PETALING JAYA: Dagang NeXchange Bhd’s (DNeX) newly launched digital trade and logistics platform SealNet is expected to boost its revenue by 300% driven by trade facilitation for the private sector in the financial year ending June 30, 2022, according to DNeX group managing director Tan Sri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir.
He said SealNet aims to be the market leader in digital trade and logistics segment and the group would acquire existing startups if the acquisition creates value to the group.
“We aspire to be the trade partner of choice to all businesses comprising micro enterprises to multinational companies. Customers want diversified services, for example, marine insurance, warehouses, trade facilities. We collaborate with business partners to provide end-to-end integration so that it can serve customers better,” he told a virtual press conference after the launch of SealNet today.
He said the growth opportunity of digital trade and logistics segment is huge as the total trade traffic coming in and out of Malaysia registered a 35% year-on-year growth in May, according to data on DNeX’s trade facilitation platform.
He added that the trade volume (in and out of Malaysia) has grown 25% in the first five months this year compared to the same period last year.
“In cross-border trade and logistics, digitalisation is definitely changing how we operate. It has led to the emergence of Logistics 4.0 or smart logistics – a new trend that is expected to reshape the industry to a great degree.
“Smart logistics involve the applications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, radio frequency identification (RFID) and blockchain. These new technologies are expected to lead to faster and more flexible shipments with more transparency at a lower price,” he said.
He said traders and logistic companies are aware of the importance of digitalisation but their internal systems at the moment may act in silos.
“This is one of the pain points in the industry that we need to address as this can lead to stagnant efficiency and unnecessary costs,” he said.
He said SealNet is intelligently built to connect and digitalise components across global supply chain and logistics to enhance efficiency of transport and trade facilitation mechanisms, to improve productivity of trader and logistics industry, and to provide a better electronic system for logistics and cross-border trade.
Meanwhile, commenting on DNeX’s acquisition of a 60% stake in SilTerra Malaysia from Khazanah Nasional Bhd, he said the group has lots of plans in the pipelines to turn around SilTerra to make it profitable.
“We will fine-tune the product mix of Silterra. It has many products and customers at different selling prices. We are bringing our subject matter experts to improve its product portfolio. We will enhance the product mix with better products and selling price to improve the margin and revenue of the company.
“The stability of customer base is important in a manufacturing company. We have secured several long-term partners (for SilTerra) which will double the (profit) margin of some products and we will make an announcement soon. This is one of the promises we have made to Khazanah.
“We will pursue to provide chips and components to the automotive industry, particularly in building electric vehicles (EVs),“ he said.
On Foxconn, he said the recent appointment of Dr Bob Wei-Ming Chen to serve as non-independent non-executive director at DNeX would benefit the board of DNeX.
“His experience and know-how is relevant to DNeX in understanding the industry’s trend and to ensure the group’s plan for SilTerra remains consistent with market demands.”
He added that Chen currently serves as vice-president and head (semiconductor business group) of Hon Hai Technology Group, which is also known as Foxconn.
