Chrome on rail comes up trumps

The successful migration of 3000 TEUs of chrome from road to rail has worked so smoothly that the customer is ready to double its rail volumes. “Convincing the client to use rail was the easy part,” said Quattro Freight MD Kriba Naiken. “The chrome, originally from mines in North West, was all being transported to the Port of Durban by tipper trucks and at the moment the bulk of it is still moving that way.” Some 120 000 tons of chrome is still moving by road, but the decision to move 35 000 tons was initially intended to establish the viability of rail and also to get a true understanding of the real cost impact. “One can talk about one mode being cheaper than the other, but the reality is that it is not as simple as road versus rail. It is not simply a question of moving it by one mode as there are various elements that play a role and ultimately impact on the cargo movement.” Ahead of actually moving the first consignment, Naiken and his team investigated the entire supply chain from the point of origin to the end destination. “Having done that we knew what we were dealing with and could deal with each challenge individually.” According to Naiken, the migration has gone so smoothly they are now in the midst of migrating another 30 000 tons to rail making it a total of 60 000 tons of chrome that will move from Pretoria to the Durban port by April this year.