Africa’s container imbalance conundrum challenges logistics industry

Shipping lines’ reluctance to allow containers to travel into the hinterland is one of the logistics challenges facing shippers in Africa. According to Mark Gunther, managing director of Karabo Africa, there are various reasons for this. “One of course is security. Lines would prefer their boxes to remain at the ports which means that often goods have to be repacked into self-owned or rented containers and then moved to the various locations. Another reason is that there is a discrepancy in the volumes of containerised cargo going out and coming back which makes it a costly affair – there is very little cargo coming back in the containers.” Gunther says a lot of project cargo is strategically fitted into containers but once delivered to a mine, for example, boxes often have to return empty to the port. “The mining product is seldom packed in containers at the mine due to additional weight of containers.” He says finding ways of overcoming such challenges is what makes the difference.