SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Cargo owner priorities reflect this tension. 43 % of BCOs rank‘ ensuring reliable delivery and minimising disruption’ as a top three supply chain priority and this aligns closely with the challenge they most often rate as moderate or severe: disruption or unreliability from suppliers.
The sector is clearly focused on one of its most pressing pain points. The disconnect lies in the gap between this intent and the continuing need to escalate incidents, which indicates that current approaches to reliability- particularly around supplier management and end-to-end visibility- are not yet sufficient to match the confidence many organisations express.
Overall, geopolitical instability is seen as the greatest threat for chemicals cargo owners. Figure 4 shows the key emerging risks and means of addressing them. The direction of travel is clear – chemical plans to meet disruption with a more data-led, proactive form of logistics, with resilience, customer retention and ESG performance as the main tests of success.
DP World view
DP World sees five priorities for chemical logistics in this age of disruption: 1. Put forecasting at the centre of resilience: Use the same data for production, orders and transport so everyone plans off one version of the truth. Build‘ What if?’ scenarios into regular planning, so disruption is expected and managed, not treated as a surprise.
2. Use visibility to manage risk, not just track loads: Real-time track and trace, control towers and exception alerts should drive decisions such as which shipment to reroute, which customer to prioritise, which plant to slow or speed up. Visibility only creates value if it changes how you allocate capacity and respond to early warning signs
3. Build more than one safe route: Assume that a port, river or border will be constrained at some point. Develop alternative, fully compliant routes and hubs in advance, so you can switch without starting from scratch each time
Case study: Tailored logistics for chemical gases
A major semiconductor and chip producer needed a premium logistics service for high-pressure chemical gases across Europe. It required round-the-clock delivery precision, strict dangerous goods( DG) compliance and full visibility from warehouse to fab. Existing providers could not guarantee on-time supply or consistent regulatory control.
In response, DP World built an integrated DG certified solution: secure multi-user warehousing for hazardous gases, 24-hour B2B just-in-time deliveries across Germany, multimodal European road and global air and ocean links, plus container stuffing and customs brokerage for seamless cross-border flows. Real-time track-and-trace with KPI reporting provided full supply chain visibility.
As a result, the customer secured a reliable 24-hour delivery window with full DG compliance and 100 % shipment visibility, reducing delays and non-compliance risk. Integrated warehousing, transport and customs support increased supply assurance for critical gases and strengthened resilience for a highly time-sensitive manufacturing network.
4. Work with partners who can flex with you: Treat freight forwarding, warehousing, customs and technology as part of one joinedup setup rather than a list of separate suppliers. The aim is a single, flexible network that can safely handle dangerous goods and time-sensitive flows when conditions change.
5. Put numbers on disruption: Track how many days you lose, how often issues reach senior leadership, and what the financial hit looks like – not just the freight cost. Use those numbers alongside safety and ESG metrics so resilience is discussed with the same discipline as cost and compliance.
Ultimately, every chemical company should strive to have their logistics as engineered as the molecules they move. The sector will always be judged on how safely and reliably it moves the materials that make modern life possible.
In a world where disruption is routine and demand is shifting toward high-growth regions like Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, resilience depends on more than recovery. It requires global reach, network flexibility and partners already positioned on the corridors that matter. ●
References: 1: Deloitte Research Centre for Energy & Industrials, 2026 Chemical Industry Outlook, 3 November 2025 2: International Energy Agency, Chemicals, 2025 3: RMI, Chemistry in Transition: Charting Solutions for a Low-Emissions Chemical Industry, 17 January 2025 4: American Chemistry Council, Mid-Year Situation and Outlook, 20 June 2024 5: American Chemistry Council, 11 June 2025 6: Reuters, 10 August 2022
Adal Mirza
GROUP VICE PRESIDENT
DP WORLD k + 971 50 628 7856 J adal. mirza @ dpworld. com j www. dpworld. com
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