Kuwait's Agility signs logistics agreement with China's JD.com unit

MoU covers cross-border logistics, procurement and retail in southeast Asia, Middle East, Europe and Africa

Agility along with its digital innovation arm, Shipa, signed a memorandum of understanding with JD Logistics, the supply chain and fulfillment arm of China’s largest retailer, JD.com, to collaborate oShow more

Kuwait's Agility and Chinese retailer JD.com signed a preliminary agreement to collaborate on logistics in fast-growing e-commerce markets,

Agility's digital innovation arm and JD's supply chain arm JD Logistics' agreement focuses on cross-border logistics, procurement and retail across markets in Southeast Asia, Middle East, Europe and Africa, Agility said in a statement on Wednesday.

"By partnering with JD Logistics, we will leverage our respective strengths to make it easier to connect the businesses looking to tap the consumer demand in fast-growing markets such as Asean and the Middle East with the vast supplier base in China," Henadi Al-Saleh, chairwoman of Agility, said.

In Southeast Asia, Agility will act as a cross-border business-to-consumer (B2C) trunk service provider, using its air and ocean freight capacity, and will also be a local business-to-business (B2B) warehouse provider.

In the Middle East and Africa, Agility will act as JD’s primary logistics service provider and will handle terminal customs clearance and delivery services for its B2C line, helping JD Logistics improve its local logistics system and build a more complete transportation service network.

Jointly, Agility and JD Logistics will build door-to-door cross-border and local B2C services.

"By partnering with Agility, we will provide customers with a variety of transportation services for ocean, land, air and rail, helping us design the optimal logistics solution to reduce costs and increase efficiency for customers," Zhenhui Wang, chief executive of JD Logistics said.

Agility, one of the Arabian Gulf's biggest logistics firms, reported an 8 per cent year-on-year rise in second-quarter net profit due to strong performance in its warehousing and infrastructure businesses.

Net profit for the three month period ending June 30 rose to 21.6 million Kuwaiti dinars (Dh260.8m). Net revenue for the quarter stood at 129.1m dinars, up 3.9 per cent from the year-earlier period.