16


SOUTH AFRIcA


ISSUE 3 2010


South Africa wakes up to the Morning After


The World Cup is over and it is back to reality for the South African freight industry, along with the rest of the country. Only time will tell whether the feast of football will deliver long term gains for South Africa’s toiling masses, but the country has a huge amount going for it - if it can realise its untapped potential. Meanwhile, the freight industry has many more immediate concerns to address, especially port congestion and ongoing labour unrest.


Strikes set the agenda as government grapples with huge expectations


South African ports – indeed, South African industry as a whole - have plenty of troubles of their own. The backlog from a recent ports strike is only now being cleared, but the whole transport sector is vulnerable to industrial action as the workforce demands that the recently elected government delivers long awaited social and economic reforms. The car industry – the largest in the region – has lately been affected by a round of stoppages. South African governments massive


have popular


expectations to fulfil but with the country affected by the global recession – perhaps to a lesser extent than some parts of the world but affected nevertheless – this isn’t the easiest of times for a massive increase in public


spending. There is also some resentment that the World Cup has not delivered any tangible benefits to South Africa’s masses, or at least has yet to do so. That said, Africa is becoming


a potentially more attractive area for overseas investors, South Africa’s labour troubles notwithstanding. Back in the 1970s and 1980s,


British trade with the then Apartheid regime was a bone of contention on university campuses. Ironically, though, the real decline in UK exports to the country set in after the end of the old regime. While the UK might have dominated Europe’s exports to South Africa until a few years ago – and Europe in turn was the dominant region – these days South Africa looks much more to Asia and the wider world for its


global trading links. There is still a strong trade in refrigerated produce northbound to the UK, though even that has been affected lately by the strong Pound. Roy Reynolds, of Dudley-based


freight forwarder Airocean, says that business to South Africa took a severe knock during the recession – and because of currency factors – but it has since shown a few signs of recovery. “I think it has been getting slightly better over the past few months, though it’s a long way from what it used to be.” Airocean offers a seafreight


service for some of its clients, full container loads and airfreight. It can still be hard to get space on flights to South Africa, he adds, despite the fact that the World Cup has been over for several months.


America and Asia boost SAA Cargo


Justice Luthuli, acting head of SAA Cargo (SAAC) says that the carrier saw a strong increase in volumes into North America together with increases out of the Asia region. Some of it can be attributed to the World Cup,


“but mostly it is the result of the recovery in the economy.” Tonnage for the year year-to- date to June 2010 was 30% more for the same period last year. For the future, Luthuli predicts steady growth in volumes and


improvement in yield as a result of increasing demand for various commodities as the world economy recovers. SAAC’s existing fleet currently


serves the airline well, Luthuli continues. “Our plan is focused


on maximising current capacity, broadening what we can carry and ensuring that we meet the demands of our customers. We offer ad hoc charters as per customer requirements across Africa especially within the region.”


MACS covers all possibilities


The MACS service offers departures about every 10/12 days from Grangemouth, Immingham and Tilbury via feeder vessels connecting with the operator’s deep-sea vessels at Antwerp. The vessels call at Walvis Bay, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Richard’s Bay in South Africa and Maputo and Beira by transhipment at Durban. Quelimane and Nacala are also served by inducement. The multi-purpose vessels used on the service


can handle containers, wheeled and breakbulk cargoes and have their own heavy lift gear for weights of up to 200 tonnes. A MACS spokesman explains: “We changed


to a transhipment operation about eight years ago. Previously we called at Immingham directly


but it became uneconomic and as larger ships were introduced, the port became unsuitable, especially as the planned river facility never materialised for our type of business.” But the transhipment operation works well and is very reliable, he says. Currently both containerised and breakbulk business is very buoyant, with the vessels fully booked in both directions. MACS’ spokesman adds: “We carried a lot of cargo in connection with the World Cup, some of which coincided with a downturn in the normal trade in the previous two years but the trade this year has seen heavy demand. The lack of World Cup cargo now the tournament has finished, apart from some items needed in its aftermath, has not been noticed.”


SAAC has started new operations in places like Libreville, Douala and Lubumbashi. “We are also planning to strengthen our presence in key markets especially in West and central Africa,” says Luthulio. In April, SAAC implemented


Phase 1 of i-Cargo, a new generation web-based system and is now busy with the Phase


2, which will encompass all the carrier’s operations, Luthuli adds. “The system brings SAAC up to date with technological developments within the cargo environment, improves operational efficiencies and provide for wider reach, particularly in our African markets where the legacy system Safron and Zebra had limitations.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32