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.