Growing volumes from North America saw the recent launch by independent consolidator CFR Freight of a new seafreight service from Atlanta to Cape Town. “Our established New York and Chicago services to all South African ports are working like a well-oiled machine,” says managing director Martin Keck, “and the past year has seen phenomenal growth in our southbound service – motivating the launch of the additional Atlanta-CT option.” Agency partnerships play a key role in the success of any route, and this is particularly true of North America, says Keck. “We’ve been working with our World Wide Alliance partners Shipco on this route for 15 years during which we’ve forged a strong alliance and a strong friendship.” On the northbound route volumes have remained stable – with little in the way of SA-manufactured goods moving to the US. “We offer weekly services from all SA ports using New York as a hub for the US east coast and all central regions while the west coast is served through Singapore. “We believe that the market is well covered – although we would possibly consider an import service from the US west coast if it was warranted by shipper and consignee demand.” “In terms of South America, we have for a long time offered an import service from Brazil to Durban and Port Elizabeth, an export service to Santos and an import and export option on the Argentina route. The rest of South America is not a big trading partner for South Africa.” While the Brazil trade lanes both east and westbound have shown some growth which may be related to South Africa’s membership of Brics, general trade with South America is fairly static, Keck said. A similar pattern both in North and South America has emerged in CFR’s airfreight division which also recently launched an Atlanta service. “With established hubs in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, our Atlanta service completes our North American offering,” airfreight general manager Stephen Bishop told FTW. “We’ve now got the north, south, east and west covered with our four hubs.” And while capacity has at times been a challenge on the North America route, through its blocked space and capacity agreements with key carriers, CFR is able to guarantee capacity at competitive rates on most routes, according to Bishop. “Overall it’s a very healthy product for us and we’ve seen immediate uptake on the new service from Atlanta.” In terms of South American cargo, there are limited volumes in both directions. “But should the need arise, through our partners in the Air Cargo Group, CFR is well placed to provide the capacity at competitive rates.” INSERT & CAPTION 1 The past year has seen phenomenal growth in our southbound service. – Martin Keck INSERT & CAPTION 2 We’ve now got the north, south, east and west covered with our four hubs. – Stephen Bishop
