The middle east is often a turbulent region, however the countries which make up this area also have a long and rich trading history.The countries often included in this description are Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman,  Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.  Currently the UK exports significant amounts to this region from machinery to humanitarian goods and is anticipating increasing this further after Brexit in December 2020.  However both Syria and Yemen have been engaging in serious internal wars for several years  making shipping into them difficult.  Iraq is still very unstable in certain regions and Iran has significant economic and trade sanctions in place.

At AJF we offer export ocean freight services to most of these locations either directly or through our transshipment service in Jebel Ali, UAE. We can help with potential exporters with the action they need to take when looking at these markets. AJF can advise who they need to speak to help with documention and export licences.

AJF logistics services can handle full container load shipments

For consignments which require a shipper’s own container rather than using shipping lines container. We can either collect a shipper sourced container or  AJF can arrange the supply of a fully plated container. Once the container reaches its delivery destination AJF can arrange the disposal of the container or the shipper can purchase it directly from us. We move a lot of humanitarian and medical equipment in shipper’s own containers to several countries in this region. It is particularly useful for clients who are transporting goods to unstable regions where the goods may need to be stored for a long period of time until required. It is also suitable where the end user want to use the container as a distribution centre, or plan to repurpose the container for another use, such as an on site office.

For smaller consignments of pallets, drums and machinery we operate weekly Less then Container (LCL) services from the UK. As with some of our full load services we tranship some of the consignments in Jebel Ali, UAE. At our agents warehousing we consolidate these cargoes with other ones for shipping on to their final destinations. We do offer the service of re-working the goods in Jebel Ali, including repacking and re-labelling the goods. We can also combine shipments who arrive from several different locations around the world in to one consignment for onward shipping to a final destination in the region.

We offer limited airfreight shipments to this region for urgent goods such as perishables or very high value cargoes. Most of our airfreight services go to Dubai, Airport for onward distribution. Shippers should be aware the Coronavirus going around the world is reducing the number of flights and this is threatening to make these services much more expensive with limited space over the next few months.

Image of Coronovirus

AJF main operations in the Middle East are in Jebel Ali, U.A.E. served by our experienced agents. We offer a range of logistics services in this important logistics hub serving not just only the Middle East but also Europe, Africa, USA/Canada and the rest of the Americas in co-operation with them. Due to the U.A.E geographical location it can serve as a practical location to serve Europe and Africa and the Far East including Australia. Companies with manufacturing facilities and supply chains which start in China can have the goods transport to Jebel Ali from various China ports. At Jebel Ali the goods can be devanned and then the products can be picked to assemble the final shipment from the individual factories to the final consignees’ requirements.

Below are the logistic operations which can be undertaken in Jebel Ali.

  • Warehousing
  • Transshipment
  • Cargo Consolidation
  • Cargo Splitting and Distribution
  • Product Relabelling
  • Order Fulfilment

Our warehousing services are available to all our clients who need to rework their products, have them stored for later distribution, or quality inspected. Where containers have been handball loaded at the manufacture we can destuff the container, repack on pallets, shrink-wrap and then export to the final delivery destination.

Our transshipping services allow importers and exporters to change containers, packaging marks and shipping documentation where the shipper may not want the receiver to know where the goods original origin was. This service is particularly useful where the shipper is acting as an agent only and never handles the goods directly themselves and wants to avoid the buyer contacting the supplier directly. It is is also useful for companies shipping to politically sensitive regions where there may be restrictions on them.

The consolidation service allows clients who source from various factories which are exported from various ports in the far east and have a central location to consolidate these shipments before transporting them to their final destination in the Middle East, Africa, or Europe. We take either Full Container Loads or part loads, store them and once we have sufficient goods in store we then load them into one container, arrange the new paperwork and then export them. The consolidation service can be used for multiple shipments from Europe  to go to a Far East country or Australia.

Cargo Splitting and Distribution is the reverse to the consolidation service where a client has one supplier but multiple receiving destinations. We take into our warehousing the shipment which can consist of one or multiple containers. The shipment is then devanned from the container. Following the orders given from the client the cargo is split and packed onto pallets, relabelled where required and then exported to each destination. This allows the client to export in bulk from the supplier at more cost effective rate and if required make if more difficult for them to know the final destination.

The order fulfilment services are suitable for clients with international supply chains which need a location with good links to all worldwide locations. We can pick orders to a clients specific requirements and they can then be airfreighted out immediately to be with the end customer within 24hrs or  to a clients distribution centre for them to manage the final delivery. This allows stock to be held in one central location which allow clients to be able to manage seasonal demands or environment where there may be a sudden demand for one product type in multiple locations.

The UAE came into existence in 1971 and at the time its main export was oil. It is this commodity which drove the development of the Emirates and led to the massive development projects of the 1990’s and early 2000’s. During this period the Emirates also started to develop free zones to attempt to diversify the economy away from oil. Large investments were put into various logistics areas including the Jebel Ali Free Zone. This has now become the largest free zone in the world and has become used as a transshipment point for supply chain logistics around the world.

Map of Jebal Ali

Jebal Ali Free Zone [Google Maps]

The combination of both good air and sea transport links, combined with purpose built free zones have made it a very popular and cost effective location. If you are looking to distribute into Africa, Europe and the Middle East then Dubai in the UAE with its free zone has several advantages.

AJF uses Jebel Ali as it main hub for delivering its logistics services into the Middle East and Europe via our agents here. Operating within the Jebel Ali Free Zone we are able to undertake the following.

Trans-shipment Case Study

A company imported regularly into the UK full 40ft Containers from a manufacturer in China and wanted to expand to several other new clients in Europe. The new clients only required a few full pallets every few weeks. Originally they wanted to fulfil from the UK however the costs of re-working the goods and sending them out from the UK was high even though the UK was in the EU. The alternative was bringing the goods into a warehouse into the Jebal Ali area. Here the container’s were unloaded, the pallets were checked and certain labelling was replaced. The pallets were then exported direct to the supplier using a Dubai trading company, preventing both the receiver and the Chinese manufacturer knowing  each other.

We can manage as in-house logistics contracts for companies which want to out-source all of their supply chain requirements. This includes locating the facilities and set up the procedures to handle the import and redistribution of the goods.

If you have questions about our services or want quotes for shipping or our supply chain logistics then please contact by phone or use our contact form