Container imbalance continues to plague shipping line

Opening a shipping
company in a landlocked
country takes vision and
perhaps more than a little
passion for both the industry
and the country.
Turin-born Giorgio
Spampinato has plenty of
both. He arrived in Africa in
the mid 1970s with a friend
as “a bit of an adventure”
and used the Landrover that
had taken them to Kenya to
start a tour company.
Dealing with tourists on
a daily basis palled after
a while, and he joined a
chemical company, which is
where he discovered freight.
When MSC decided to
open an office in Harare
at the start of the 1980s,
Spampinato jumped at the
chance – and has stayed
through the ups and downs
of the economy and country
“because I love it”.
Not content with one
land-locked operation, MSC
opened in Malawi in 1988
and nominated agents in
Zambia with Spampinato
being the area manager for
Central Africa.
MSC Zimbabwe started
operating as Medlog
Zimbabwe in July 2009.
The land-locked
operations were started
in order to balance the
containerised freight in and
out of the region.
Even when
containerisation was in its
infancy in the 1980s, MSC
was faced with the problem
of having full boxes going
into the region, and then
having to bring out the
empties – or fill them.
That problem remains.
Spampinato’s challenge
is to fill the containers
– which in itself is a
delicate balancing act,
as the shipping company
does not want to compete
with its freight forwarding
customers.
First prize is to fill
the containers with
cargo sourced by freight
companies, but Medlog is
able to provide a full service
to larger customers and
those who want it.
“We tell the industry that
we don’t actively go out
to get the forwarding and
clearing business, but if our
clients prefer to deal with
a single supplier, we can
provide it.”
With the surge in
imports into Zimbabwe and
neighbouring countries,
there is plenty of capacity
out of the countries, and
Spampinato believes there are
opportunities to revive exports
thanks to the competitive
freight rates offered on southbound
traffic.
Medlog is more than
happy to work with potential
exporters and their agents to
identify and make the most
of the opportunities.