that
(27:42):
actually our our chairman of Deeply World is also the
chairman of of Customs in the in Dubai, so we
have very close ties with the customs solutions and we
have a digital arm in Dubai that also work on
custom solutions and implementing its run by to buy customs.
But the software is developed by BYOS and we have
(28:06):
we have done some implementations in the UK supporting the
UK customs. We have also done some in the in
the American public, implementing a risk engine for for Dominican customs.
But that is just to add add value to to
the communities where where we operate. If you look at
(28:28):
our own core systems, is really about having the our
faith in our own control and having our own in
house systems and how you can tie them all together
and created that seamless system solution that can give the
customer the transparency in the in the supply chain because
(28:50):
often if you ask customers is again as I say,
it's the it's the speed, is the reliability, and it's
the visibility of the supply chain. That's what we're trying
to create solutions for customers. When it comes to AI. Yes,
we are working on different solutions with AI, some link
(29:12):
to back office solutions. How can we support our maybe
mainly our our HR functions, our finance functions, how can
some of those be be more efficient by the by
the use of AI and machine learning. And when we
look at at the operational side of the business, especially
(29:34):
important for our facilities where we operate at high capacity.
When you are at eighty eighty five percent utilization in
the port, it's very difficult to do something without the
use of technology. So we are we're using AI to
reduce the amount of reshoffles, nonproductive moves in our terminals,
(29:59):
being able to predict better the dispatch of for example,
of import containers, being able to predict in that container
is actually going to being dispatched, so you have you
don't have to do all these non productive moves in
a in a yard. So there's there's many many opportunities
for how we can use this, I would say it's
(30:21):
still still early days of the solutions that we are
that we're voting out.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
And when you're talking about, like, you know, using tech
for the forwarding business, is this about like automation where
you know a lot of forwarders and freight brokers out
there like to talk about how you know, some orders
or some transactions don't even involve a human. So it's
from the email with the quote that comes in through
(30:47):
the execution is all done through machine learning and AI.
Is that the stuff that you guys are building on
the forwarding side.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I would say that's to come. Okay, we're not there yet,
but that's definitely one of the areas where you can
do something right.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And so you know it's you know, we're almost on
by the time this comes this episode comes out, will
be October twenty twenty five is going to be gone
in a blink of an eye. So when you're looking
forward into next year, what do you think twenty twenty
six is going to hold for DP world versus you know,
the the crazy year that was twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
I'm actually very excited going into twenty twenty six. As
I said, especially in our South America side of the business,
where we're all in the majority of our ports hoars well,
every more or less every facility is operating at a
very very high utilization. So we have, as I mentioned earlier,
(31:51):
we have some big expansions going on to increase our capacity.
We working on different contract logistics solutions and and growth solutions.
I think especially in the in the tech industry here
in the US, I think we are all. We all
(32:15):
see the growth in data centers in the US, so
I see a lot of opportunities there also in retail
and e commerce. And a new thing that we have
rolled out this year is starting up with multi user
warehouses around the US. Traditionally, for the for the cel business,
(32:36):
we get a contract with the customer and then we
retail our solutions for that customer here and now we're
going out doing multi user facilities. So we might have
an anchor customer to start with, but we will have
a lot of white space that we're going out to
sell to to other customers. So that's a new way
(32:56):
of doing contract logistics for us in the in the
U with a little more traditional and what we have
done in South America. So I see a lot of
opportunities for growth and how we can we can tie
all our different solutions together and present the customer with
that with a good into end solution, which is really
(33:19):
what we are trying to do and what we're saying
DEPOL is from from factory flow to customer doll So
without global presence that we have, I think that the
future is looking bright for for DEPO.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
And when you're talking about the multi customer warehousing in
the US that you're looking to expand upon, is that
mostly e commerce business?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I wouldn't say mostly that the e commerce can be
a part of it, but you can really handle any
types of business, any type of commodities in the in
the multi user warehouse. Yeah. Yeah. And then.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Obviously, you know we mentioned twenty twenty five was there
was a lot of volatility and uncertainty. Are you expecting
more of the same in twenty twenty six outside the
you know, the DP specific things that you guys are
doing looking for growth.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That's a very good question. I think in today's world
we see we see changes constantly, right, and I think
that's that's one of the key words to be successful
in our industry as it's being able to to be
agile and being able to pivots as things are changing.
(34:39):
So do I expect it to be more volatile or
the same. It's it's very difficult to predict. I think
the last the last two for eighteen months as for
sure that that's the case.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
You know, environmental issues are still top of mind for
a lot of folks, especially companies outside the United States.
Could you talk about, you know, DP World their approach
to lowering their carbon foot preiter emissions.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
We have, we have very aggressive targets to do this.
We we aim to be net zero by by twenty fifty.
I'm actually proud to work for Deep World because we
we have taken a very aggressive approach in investing in
electrification up front, so actually replacing traditional diesel equipment before
(35:31):
the end of life in order to accelerate the the
reduction of carbon emissions. So there is a there is
a guideline in Deep World that we cannot buy diesel
equipment anymore. So whenever we do replace them in equipment,
if we start off new facilities, all our equipment from
(35:54):
light vehicles to folk lifts to the big Yark cranes,
Horse hundred transporter, that we have everything is electrified. So
we actually on a on a very good path to
achieve that across the deep people. We're also looking at
how can we look at a clean energy sources. In Chile,
(36:17):
for example, all our energy is sourced one hundred percent
from clean energy. In Dominican Republic, we're running a major
solar project. So with the economic zone that we have
and today we have around one hundred and sixty thousand
square meters of warehouse, we put solar on all the warehouses.
(36:40):
So we have a project now to go up where
we can produce up to twelve meg of solar and
we can actually be self sufficient byronic solar.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Great. So is there anything on the horizon that the
supply chains and logistics industries might be facing that are
on your that are on your radar.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I can't think of any thing like new I think
there's there's a lot of disruption already going on that's
that we have to deal with. If if I look
at at the America's region, I see generally a lack
of capacity, and now I'm talking about the port side
of the business. There's generally a lack of capacity in
(37:23):
the region, especially in in in South America, where you
will see most port not not just deeply world operated facilities,
but most ports are full running at max capacity. As
I mentioned earlier, you cannot just create capacity from from
one day to another. So the ability to become more efficient,
(37:45):
the ability to to actually create more capacity for expansions,
is going to be critical for the coming years.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Got yeah, and how did how did you find your
way into the transportation markets?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I start out of the in Mersk back in nineteen
ninety two in Denmark as a trainee, and then in
nineteen ninety five I was I was in to South
Africa and I've basically been the next pat in this
industry since then. So I worked in South Africa, in Angola,
(38:20):
I've been twice in the Netherlands, and then I've been
now in this part of the world, and that the
Manica Republic. I ran the Medicare Republic and the business
we have down there for for almost what twelve years?
For DP world, it's kind of you. We always joke
either you love or you hate this. If you love it,
(38:43):
you're stuck and you can't get out of it. And
I think I'm a victim to that.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Was there anything that inspired you back in nineteen ninety
two to apply to that trainee position.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
At merisk To be completely honest with you, I was
entirely show what I wanted to do back then when
I was lucky, I got into at a good industry.
And the thing, as I say, like either you love
you hated. This is a very dynamic business. Things change
every single day, and I think that's that's part of
(39:18):
what what fascinates me working for Deep World is is
great because we are very very ambitious. If you look
at our history and you I've seen our growth has
been incredible, and I see us growing a lot a
lot more in in the coming years.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
And before I let you go, I was like asking,
my guess, is is there a book on you know,
the freight market or leadership that's kind of close to
your heart that you like to recommend to people.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
If a book on nder on the market, not not necessarily.
One one I'm reading right now is The Cold War
two by by Jason Schenker. He's an economist. I'm here
in the US that we have actually used a lot
as a speaker, and he has a very interesting perspective
(40:12):
on the economy, and I think it is often right
in predicting what's going to happen in the future. Now,
so that's I just started it. But it's a very
interesting book.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
All right, great, well, I really want to thank you
for your time Warton.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
This is great, no pleasure. Thanks for the opportunity, all right.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
And I want to thank you for tuning in. If
you like the episode, please subscribe and leave a review.
We've lined up a number of great guests for the podcast,
so please check back to hear conversations with C suite executives, shippers, regulators,
and decision makers within the freight markets. Also, if you
want to learn more about the freight transportation markets, check
out our work on the Bloomberg Terminal at Bigo and
(40:52):
on social media. This is Lee Clasgow signing off and
thanks for talking transports with me. Talk to you next week.
Host
Lee Klaskow
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.