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KARACHI: Pakistani e-commerce platform Daraz this week launched the country’s first automated smart distribution centers in Karachi and Lahore in collaboration with Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of China’s Alibaba Group, the first such set-up in South Asia.
Equipped with innovative smart technologies such as an automatic assembly line and a smart distribution set-up, the centers are the most technologically advanced logistics facilities in South Asia, and mark Cainiao’s first deeply integrated distribution center network in the region.
The two facilities span more than 50,000 sq m each, and have capacity to process 428,400 orders daily.
Cainiao has so far built hundreds of automated distribution centers of varying scales in China, and 10 smart distribution hubs across Europe, Asia and America.
Dr. Ding Hongwei, general manager of Cainiao Technology, said Pakistan had been selected as the first location in South Asia to set up smart distribution centers because of the potential of its digital sector.
“Our great confidence in the investment in Pakistan comes from its significant growth and high potential of the digital sector, and strong support from local government in infrastructure and policy as well,” Ding said.
“We constantly innovate our operations and technology in Pakistan to continue scaling and enhancing our customer experience,” Bjarke Mikkelsen, CEO and founder of Daraz Group, said at the launch ceremony earlier this week.
“Daraz is introducing smart technology in the country to bring more efficiency in our logistics,” said the CEO.
“Launching our centers in Karachi and Lahore is a key step of this partnership, and we look forward to growing it in future.”
Daraz officials said with the launch of the smart distribution centers, sorting capacity would increase manifold and manual errors would go down by more than 90 percent.
“This will benefit the entire business chain and improve the customer experience,” said Ahmed Tanveer, chief operating officer of Daraz Pakistan.
Pakistan’s e-commerce market is projected to generate $7.6 billion in revenue in 2022.
The market volume is projected to grow by $9.1 billion by 2025, according to Statista, a Germany-based provider of market and consumer data.
LONDON: Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corp. concluded a four-day visit to the UK capital to discuss and showcase its innovative desalination technologies and solutions to reduce cost and power consumption.
The visit, which concluded on Sunday and was headed by SWCC Gov. Abdulla Abdulkarim, included visits to universities around the country, meetings with leaders of the water industry, and a water innovation engagement forum, where the corporation announced a new $15 million global prize for innovation in desalination, set to be launched in January.
The “Desalination Innovation Award” maximizes the opportunities to benefit from this industry by serving health, agriculture, industry, mining, and various sectors, to make innovative solutions a reality that serves humanity and builds a promising future for water sustainability.
“Fifty years ago, Saudi Arabia, as a drought country, decided to serve their nation by spending, investing in life, creating an abundant source of water, and bringing this water from the coast to the cities where the people are living,” Abdulkarim told the forum. “This mission at that time was not easy.”
The SWCC is currently the largest desalination corporation in the world, providing water to over 34 million people. It has shifted its focus, Abdulkarim explained, to making water affordable and contributing to different sectors, including health care, industry, agriculture, mining, and renewable energy in order to help raise the Kingdom’s gross domestic product.
“We carry on the responsibility to (make) fresh water…abundant, accessible, then affordable for the whole nation… to do the best for the next generation, but we will not do it by ourselves,” he said, adding the SWCC is partnering with the aforementioned sectors.
Abdulkarim said the SWCC, which is responsible for 20 percent of worldwide desalinated water production, continues to lead the global market by using the latest technology, noting the construction of a new plant in Jubail with a capacity of 1 million cubic meters, with further announcements to come.
Tariq Al-Ghaffari, acting president of the Desalination Technology Research Institute, said the aim of the UK visit was to address future challenges.
“The scarcity of water has been increasing, and our aim was to focus more on innovative ideas, to have a more efficient system and reduce power consumption. We covered a lot of great topics, including brine mining,” he told Arab News.
Al-Ghaffari said the SWCC is not only aligned with Saudi Vision 2030 but also with the whole world as the corporation’s research, development and innovations are consistent with market demands.
“We are committed to reducing carbon emissions by 34 million tons in the upcoming years, and this will have a big impact not only in the Kingdom but worldwide,” he added.
“I think the future is all about water. We need to (promote) a culture of people who understand the value of water, and that’s why we are seeking to share our experience with those people and talk to them about what we have and what we can bring for our bright upcoming future,” Al-Ghaffari said.
During the visit, the SWCC signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Water Association to develop a partnership with a view to pushing the boundaries of desalination, exchanging expertise, and supporting the SWCC in running events, said Kalanithy Vairavamoorthi, executive director of the IWA.
SWCC and @IWAHQ sign a memorandum of understanding for Promoting the frameworks of joint cooperation between the both parties, to initiate the desalination industry within IWA’s agenda. pic.twitter.com/6LTiONSLBf
He said his organization was also keen to attend the forum to hear about the Desalination Innovation Award, which seeks creative ideas to develop the desalination industry.
“The IWA is very interested to hear more about that prize and to understand what is cutting edge in relation to desalination, and the SWCC is really the industry leader when it comes to that,” Vairavamoorthi said.
“We see this long-term relationship as trying to understand what the challenges are for water management in water-scarce regions, how desalination can be part of that portfolio of solutions, and what types of technologies have to be developed in order to make these systems sustainable moving forward,” he also said.
Saudi national Mohammed Hassan Al-Maghrabi, a researcher at the Oxford Thermofluid Institute, University of Oxford, said the SWCC visited the institute and met with the head of the lab and the principal investigators, who were inspired by the governor’s ideas and were ready to change their direction and focus.
“It was actually astonishing how they changed senior scientists’ minds and opinions about where their focus should be for the next couple of years; the opportunities are endless in the field of water,” he said.
Al-Maghrabi, a student in his last year, said it was “amazing” how Abdulkarim was driving this movement and “opening the door to the whole world” by investing in these projects and innovations.
Quoting the head of his lab, Al-Maghrabi said: “The SWCC will be the next Saudi Aramco, and it is the future,” which he added was “all about water, as water means life to the whole world.”
He added: “I am proud to be part of this country, part of this leadership that is leading the whole world now to be more sustainable and rely on renewable energies.”
Oxford and SWCC discussed ways to build a sustainable partnership, praising the corporation’s current leading role in increasing research and innovative efforts in the Saline Water Conversion industry and it’s sense of responsibility in cooperation with other related sectors. pic.twitter.com/yDDuM0mCTp
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday launched the National Industrial Strategy, which aims to drive growth in the sector and increase the number of factories to about 36,000 by 2035, the Kingdom’s state news agency reported.
The strategy also aims to reach an industrial economy that attracts investment and contributes to achieving economic diversification, developing domestic product and non-oil exports, in line with the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030.
“We have all the capabilities to reach a competitive and sustainable industrial economy, including ambitious young talents, a distinguished geographical location, rich natural resources, and leading national industrial companies,” SPA quoted the crown prince as saying.
“Through the national industry strategy and in partnership with the private sector, the Kingdom will become a leading industrial power that contributes to securing global supply chains, and exporting high-tech products to the world,” he added.
The strategy focuses on 12 sub-sectors to diversify the industrial economy in the Kingdom, while identifying more than 800 investment opportunities to constitute a new chapter of sustainable growth for the sector.
Saudi Arabia is seeking to triple manufacturing GDP by 2030, increase the industrial exports value to SR557 billion riyals ($148.34 billion), increase the total additional investments in the sector to SR1.3 trillion, increase exports of advanced technology products by about six times, and create tens of thousands of high quality jobs.
Through the strategy, the Kingdom is seeking to empower the private sector, increase the flexibility and competitiveness of the industrial sector, lead the regional industrial integration of value chains, benefit from the strength of the Saudi economy, and achieve global leadership in a group of selected commodities, by investing in promising new technologies.
The Kingdom has developed a governance model for the industrial sector by forming the Supreme Committee for Industry, headed by the crown prince, who will supervise the development of the sector. The country has also formed the Industrial Council with the private sector, to ensure the participation of industrial investors in decision-making and policy development.
The Kingdom’s industrial sector is based on solid industrial foundations and successes built over 50 years, as it contributed to adding more than SR340 billion to GDP, and provided many jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities in various industrial fields.
The leading national industrial companies have also contributed to placing the Saudi industry in among the most advanced industries regionally and globally, as the Kingdom is currently the fourth largest manufacturer of petrochemical products in the world, while its industrial outputs contribute to supplying global supply and manufacturing chains, which are involved in the production of many of industries.
CAIRO: The net income of Saudi Arabia’s finance companies fell by SR593 million ($158 million) quarter on quarter to reach SR283 million, the largest drop recorded since the start of 2018, according to data from the Saudi Central bank.
The plummeting of the Kingdom’s finance companies profitability indicators in the second quarter of 2022 imply a restriction in the cash flow from operating activities.
According to the data, Saudi finance companies recorded the lowest net income since the fourth quarter of 2021 when it amounted to only SR103 million.
The SAMA data showed that the return on assets dropped from 1.46 percent in the first quarter of 2022 to 0.51 percent in the following quarter, also the most since the start of 2018.
Finance companies’ return on equity fell by a record 2.73 percent last quarter, going from 4.03 percent in the first quarter to 1.3 percent in the second showed the data.
The net income of real estate companies in Saudi Arabia amounted to SR84 million, around 29.7 percent of the aggregate last quarter.
Non-real estate finance companies, on the other hand, dominated the sector with 70.3 percent of aggregate net income amounting to SR199 million, according to the SAMA data.
As for the finance companies’ return on assets, the real estate sector recorded 0.58 percent in the second quarter compared to 0.8 percent in the first.
The SAMA report showed non-real estate finance companies reaching a 0.49 percent return on assets last quarter compared to 1.97 the quarter before.
Since 2021, the net income of finance companies showed alternating patterns.
Net income rose by SR258 million in the first quarter of 2021, fell by SR210 million in the second, rose by SR185 million in the third and proceeded to drop by SR518 million at the end of the year.
As for 2022, the first quarter saw a record rise of SR774 million before the steep fall of last quarter.
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s National Debt Management Center has closed the issuance of SR3.12 billion ($832 million ) riyal-denominated sukuk in October.
The total value of bids stood at SR700 million, NDMC said in a statement issued on Tuesday. The sukuk offering was divided into three tranches. The first tranche has a size of SR300 million maturing in 2029, while the second amounts to 300 million maturing in 2032. The third tranche has a size of SR100 million, maturing in 2037.
Sukuk, which is also called an Islamic bond, is a debt product issued in accordance with Shariah or Islamic laws.
Saudi Arabia’s cumulative public indebtedness stood at SR966.5 billion by the end of the second quarter of 2022, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.
The aggregate public debt consisted of SR604.8 billion of domestic debt, and SR361.8 of the external debt.
Public debt in the Kingdom saw a SR7.9 billion increase from the first quarter to the second quarter of this year, according to data compiled by Arab News.
NEW YORK: Oil prices fell by more than 3 percent in volatile trade on Tuesday on fears of higher US supply amid an economic slowdown and lower Chinese fuel demand.
Brent crude futures fell by $2.37, or 3.6 percent, to $89.25 a barrel by 12:29 p.m. EDT (1629 GMT).
US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down $3.12, or 3.7 percent, at $82.34, having risen by over $1 earlier in the session.
China, the world’s top crude oil importer, indefinitely delayed release of economic indicators originally scheduled to be published on Tuesday, indicating to the market that fuel demand is significantly depressed in the region.
“It is not a good sign when China decides not to publish economic figures,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.
China’s adherence to its zero-COVID policy has continued to increase uncertainties about the country’s economic growth, CMC Markets analyst Tina Teng said.
Oil prices were also pressured by reports that the US government would continue releasing crude oil from reserves.
The Biden administration plans to sell oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to cool fuel prices before next month’s congressional elections, sources told Reuters on Monday.
In addition, US crude oil stocks were expected to have risen for a second consecutive week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.
Output in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the biggest US shale oil basin, is forecast to rise by about 50,000 barrels per day to a record 5.453 million bpd this month, the Energy Information Administration said.
Investors had been increasing long positions in futures after OPEC+ agreed to lower output by 2 million bpd, ANZ Research analysts said in a note.