As the Arabian Gulf region aims for a larger role in the global logistics market, which it is estimated will be worth $15.5tr by 2024, Saudi Arabia is upping its own logistics game and becoming a credible competitor to Dubai in the process.

Challenge: For this agricultural spare parts distributor, each country was served by its own separate supply chain. While strategically placed near customers, it presented challenges with stock availability at each distribution center and in dynamically organizing and fulfilling across multiple distribution centers. In addition, the distributor's own organic growth and strategic acquisitions had left it with fragmented IT infrastructure that was hard to extend.

American factories flexed some muscle in April, boosting output by the most since February 2014 in broad fashion. Along with gains at mines and utilities, total industrial output was also the strongest in more than three years, Federal Reserve data showed this week.

DB Schenker has opened its first company-owned facility in the Middle East.