Closure of Sans Fibres impacts CT volumes

The port of Cape Town handled around two million tonnes of cargo of all commodities (containerised and conventional) last year, with export fruit a key player, reflecting an overall 2008/09 volume decline of some 34%. Zurayda Christians, NPA’s research manager for Cape Town, says the impact on growth is due largely to two factors. First, given the local maize crop is doing very well, imports of around 600 000 tonnes did not materialise last year. “We have also seen fewer petroleumfinished imports due to lower demand and also decreased petroleum exports because we are now supplying our local markets.” Another major blow to the Western Cape has been the closure of the Sans Fibres plant in Bellville, hence fewer chemicals being imported. Her job, as part of the three-member marketing team, calls for monitoring of all imports and exports in order to “look at the reasons why we are doing what we are doing.” Though much of the data captured remains sacrosanct to customers, regular customer interaction is top of the agenda. Her research focus is on the performance of around ten commodities such as petroleum, fruit, bulk and breakbulk. Major commodities imported by the port in 2009/10 were petroleum and related products (46%), agricultural products (19%), wheat and fertilisers (8% each), miscellaneous (7%) and other (12%). Major commodities exported during the same period were petroleum products (69%), other (24%) citrus (7%) and deciduous (3%). The port accommodated 2 226 vessels during the year in question, including 703 container, 172 reefer, 232 bulk and 208 general cargo ships. It handled upwards of 500 000 TEUs, down considerably on close to 800 0000 TEUs the previous year. The split between containerised and conventional cargo is ever-widening, the latter accounting for perhaps only 4% of the total two million pallets shipped last year. NPA’s Sanjay Govan is not a man given to boastful outlooks but says his own “gut feel” is that Transnet NPA Cape Town will manage to sustain itself and witness slight volume growth this year. “It’s not just about Cape Town but the way we move forward overall. We have done extremely well with our training programmes, pilots and tug masters in particular but still have a lot of work to do in turning out future marine engineers and harbour masters.” Govan celebrates his tenth anniversary as Cape Town port manager in April, 2010, but emphasises he would be reluctant to quit for another posting. “I owe these past nine years to my management team – their calibre has truly made the difference, and I continue to hold the strong view we need to be very customer-orientated and do everything possible to assist them” His is a job fraught with pressures but after-hours quality time is spent with his family and ownership of a Mowbray pizzeria. Needless to say, the strict vegetarian has become rather good at turning out Focaccias, Margheritas, Porchettas and other Italian tasties.