Our Strongest Points Will Get Us Closer to Surpassing All Our Customer Expectations

NileDutch is currently the most dedicated West Africa carrier, a business first started around 30 years ago. As the leading West Africa carrier, the company prioritizes its vision and mission to be a one stop service provider to Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa. NileDutch aims to be superior in its class, which makes it a different kind of shipping company because it offers complete services to West Africa, at customer's need. NileDutch's dedicated service, strength points and overall advantages over other shippers in this area are both unique and special in this respect.

We always give the best offers we can to our customers by applying our strength points, which are foremost to making our customers feel secure and comfortable in doing business with NileDutch. This includes dedicated direct calls to West Africa, a dedicated terminal in Luanda, dedicated feeders as well as a solid team, which is definitely the strongest point for NileDutch, especially in Indonesia, said Didik Santoso Suwito, the Deputy General Manager of Jardine Shipping Services for NileDutch.

Dedicated direct calls by NileDutch even include vessels going from Singapore directly to Durban, South Africa. Shipments times are very reliable, for example, from Singapore to Pointe Noire takes about 21 days, from Singapore to Luanda about 25-28 days and from Singapore to Matadi, about 30 days. The newest service goes North Asia – China – Shanghai – Ningbo – Shekou – to Singapore and then to Durban – Capetown – Pointe Noire – Luanda – Nabito – Namibe, by using mother vessels. NileDutch has many types of vessels with various capacities, such as container vessels, conro vessels, and roro vessels. NileDutch vessel types include the 2500 teu NileDutch Shanghai, the NileDutch Shenzen, the NileDutch Guangzhou, the NileDutch Ningbo, the NileDutch HongKong, the NileDutch Singapore, the City of Beijing, and the City of Shanghai, NileDutch Qingdao at 1300 teus. This list also includes the NileDutch Benguela, the NileDutch Kuito, a 400 teu coastal feeder, and the NileDutch Cabinda and NileDutch Nordica, Siefke. The total number of vessels utilized by NileDutch is approximately 40, spread over many regions.

Possessing a dedicated terminal in Luanda is one of the strongest points offered by NileDutch. This terminal, which was firstly inaugurated in 2008, is known as 5M Terminal. 5M Terminal can handle all general cargo vessels, including those with cargoes destined for projects for the Gabinete de Reconstrução National (GRN). 5M has a 580 meter of quay and the capacity to operate 2 - 3 vessels simultaneously (depending on LOA). 5M is very well equipped, with three new mobile cranes (soon another 2 will be added), six Hong Kong barges, 16 reach stackers, mafitrailers, 600 trucks and other auxiliary vehicles. At the moment, 5M can store 6000 full teus, three levels high, 2000 empty teus and has 200 reefers connections.

NileDutch has many dedicated feeders. It specializes in shipping customers' containers from Point Noire to Matadi directly by using NileDutch's own vessels.

As an agent of Jardine Shipping Service for NileDutch in Indonesia, there is a dedicated and solid team of about 30-40 people in Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya and Medan. Furthermore, NileDutch provides many value added services, including a manual cargo tracking service.

"The manual cargo tracking service means our customer will be informed by NileDutch's customer service one day after transshipment, so the customer will get all the information they need about their containers after transshipment. The information is specially sent, via email, because NileDutch strives to go beyond customer expectation, so that they feel secure in booking with Jardine Shipping Service, as an agent of NileDutch. From my point of view, the difference between one shipping company and another is the quality of service and having a dedicated sales team. A good sales team can handle and administer all documents pertaining to the shipment but most providers rarely oversee documents, so they tend to let their customers check the information about the administration of documents and other data by themselves. That is why NileDutch makes specific efforts to give complete services and the best solutions as a one stop service provider," he said.

Naturally, NileDutch prioritizes advantages that can be valuable to particular markets, including having a regular vessel which has its own track terminal, so it has the authority to operate at 5M with all its vessels as well as having berthing priority at 5M. In addition, NileDutch has sufficient empty container space at 5M to guarantee the fastest loading operations. NileDutch's vessels move quite fast, averaging 25 moves per hour.

NileDutch has already proved itself as being a highly reliable shipping company that focuses on South – West Africa services, a growing area, and it can easily handle daily carrying consumer products, such as food products, soap/detergent, garments, and office supplies, building materials, toiletries and furniture. That is why NileDutch is very interested in doing business in Indonesia because it is a growing industrial country, with many base industries already established in Java and Sumatra that provide daily consumption products, such as palm oil from Sumatra, and furniture and garments from Java. These products are carried by container vessels able to carry various sizes of containers, including 20 foot and 40 foot containers.

NileDutch's business is progressing rapidly, already covering 4-5% of the market region. The company's future target is to achieve 6-7% in 2012. To serve the needs of the market, NileDutch has many branch offices spread out around the world, in Asia, (Singapore, Shanghai, Qingdao, Ningbo, Quangchao, Shekou), Europe (Amsterdam, Antwerp, Lisbon, Leixoes), Latin America (Buenos Aires, Paranagua, Santos, Rio De Janeiro) and Africa (Luanda, Lobito, Namibe, Cabinda, Soyo, Matadi), as well as its Head offices in Rotterdam and Luanda (Angola).

NileDutch, which has gained extensive experience with the trading cultures and customs in the area of West Africa, takes pride in offering its shippers and consignees more than just a reasonable available solution for their precious cargoes. It offers only the best.

(Logistics Plus February 2012)