If the sale of pallets and packaging (like tyres and spare parts) are barometers of the strength of SA shipping and warehousing activity, then 2010 can be read as an about average year according to packaging firms contacted by FTW. In fact, after last year’s sales, which were also about normal, companies that sell pallets, from cardboard to plastic as well as the traditional wooden types, were anxiously eyeing that status of exporters’ contracts for 2010 to gauge their own fortunes this year. “Orders from perishable shippers are average, and this means that harvesting is continuing and the product if not shipped overseas is still transported somewhere,” said the operations manager of one packaging material firm that prefers not to reveal sales figures. Whether product is exported abroad or alternative markets are found domestically or regionally, the product still requires boxes and pallets to store and move around, it seems, and the ongoing recession has not greatly affected that. “The packaging business is obviously not recession proof – no business is isolated from trends in commercial activity – and orders have fluctuated since 2009, but overall the industry is weathering the down times,” a source told FTW.
